Broken Key Extraction in Hartford, CT

Where keys snap in Hartford

A key usually breaks where it has been stressed for a long time, and Hartford's housing puts that stress in a few predictable places.

• Shared street doors. South Green's apartment houses and Asylum Hill's buildings of small apartments have entrances that every household uses. A cylinder opened many times a day wears, and a copy cut from a copy can fit poorly and twist under load.
• Shared halls. About 15 percent of Connecticut homes are in buildings with two to four units, such as Upper Albany's two-family houses, where a front hall or back stair door may be shared. Two households means more keys, and more copies of copies, in use.
• Worn older cylinders. In the West End's homes from the 1900s through the 1920s, a cylinder that has been in the door for decades can have worn pins that grab the key partway.
• Iced-up locks. Meltwater can turn back to ice inside an exterior cylinder overnight, and forcing a key against that ice is one of the easiest ways to snap it.

What not to do

• Do not put the broken half back in to push or turn the piece. That usually drives it deeper.
• Do not use glue on the fragment. Glue that runs into the cylinder can ruin it.
• Do not spray oil into the keyway. It holds grit and makes the job messier.
• Do not keep using a lock with metal in it. If it is a South Green or Asylum Hill building entrance, tell the manager, since a jammed shared door affects every unit.

What to send

• A photo of the keyway showing whether the piece sits flush, below the face or sticks out.
• The other half of the key, and whether you have a spare.
• Which lock it is: unit door, building entrance, padlock or car.
• Whether the door is locked or unlocked right now. A deadbolt stuck in the locked position with you outside is a lockout too.
• For a shared door, the manager's or owner's approval.

See broken key extraction, house lockout if you are also shut out, lock repair if the cylinder is damaged, or the Hartford page.