How Florida Heat and Humidity Affect Your Locks and Key Fobs

Locks are mechanical parts built to fine tolerances, and Central Florida is hard on them. We see the same handful of problems come back every year as the seasons turn — deadbolts that worked fine in January bind by July, fobs die in August, and exterior locks get gritty every spring. Most of it is preventable with a few minutes of care.

Humidity swells doors, and deadbolts start to bind

Wood doors and frames take on moisture in the humid months and shrink back in the drier ones. Even a small change moves the bolt out of line with the hole in the strike plate. The symptom is a deadbolt you have to push or lift the door to throw, or a latch that won't catch unless you slam the door.

The fix is usually at the strike, not the lock. Moving or filing the strike plate so the bolt slides in freely fixes the binding without replacing anything. Forcing a binding bolt day after day is what eventually wears out the lock itself.

Heat drains key fob batteries

A parked car in a Florida summer gets far hotter inside than the air outside, and the coin-cell batteries in key fobs don't like it. Fobs left in the car, on a sunny dashboard or in a hot pocket all day tend to need batteries sooner. Heat is also hard on smart lock and keypad batteries on west-facing doors that bake in the afternoon sun.

• Don't store spare fobs in the car. A spare left in the glove box is also a spare for whoever breaks in.
• Replace fob batteries when the car first warns you, not when it stops seeing the key.
• Change smart lock batteries on a schedule — a dead smart lock battery is a common lockout.

Pollen and sand gum up exterior locks

Spring brings heavy pine and oak pollen, and sandy soil gets everywhere year-round. Both work their way into keyways. Mixed with oily lubricant, they turn into a paste that makes keys stiff and pins sluggish.

Use a dry lubricant — powdered graphite or a PTFE spray made for locks — and skip household oil. Oil feels like it helps for a week, then holds every grain of grit that follows. A puff of lubricant into the keyway a couple of times a year, then working the key in and out a few times, keeps most locks turning smoothly.

Rain and moisture rust exterior hardware

Summer storms soak doors daily, and hardware with a thin plated finish starts to pit and rust, especially on doors without an overhang. Rusty screws in a strike plate also weaken the door's resistance to being kicked in. When replacing exterior hardware, a higher grade lock with a durable finish holds up noticeably better.

Before a hurricane, check your doors

• Make sure every deadbolt throws fully into the frame — a partially thrown bolt does little against wind pressure.
• On double doors, check that the top and bottom bolts on the inactive door actually engage. They're often left open or painted over.
• Keep spare keys somewhere you can reach if you evacuate, and give one to whoever is checking on the house.
• If you have a smart lock, put in fresh batteries before the storm. Power and Wi-Fi may be out for days.