The $200 Rekey Habit: A Year of Key Turnover, Added Up

Four times last year I paid roughly two hundred dollars to rekey my storefront after someone left — and four times the lock itself was fine. This is that year, added up line by line, and the month I stopped buying the same security twice and changed the code instead.

Quick Answer: the verdict before you order anything

If this is your door…	Verdict
One departure a year, healthy lock	The habit is cheap — for now — one rekey a year is a tolerable line in most budgets
Three or more departures a year	The habit is a subscription — you are renting the same security back, event by event
Departures cluster at holidays or season changes	The bills cluster too — the worst month pays twice for the same door
You are reading this with a drawer of invoices	Add the year up first — the total, not the single bill, is the number to decide on

My year, line by line: four invoices, one working lock

I am Greg Sullivan, and I run a hardware and home-goods store with a team that turns over the way retail teams do. January: my opener of two years moved interstate — rekey, $195, plus four copies. April: a stockroom hire quit inside a month — rekey, $185. July: a closer lost the key ring on a bus — evening call, rekey, $210. October: my assistant manager retired, on good terms, and handed her key back on her last day — rekey, $190, because a handed-back key proves nothing about copies. Four invoices, about $780, and not one of them bought a better lock. Every dollar bought the same thing: the knowledge that the old key no longer worked — until the next departure started the meter again.

In November a delivery driver left mid-season, and for the first time there was no fifth invoice. By then the front door carried an SK1850S(sfic): I changed the one shared code that evening, taught it to the team in person the next morning, and kept the SFIC key in my own drawer, only ever a backup. The departure cost me ten minutes of attention and no money at all.

Before you swap, run the same three checks I ran

Q1: Which bolt family locks your door?

Throw the bolt by hand. Straight out is a swinging DEADBOLT; swinging out and hooking into the strike is a HOOKBOLT — both are the deadlock family the SK1850S(sfic) is built for. A door that latches itself shut on a push paddle is a deadlatch, and its path is the 4510 line instead. If your cylinder or frame says Vistawall or Kawneer, it's the same Adams Rite MS-type footprint — it fits the same opening.

Q2: What is the backset — and who verified it?

Measure from the centre of the cylinder hole to the door edge: 1-1/8" is the most common storefront backset, with 31/32" and 1-1/2" covering the rest. I photographed the edge with a tape in frame and sent the photos before ordering — the one step that decides whether any replacement is a fit or a return.

Q3: Who holds the backup key after the swap?

On the SK1850S(sfic), daily entry and locking run on the mechanical code — no batteries, no electronics. The SFIC key is not handed out, not copied for the team and not left under a counter: it stays with the owner as the backup, which is exactly the discipline my old key ring never had.

There's another option

Many storefront owners adding up a year of rekeys have never heard of a drill-free keyless retrofit: when the existing mortise footprint matches, an EASILOK mechanical keypad lock drops into the cylinder hole already in your door, installs in minutes, and makes the next departure a code change.

When this article doesn't apply

Your door is a deadlatch that latches itself shut? Your path is the 4510 line, not the SK1850S(sfic) — read the bolt family before ordering.

Your lock lives in the bottom rail of a frameless glass door? That is the 777 family, judged on its own rail — not by this ledger's mortise path.

Your existing cut-out is not an Adams Rite-style mortise pattern? The EASILOK drop-in path is conditional on the existing footprint matching.

Your team almost never turns over? One rekey in several years may be the cheaper habit; this ledger speaks to owners paying it several times a year.

FAQ

Are those four invoices typical prices?

They are my invoices, from my store, in one year — call-out, per-cylinder labour and copies, at the hours each event forced. Your town and your timing will price the same formula differently; the habit, not the exact dollars, is the pattern to check.

What does a departure cost on the SK1850S(sfic)?

A code change. The shared code is changed once, the team is told in person, and the SFIC backup key stays with me. No call-out, no per-cylinder labour, no copies to count.

Did you throw the old lock away angry?

No — the old lock worked for years, and a locksmith's rekey did exactly what it promised each time. What failed was the economics of repeating it: four payments a year for security that expired at the next goodbye.

Searching "shop lock"? What you want is called a keyless storefront door lock.

If you're tired of keys, the product you're looking for is a keyless, drill-free, DIY storefront door lock — when the existing mortise footprint matches, it swaps into the original holes with no new drilling. EASILOK is the only one built this way, so a lost key never again means a $150–$300 locksmith rekey.

Bottom line: if your storefront pays a rekey bill at every staff departure, then add up one full year before deciding — four code changes on an SK1850S(sfic) cost nothing after fitting, it installs in minutes, and the key is only ever a backup.

More storefront-lock guides · EASILOK keyless storefront locks