I sent a letter to the trade press a couple of weeks ago appealing for an end to the posting of videos on sites like You Tube showing how to break into doors.

It angers me that many of our competitors persist in using the internet to show how their handle or cylinder resists break in attempts when all they are actually doing is showcasing the very tools and methods which burglars are likely to use.

My letter generated an immediate response from Kevin Harvey of Avocet who argued that his company is simply warning the public of the risk, but I stand by my view that it is reckless for hardware manufacturers of all people, who should be seeking to protect homeowners’ security and peace of mind, to be demonstrating methods of forced entry to criminals.

As Kevin points out, it's true that there are already plenty of videos online showing the illegal use of picking and bumping tools which I utterly deplore, and there are even some using doctored videos which totally mislead the public but surely the last thing we need is people from within this industry posting videos demonstrating cylinder snapping as well?

Worst of all though and what prompted my letter as much as anything was the fact Mila has recently tested some of the security cylinders currently on the market in our own Mila Test Centre and we’ve found that they don’t consistently pass the PAS24 standard anyway - so the only argument for demonstrating them online is seriously flawed.

I can appreciate that many of these cylinders are well designed and very well made but our tests have just confirmed my view that they are simply not as effective as security handles in resisting or even deterring a forced break in.

It seems to me that a security handle has the inherent advantages that it prevents access to the cylinder in the first place and it looks very different to a normal handle which can sometimes be sufficient to put off an opportunistic burglar.

I’m not saying that all security handles are 100% secure though because we’ve tested many of these in our Test Centre too and not all of them withstood the PAS24 test, but on balance they are more effective.

You could argue that I would say this because Mila has its own Evolution high security handle to promote but compared with a security cylinder alone, I still believe it is the best choice.

Contact us and we can show you the evidence – we just won’t be posting it online.

Richard