Front Door / Freeze Up / WinterTime Hassle..

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NorPlan

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Have had this on going problem and have gone thru 5/6 Deadbolt Lock kits .. The usual January Deep Freeze has come a month early, once the Temps hover around (-15'C +) the Front Door lock Tumblers are rendered useless with a Key.. We have decided to build an Insulated Front Vestibule / Mud Room come Spring.. We are a Southerly Exposure so the Hot & Cold hitting the Exterior Door doesn't help.. My Question as there had been a number of Reno's done by previous owners .. The location of a Heat Duct right in front of Main Front Door is a Contributing Factor (???) Thoughts & Opinions Appreciated, Cheers Thanks..
 
I would spray with WD40 to lubricate and disipate the moisture. Definitely the register would create problem trying to heat up room while cold from outside is creating frost.Check weatherstripping on door as well.
 
Maybe somebody makes a 12vac electric lock heater.

Depending on how many calories need to get through the deadbolt and into the lock tumbler assembly, it could be mounted in the striker plate assembly.
Keeping the striker assembly under 50C will prevent burns to occupants.

Otherwise you could use a flex cable on the door hinges and thin wire into a recess around the door edges to power an in-lock heater (a resistor putting out 2 watts or 5w at 12v).

https://www.google.com.pg/patents/US3662149
 
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They make some very effective door knob heaters.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_v9tchMdl0[/ame]
 
Damn it. I jinxed myself as my back door is starting to freeze up from all the cold we are having. Think I,ll spray wd40 on the weatherseal LOL
 
NEVER, EVER spray WD40 into a lock. WD40 will freeze at about -20c and certainly thickens at temps a bit above that.

If you have already sprayed this vile goop into your locks flush them out with something like contact cleaner and then use a proper lock lubricant that contains graphite to lubricate the lock (if it is really clean dry graphite powder is the best thing to use).

Is your lock's keyhole exposed to the weather? If so it could be that rain gets in and then stays until it freezes. This is common when there is no storm door or vestibule to keep it dry so your plan to add a mud room would probably help (Note that this would also provide a place for someone who is breaking in to work out of sight of passersby) but something as simple as putting a cover of some sort (like a flap rubber from an old inner tube that hangs over the lock) to keep the rain out might do almost as much good.
 
WD40 will freeze at about -20c and certainly thickens at temps a bit above that.
Have you tested this @ -20C/-4F?

Couldn't find much on this stuff, besides
". . .results of gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy tests on WD-40, claiming that its ingredients make it resistant to freezing."
 
WD-40 won't freeze. The problem with WD-40, being petroleum based, is it doesn't evaporate. So, over time it will attract dust & dirt and will thicken, possibly causing the lock to stick. Doesn't freeze, but may cause the same sticking issue as freezing.
 
I found that line about chromatography too but I suspect that they were talking about it under pressure inside the can. Try spraying some on a piece of steel and leaving it outside for half an hour at -20.

My buddy and his wife came home late one night after being out of town all day and their keys wouldn't turn in the locks of either door of the house or the garage shop. He ended up breaking into the shop to get a propane torch so he could heat up a key and get into the house. While doing this he was thinking it shouldn't have happened because he had just sprayed WD into all of them a few days before so he took a piece of steel from the shop, sprayed some WD on it and left it on the porch while they went indoors to warm up. By the time they finished their coffee it had frozen solid.

Re evaporation: WD40 is basically oil with a light solvent carrier. The solvent evaporates quickly leaving the oil behind as a sticky residue, which attracts the dust & dirt. If used in a lock or any other precision mechanism or on electrical contacts this often results in things being worse than before in a very short time.
 
Better a flap of styrofoam with a weight, than rubber.

With this insulation, the indoor air vs. the outdoor air might give a lock temp above 0C.

72F-32F = 40F, so without insulation and no wind, the outside could drop to 32-40 = -8F. In theory.
 
Then it's butyl rubber. :p

Thermal conductivity of rubbers/elastomers at 25oC (W/mK)
Butyl rubber IIR, CIIR, BIIR 0.09
Fluoroelastomer 0.19 – 0.30
Natural rubber Unvulcanized 0.14
Natural rubber Vulcanized 0.15
Neoprene rubber Polychloroprene 0.19
Nitrile rubber NBR 0.24
Polyurethane rubber 0.29
Silicone rubber 0.14
Silicone rubber Glass fiber filled 0.35
Silicone rubber For thermal management (Arlon) 0.63 – 2.51
 
I don't think the difference would be all that significant, especially when you take into account that we haven't even mentioned how thick the material is. But inner tubes are usually butyl anyway...
 
I'm hoping something more visually pleasing can be found.
A party balloon isn't bad and can be pushed out of the way, but it might give some the wrong impression. :p
 
It needs to be something flexible that will prevent rain from running into the lock. Since it will be only temporary until a storm door can be added or the proposed mud room can be built how it looks can be secondary to how it works.

Heck, it could even look like this
padlock-under-rubber-flap-on-old-abandoned-barn-frjr22.jpg
 
That might work if it was key in knob (although getting it off & back on every time you unlocked the door might be a pain. But its a deadbolt...
 
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