Obscurity, security! Crafted to resemble the real thing, this hidey-hole makes a better location for your spare key than, say, the doormat right next to the door that it opens.
Product Page {Thinkgeek via RGS]
17 Responses to A doorkey-hiding sprinkler head
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Good idea, but one now rendered less effective…
Or you could save yourself $4 and go buy a $1.99 popup Rainbird sprinkler at the hardware store, unscrew it and remove the spring. It’s the same damn thing.
Oh, Thinkgeek. Instead of having an open-source deadbolt with a hidden thumbprint-scanner, you’re edging into crapvendor territory instead.
I’m with #1. A cheap sprinkler head from a home supply store and a few minutes worth of work and you can have this today for at least $4 less. You won’t even have to pay for shipping.
Traditional advice for those who feel they absolutely must hide a key: Find a point in your lawn or garden that you can re-locate easily. Put spare keys in glass jar and flat-out bury them. Let plants grow above. No surface evidence whatsoever, and nobody but a determined dog is going to dig up your whole garden in the hope of finding your keys. Sure, they’re a pain to retrieve and you may mess up a few plantings doing so — but if you have to retrieve the spare key more than once a year, you’ve got bigger problems than a spare key will solve.
The better solution is to find a trusted friend to trade spare keys with. That also gives you someone you can call at the last minute to check on the house or handle emergencies while you’re out of town. If you don’t have a friend you can trust with the keys… well, again, you’ve got bigger problems than a hidden key will solve.
(And yes, I’ve done some professional locksmithing, if that matters to anyone.)
Plus I need to point out that this would only be good
1. in warmer climates or
2. Half of the year
We just got a foot of snow over the last couple of days so I could be bitter. There is no way I would ever go digging in my yard for that.
Heh. I misread the title as “dorkey”.
Made me giggle.
Acipolone, you’re not the only one! I haven’t been able to see anything but “dorky” every time I look at the title.
I much prefer the keycode entry on the garage door to leaving a key outside somewhere. Just remember to change the code to something other than factory default, your address, birthday, or phone number.
Given that kicking sprinkler heads out of people’s lawns is a favourite passtime of the young hoodlums in my area, this is the last place I’d ever be putting my keys.
Get off my lawn you young hoodlums!
The easiest thing to do is simply live where you don’t need to lock your doors.
I love my Sprinkler…this thing is airtight. I have a neighbor with a spare key but who is actually home when your kid needs a key to get in (she’s lost too many to count)?!
Yup, this certainly is dorky!
i dread the thought of stumbling out of a cab, drunk, my keys still at a friend’s house, and having to search on hands and knees through every sprinkler head on my lawn to find a way inside.
You should lock your doors everywhere WGM. People who think otherwise are just plain stupid.
#2 had the best idea. Save money and shipping.
#14: There are actually still places where there’s little enough risk of someone coming by to make leaving doors unlocked justifiable. It’s a cost-effectiveness calculation, as always.
The advice I give folks is “You always want to be just sufficiently more secure than your neighbors to encourage anyone who comes by to go pester them instead.” How much security that really turns out to be depends on where you are and what you’re trying to protect. In NYC, no lock may be good enough. Out in the middle of rural nowhere, in a building which really doesn’t contain anything worth the effort of hauling away, “no lock” may be good enough.
Tools for tasks.
Great idea, but I live on the fourth floor of an apartment block, which does not have a lawn. Not sure were I should stick it!?!