my front door has a misaligned deadbolt where i have to push the door slightly and then turn my deadbolt lock for it to lock…i am going to be switching to either the Kwikset or Yale motorized deadbolt and i noticed they both featured a “tapered deadbolt” which says it compensates for misaligned doors…can any1 elaborate on that? how does it exactly do that?
It will only work of the door is slightly misaligned. Otherwise it will not lock correctly. Your best bet is to correct the alignment of the door and deadbolt to get the best performance of the new deadbolt otherwise you’ll run into issues.
- Garrett
As a follow to what @garrettwp has stated already, the above only works if the alignment is not really bad, however if the deadbolt and striker are misaligned vertically, then it doesn’t help at all!
It all works because the start of the deadbolt is thinner, and if there is misalignment then the thinner part will miss the strike plate hole initially, since there is more clearance, and as it starts to go through, it widens gradually until it starts to interfere with the strike plate hole, as it does it then gradually pulls the door into alignment.
The tapered deadbolt is about an 8th of an inch different from the thin end to the thicker end, so if the door is more than about a 16th or so out, then it may not help, the worse the alignment, also the worse battery life will be, since the deadbolt will also be fighting the friction induced by the door being pulled in.
perfect, i will get the deadbolt fixed asap!
do you have any preference over the Yale vs Kwikset?
I only have the Kwickset’s, but there are some features about the Yales that look more attractive admittedly.