Lock cylinder replacement in Torrevieja

The lock cylinder, also called a barrel, is the part you put the key into. The lock is the mechanism inside the door that moves the bolts. The good news is that on most doors today the cylinder can be changed without touching the lock, and with that the old keys stop working. We are locksmiths from Torrevieja, local people who have always been here, and we change lock cylinders in Torrevieja and all over the Vega Baja.

When it is worth changing the cylinder

• You have lost your keys and do not know where. Even if they have no address on them, whoever finds them may put two and two together. We explain it in lost keys.
• Your keys have been stolen, or your bag or wallet with something showing where you live.
• You have just bought a home or moved in. You do not know how many copies of the key there are or who has them.
• You are a landlord and the tenant is leaving. When they hand back the property and the keys, changing the cylinder before the next tenant is the most prudent step.
• The cylinder is stiff, the key goes in with difficulty or you have to force it to turn. On the coast salt air and sand are very hard on cylinders.
• After an opening in which the cylinder had to be sacrificed, or after an attempted break-in that left it damaged.
• You want more security than the cylinder that came with the door.

The size of the cylinder: the most important thing

In Spain almost every front door has a euro cylinder, which seen from the front has the classic keyhole shape: a circle at the top and an extension downwards. It is fixed to the lock with a screw that goes through the edge of the door, and its size is given with two numbers: the length from that screw to the outer end and the length to the inner end.

Those two numbers are not always the same. There are symmetrical cylinders, with both sides equal, and offset ones, with one side longer than the other. Choosing the wrong size causes problems:

• If it is too short, it sits sunk into the door, the key goes in badly and sometimes it cannot even be fixed properly.
• If it is too long, it sticks out from the door, and a cylinder that sticks out is easier to grip and break from outside.

Ideally it should stick out as little as possible from the door or the escutcheon. If you want an idea of the size of your cylinder before contacting us, you can use our cylinder size calculator. In any case, we check the final size on your door before fitting the new one.

Which cylinder to fit

Not all cylinders are the same and it makes no sense to fit the same one on every door. We explain the options for your case:

• A standard cylinder may be enough on an interior door or a storeroom door.
• A security cylinder is what we recommend on the front door of a home, especially a ground floor flat or a house that stays empty for long spells. You have it explained in security lock cylinders.
• A double clutch cylinder lets you open from outside even if a key has been left in on the inside. It is very useful in homes with children or elderly people.

And if you have several doors, such as the front door, the patio door and the storeroom door, cylinders can be fitted that open with the same key. We explain it in keyed alike cylinders.

Special cases

• Aluminium and uPVC doors, very common on bungalow terraces and patios, sometimes take cylinders of a different size or shape. With a photo we can tell.
• Doors with a lever lock, the kind with a long bit key, have no cylinder to change. In that case the lock has to be converted to a euro cylinder; you have the explanation in lever lock to cylinder conversion.
• Security doors with a security lock usually allow the cylinder to be changed like any other, but it is worth choosing one that matches the door.

What is best avoided

• Do not buy a cylinder by eye without measuring the one you have. It is the most common mistake.
• Do not leave a cylinder that sticks out a long way just because “it locks anyway”.
• Do not wait for the key to snap if the cylinder is stiff: let us know beforehand.
• Do not change the cylinder on a tenant who is still living in the property. The change is made when the owner has recovered possession of the home.

Quote, payment and language

With the photo of the cylinder we give you a fixed quote before we start, with the cylinder included. If the size or the job changes once we see the door, we explain it and do not carry on until you are happy. You can pay by card, Bizum or cash. We work 24 hours a day, every day, and if you do not speak Spanish, send us a WhatsApp in your own language.