The Ultimate Guide to Defiant Locks – Front Range Locksmith
Did you know that the 3rd most common brand of residential locks in America has almost no information about it online? Unlike the other popular brands, it doesn’t have a Wikipedia page, reviews are almost non-existent and most surprising is that it doesn’t even have an official website! And yet millions of people in America have a Defiant lock installed on their doors. I thought it would be a good idea to do some digging and uncover some of the mystery surrounding this mysterious brand of locks. This is currently the most comprehensive article written about Defiant locks. If you’re not sure whether your locks are made by Defiant, you can find out pretty quickly by looking above the keyhole of your deadbolt, or the latch at the side of the door if it’s a doorknob, both will have “Defiant” stamped on them.
Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with Defiant or Home Depot in any way. No one has paid me to write this article. In this post I’m presenting my opinions based on my own independent research and my years of experience as a professional locksmith. I accept no liability for any consequences of any actions taken based on the information provided.
Who Makes Defiant Locks?
Defiant is one of only 3 brands of locks sold at Home Depot which makes it one of the best-selling locks in America. As a Locksmith, I run into Defiant locks on a daily basis, so I found it strange when I couldn’t find any information about them online. If you try searching for Defiant’s website the results will take you to the Home Depot’s website – the brand’s only retailer. That’s because Defiant locks are actually made exclusively for Home Depot by the Taiwanese manufacturer “Taiwan Fu Hsing Ind. Co. Ltd”, and have been for almost 25 years, according to one of the brand’s promotional videos.
Which Locks Are Made by Defiant?
Defiant offers a standard line of residential locksets which includes a single sided deadbolt and a double sided deadbolt, 3 types of doorknobs (passage, bathroom and entry in 2 different designs) as well as a residential keypad lock. Each lock can come in one of 3 finishes: brass, silver or black, and can be purchased separately, or in a combo of a matching deadbolt and doorknob. There are also double combos available of 2 deadbolts and 2 doorknobs all keyed alike providing a decent low cost solution if you’re looking to change all the locks on an apartment or a small house without needing to get some of the locks rekeyed. Defiant locks come with a lifetime warranty from The Home Depot, and although the warranty will protect you from wear and tear, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the locks are secure.
Technical Specifications
In this article I’m not going to talk much about the security aspect of Defiant locks as I already covered the topic in depth here, but I will briefly mention its security features. The cylinder of both the Defiant doorknobs and deadbolts contains 5 sets of pins, 3 of which are security spool pins. The deadbolt is equipped with a drill resistant plate making it slightly harder to drill the lock open, however, as can be seen in this video – it’s pretty easy to remove it. Overall Defiant locks provide basic security at a low price but will hardly pose a challenge for an experienced intruder.
Defiant locks share the same type of keyway with the Kwikset brand, which means that a Defiant key will fit into a Kwikset lock and vice versa. If all the locks on your house are Kwikset locks, you can still buy a Defiant lock and match it to work with your current house key.
For a more in-depth review of how secure Defiant deadbolt are check out our comprehensive lock comparison article.
I hope that in this article I managed to shed some light over the Defiant brand and give an informative overview of the brand, its locks and their features.
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