ES and the Screwfix 38380 unbranded internal door latch failure warning - check yours!

[YorkshireMidge]

Was heading into one of our bedrooms this morning, only to find that I couldn't open the door - the latch was jammed solid. There was no warning of impending failure.

All our doors were replaced at the same time some years back - so I checked around and found another bedroom door latch was also jamming (we don't normally shut that door so it went unoticed) - and a quick visual check after removing the handles from that door identified hairline cracks in the rotating casting the handle spindle goes through.

The ones we have are marked E and an S with a star in the middle, but it looks identical to the product Screwfix sell as 38380 and there are quite a few one star reviews and complaints of failure of those. I'm a long term Screwfix customer and I likely bought mine from there too.

I was able to take the second failing cylinder out, stick it in a vice, and using a drill the same diameter as the exposed casting, drill that out. The latch has a loop of metal going either side of the casting and I then found I could lever the loop towards the back of the cylinder to pull the latch back

Great thinks I. I can now do the same with the one that has jammed with the door closed.

Wrong - the spindle was secured into the inside handle with a grub screw so I couldn't get it out from the other side. I could move the spindle but it has a recess machined into it so I just couldn't get it fully out. So, I thought I would pull the spindle out as far as I could, chop through it with my multi-tool, push it back in, and then drill out the casting. Then I had a stroke of luck - the vibrations from the multi-tool as I cut through the spindle were severe enough to unjam the latch, and it sprang open. You can see the bits of the broken casting in the photo below.

There are several lessons I have learnt from this:

1. It is possible to deal with a problem like this without kicking the door in
2. Don't buy cheap lock hardware - I will now have to replace every one of these wretched things in our house as they are obviously rubbish quality
3. I have removed all the grub screws from the inside handles in all our rooms
4. I have made sure there is a window lock key in every room as this could easily have happened with someone in the room, and they could not have got out as the latch would not pull pack even if they had tools to try, and they would have been the wrong side to try and kick the door through

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

We had a few failures of this kind of latch in our last house, only one time preventing the door from opening completely, I was able to lever off the door stop and managed to get a flat screwdriver in to push the latch. On the plus side it was bonus to pop to screwfix on the off chance and find that that's exactly what the previous owners had used so replacements were easy to find. Not sure you really need to be getting your knickers in a twist over it though, they're £1.50 each!

 

[crank39]

Cheap chinesium parts made to a price

 

[YorkshireMidge]

We had a few failures of this kind of latch in our last house, only one time preventing the door from opening completely, I was able to lever off the door stop and managed to get a flat screwdriver in to push the latch. On the plus side it was bonus to pop to screwfix on the off chance and find that that's exactly what the previous owners had used so replacements were easy to find. Not sure you really need to be getting your knickers in a twist over it though, they're £1.50 each!

Just highlighting a product that is unfit for purpose where both examples in my case had failed with the latch jammed out (thankfully, with only one door shut). Even if I had cut out a couple of inches of door frame to try and get to the latch, it still wouldn't have pushed back in either case as the broken casting had clearly jammed it solid.

Cheap chinesium parts made to a price

Try finding stuff that isn't.

 

[JohnD]

I have been very impressed by the quality of the Altro fittings.

https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/browse/locks-safety-and-security/door-locks-latches-and-security/mortice-locks-and-latches/filter/%24s%3Daltro%20heavy%20duty%20tubular%20latches?fi=s

Union are still available

https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/search/filter/ironmongery_brand%3e%7bunion%7d?query=tubular%20latch

 

[YorkshireMidge]

I have been very impressed by the quality of the Altro fittings.

https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/browse/locks-safety-and-security/door-locks-latches-and-security/mortice-locks-and-latches/filter/%24s%3Daltro%20heavy%20duty%20tubular%20latches?fi=s

Union are still available

https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/search/filter/ironmongery_brand%3e%7bunion%7d?query=tubular%20latch

@John D - the problem these days is even respected old UK brands can actually be the same Chinese junk inside. Came across an example a while ago with combination key safes where the identical laughably insecure combination mechanism is being sold by Master (not surprising in the slightest ), but more worryingly, Yale and even Squire too.

I just looked at the photos of the Union stuff and got that same niggling feeling I'm afraid - though perhaps its a bit unfair on photos alone.

The Altro ones were out of stock for the backset size I needed, but I decided to wait until they re-stocked. Glad I did. I can see why you have been impressed - I thought they had sent the wrong items as the bag was so heavy. The quality is in a completely different league from the cheap and very nasty rubbish they will be replacing. So, thanks for the tip. Happy with Ironmongery Direct too - I put in the order with economy delivery yesterday and they arrived today!