Broken Key Extraction in Kansas City, MO

Where keys break in Kansas City

A key usually snaps where it is worked hardest: a shared door used many times a day, an old cylinder with worn pins, or a lock that is half iced over. Kansas City's buildings and winters can supply all three.

In the Crossroads Arts District, where old warehouses now house galleries, restaurants, offices and craft breweries, one building can have several tenants. Then a single street entrance may carry all of their key traffic, and a worn or poorly cut copy forced into that door is a typical break point. Houses divided into flats and apartment buildings can show the same wear at the front door and at mailbox locks, whose small cylinders and thin keys give way under a hard twist.

Winter is the third stress. NOAA's summary for the state describes arctic air arriving in the cold months, and on a raw morning a key forced into a stiff or iced cylinder can shear off at the shoulder. If a key will not turn with normal pressure, stop and do not lean on it.

What not to do

• do not push the broken piece deeper with the other half of the key
• do not put glue on the fragment; it can bond to the pins
• do not keep turning the plug with a screwdriver or other tool
• do not force a spare key in on top of the fragment

Each of these can turn a clean extraction into a cylinder replacement.

What to send

1. a photo of the piece you still have, and of the keyway if the broken end is visible
2. which lock it is: house door, suite door, shared street door, mailbox or car
3. for a shared door or mailbox, who manages the building, since the lock may belong to them
4. whether the door is locked or open right now, and whether anyone is stuck outside

The broken key extraction page describes the service. A cylinder that was already sticking may call for lock repair afterward, and the Kansas City page gives the neighborhood context.