A former customer in Ashford got in touch because the euro cylinder I had fitted not long before appeared to have stopped working and the front door would no longer lock.
Because the cylinder was still under warranty and the property was only a few minutes away, I went over straight away expecting that I might need to replace it.
As soon as I operated the door, it became clear that the cylinder was not the problem. The fault was in the multipoint mechanism — something I had already warned the customer about when the barrel was replaced.
I removed the mechanism and found a tiny cap that should have been sitting over a sliding pin. It had moved out of position and was now perfectly placed to block the locking bolt.
I repositioned the cap, tightened the relevant fixings and rebuilt the mechanism. The multipoint lock worked normally again, and the customer decided not to replace the complete unit at that stage because of the cost. I did warn that the mechanism could fail again.
A few months later, that warning came back around. The customer called again after becoming locked out even though he still had the key. This time the lock would not disengage and the handles were spinning freely.
It turned into a much more difficult opening, but I eventually got the door open, replaced the failed multipoint component and restored normal operation.
This job ended up being a useful example of the difference between an early repair that buys more life from a mechanism and the point where the worn part finally has to be replaced.
