Burglar Alarm vs Locks | Spend in the Right Order

Most homes in Ealing have a monitored alarm and a lock that a half-decent burglar can snap in about eight seconds. That is the wrong way round. The industry sold it to them backwards, and it keeps doing it, because the alarm carries a monthly subscription and the lock does not.

I'm not anti-alarm. I'll get to that. But let me tell you what I actually see on doors.

What Reacts and What Prevents

A burglar alarm goes off after someone has already got in. The siren is loud, yes. The monitoring centre will ring you, maybe ring the police. But the average confirmed police response to a residential alarm in England is somewhere between ten and forty-five minutes. A competent burglar is in and out in under three. The alarm didn't stop anything. It documented it.

A good cylinder lock on a properly reinforced door stops the entry happening at all. No entry, no crime, no claim, no trauma. That is a fundamentally different outcome.

I had a job in Hanwell last autumn, a mid-terrace on a W7 street. The homeowner had a Verisure alarm, professional install, the whole thing. The front door had a standard euro cylinder, unbranded, no anti-snap rating. Someone walked up at 11am on a Tuesday, snapped the cylinder in seconds with a pair of pliers, and was gone before the siren even registered with the neighbours. The alarm activated. The police came an hour later. Nothing was recovered.

The cylinder that failed probably cost the builder about four pounds.

Why the Industry Does This

Alarm companies are not security companies in the way a locksmith is. They're subscription businesses. A Verisure or ADT contract is worth hundreds of pounds a year, every year, for as long as you stay. A TS007 3-star cylinder costs around £50 fitted, once, and the locksmith never hears from you again on that job. There's no recurring revenue in a good lock. So the sales energy goes into the alarm.

I'm not saying the salespeople are lying. The alarm does add something. I'm saying the order of pitch is driven by margin, not by what makes your door hardest to get through.

The Sensible Order of Spending

For a normal home in Ealing, this is how I'd stack the budget:

• First: A TS007 3-star anti-snap cylinder. Ultion or Avocet ABS are the ones I fit most. Around £40 to £60 for the cylinder, £50 to £80 fitted depending on the door. This removes the single most common attack method used on W5 to W13 doors right now.
• Second: Door reinforcement. Hinge bolts, a door chain or bar, a decent multi-point lock that's actually adjusted correctly. A cylinder that's snap-proof behind a door that kicks open in two tries is still a problem.
• Third: Window locks. PAS24-rated handles on uPVC, or key-operated locks on older timber frames.
• Fourth, and only after the above: An alarm. Because now the alarm is a genuine second layer, not a sticking plaster over a door that should never have been breachable in the first place.

A decent alarm system, self-monitored via an app, costs £150 to £300 fitted. A monitored contract adds £20 to £50 a month on top. That money spent on the door first makes a measurable difference. That same money spent on an alarm behind a snappable cylinder is largely theatre.

The Obvious Objection

Someone will say: alarms deter as well as react. Seeing a bell box puts burglars off.

Fair. There's some truth in it. A visible alarm box does make a proportion of opportunists think twice. But research from the police and from Secured by Design consistently shows that physical barriers, good cylinders, reinforced frames, visible multi-point locks, are the primary deterrent. The alarm box is a secondary signal. And a dummy box costs twelve pounds on eBay, which tells you how much weight a professional gives it.

The One Fair Caveat

If you're in a higher-risk situation, a business premises in Park Royal, a ground-floor flat on a busy Southall road, a landlord with properties you can't physically check, then a monitored alarm with notifications earns its place sooner in the stack. Evidence of a break-in matters for insurance, and remote monitoring has real value when you're not there. Alarms aren't useless. They're just not first.

For the average owner-occupied house in Ealing Broadway, Northfields, or Pitshanger? Sort the door. Then talk about the alarm.

If you want someone to look at what you've actually got on your front door and give you a straight answer, Locks Local covers Ealing and the surrounding West London postcodes. We aim to be with you in under 30 minutes, and we'll tell you what the door needs, not what carries the best margin. Call us and get a price before we start.