In our blogs we tend to talk a lot about the importance of changing the locks but from a perspective more focused on doors, as it is the most common. Although it doesn’t mean that you should also prioritize changing your window locks, which in fact, is much more vulnerable than your door locks and if you don’t choose or take good care of it, it can give burglars access to your home while you’re away.

Okay, you have to prioritize them and change the lock but… How do you know the parameters to do it? We thought of everything for you and today we will give you the four tips that we believe are the basics to achieve it. 

Choose between the two types of locks: 

There are mortise locks and surface-mounted locks. The former are recessed into the inside of the window and their strike plate is on the inside of the window frame. Most of them are reversible. That is, they are suitable for both left- and right-opening windows.

Surface-mounted locks, however, are bolted to the inside face of the window and their strike plate is also bolted to the outside face of the door frame. They are great when you want to change an old mortise lock and can’t find a model that fits the opening or without altering the door of the house too much.

Choose the surface lock that best fits your window: 

Within the surface locks, there are different types. There are the simple ones, which in addition to the latch, have a single latch in the form of a fob, operated with a turn of the key.

But there are also more sophisticated ones, such as the multilock, which, under the latch bolt, have sidelocks in the form of bolts, that are operated with several turns of the key; and the multipoint ones, allow several locking points in different places on the window.

Do not confuse a deadbolt with a lock:

 They are not the same thing. Locks are devices for locking doors and windows with a key. However, deadbolts are only operated manually, so they can only be used on one side of the window.

Differentiate locks by their locking system:

With cylinder: 

Inside it is an elongated cavity containing a kind of cam that is activated when the key is inserted into the tumbler. 

System with mechanism: 

This is the traditional system. A key activates the opening or closing system, in which case the lock is integrated. Electronic system: it can be a card, badge and button.

If you still have doubts about this, you can ask a locksmith about window lock installation and the most relevant options for you.