There's an emergency lock release on all privacy knobs. No need to buy hardware twice.

hollysprings, thanks. do you know if certain brands have this release? i think our current doors only have a tiny hole that we have to stick a pin in to push the lock out, but it is nearly impossible for us to open it because it takes so much jiggering around. took us 30 minutes to get it open.. right now, we duct-taped all our doors, but this is not a good look..

Um... I use the privacy knobs turned around because I have small kids. Keeps them in their rooms.....

I can open our Emtek locks in 3 secs.

My emtek have a screw-in pin that is used to engage the lock. If you remove/unscrew the pin then you can't lock the door. Keep the small pins in a safe place and in a few years you can screw them back in and be able to lock the doors.

My Bravura have the screw in pins as well. Just don't do what I did and put them in a "safe" place and then several years later, forget where that safe place is.

Had to get replacement pins from Bravura for several doors.

Eeek.. David Cary how old are your kids? That makes me nervous in case of something like fire starting in their rooms.

If they are tall enough to reach the knob and lock themselves in, they are tall enough to unlock the door and let themselves out.

Just teach them how the lock works.

You can DIY something like this until they are old enough to figure out how to unlock lock the door.

http://pinterest.com/pin/22940279323362289/

Here is a link that might be useful: Door muffler

This post was edited by wishiwasinoz on Sun, Feb 3, 13 at 12:15

thanks everyone. i will check out emtek and bravura.
david, that is a very creative idea, good for time-outs too. though I would fear my kids would end up locking me inside their room. :-)
wishiwasinoz, those etsy door mufflers look cute, much better than the duct tape we are currently using. lol!

We put the key on a molding 4.5 feet off the ground. Someday he'll figure how to get there....

If the door casing is thick enough, put the opening device on top of the door trim.

Our older knobs just needed a long finish nail (about 3 inches) that went into a hole in the middle of the outside knob.

The nails just sit on top of the molding for each door.

thanks! those are some good ways of not losing the key.

david_cary - would really appreciate any advice on unlocking an emtek privacy pin. our powder room is locked. we've been trying a few hours...

David,

Three seconds is a very long time in case of fire, especially in the dark, with smoke. Can't you put up a babygate at the top of your stairs?

Do you have a hex key set? I find that a fairly small one works the best.

Wow, david_cary-if you ARE near Cary in NC, perhaps you missed the arrest of the woman in Asheboro for the death of her 2 and 4 year old in a house fire last summer-she had locked them in their room....

I sincerely hope you are kidding about reversing the knobs and locking the kids' doors.

There is danger in everything. Everytime you put your kids in the car you are risking their life. Quit judging people.

Hum -- I put hooks on the outside of my youngest's room when he was 16 months to 3 and on the doors to the outside at about 6 feet high. Kid was crazy. He would have been outside in zero weather and/or walking down the middle of the highway otherwise.

Lucky for me, I had surrendered my membership card to the "I'm A Better Parent" club way before we found out he was a wild child ;)

This post was edited by nightowlrn on Sun, Jan 12, 14 at 23:18

This is the case referred to above http://myfox8.com/2014/01/08/randolph-co-woman-charged-in-fire-that-killed-her-two-sons/ This "mother" locked her kids in the room so she could "sleep." It was 11am. The kids had a lighter. Most likely a different set of facts than those mentioned above.

Old thread alert.

FWIW - The door handle opened (all past tense) normally for me. If there is a baby gate at the stairs (which are labeled not to be used after age 2 or at the top of the stairs), then a child can't exactly escape a fire on their own anyway. And strangely our 2 year old couldn't get out the exterior doors anyway.

Arguably, the default situation can create a dangerous situation if the child locks himself in the room accidentally and there is a fire.