House Lockset Recommendations?

My 33 year old house had Harlock entry locksets and deadbolts installed. I've replaced all of the latches on the entries as they've worn out, and a couple of the entry units entirely. Now the latch in my outside garage Schlage lockset has crapped out.

So, I'm thinking it's time to start over with new matching keyed alike locksets and deadbolts, 5 in all. I don't need re-keyable or anything that would baffle Raffles (I have plenty of windows that someone could break), just something that would work well, and hopefully last. My doors all have the wider 2 3/4" backset (why do they need to make more than one "standard"?).

Any guidance is appreciated!

I didn't want to spend a ton of money on designer locksets, but I disliked the sloppiness in the Kwikset locksets. My compromise was the low end of the Schlage locksets. They just feel better to me than Kwiksets.

The ones I got were the discontinued Schlage Securekey, chosen so I could rekey myself. Kwikset took Schlage to court forcing them to stop manufacturing the user rekeyable Schlages. But you didn't want rekeyable anyway.

We have a local lumber yard chain (Shones of Delaware) who will rekey Kwikset and Schlage locksets at the time of purchase. Normally it takes one day. Even though you typically can't find more than 4 identically keyed locksets on the shelf you can get as many as you need. And they were priced within 1 or 2 bucks of the Home Depot or Lowes prices.

I work in the commercial door industry and 25 years ago installed some used Schlage A-series locks and B series deadbolts on my doors. They still perform flawlessly with only a little puff of graphite in the key cylinder every few years.
A lot of the new Schlage locks I've seen are not up to par with the old ones from the 60's & 70's (big surprise-right?).
The good news is that most lock manufacturers have done a very good job of copying the "old" Schlage A-series chassis and I have found them to be very good and reliable.
If I were you and if it was convenient, I would perhaps visit a locksmith or commercial door hardware establishment and see what's available in a Grade 1 or Grade 2 cylindrical lockset. Many times, these places have "leftovers" from large contract jobs (like schools, shopping malls, etc) where Change Orders have rendered them "dead stock". We have sold $200 locksets for $50 or less-just to rid ourselves of dead inventory.

The reason for the 2 3/4" backset has to do with the height of the stop on the door frame. Most commercial hollow metal frames have a 5/8" high stop and a 2 3/8" backset preparation on the door would be a "knuckle-knocker".
The smaller backset works fine for interior doors hung in wood jambs as the stop height isn't so high.

Inspect the chassis of the locks you're interested in and look for parts made of cast or forged metal as opposed to stamped steel. The better ones generally have the "t-type" latch retractor as opposed to the square or rectangular spindle going through it's center.
Again, a good, honest locksmith should be able to point you in the right direction. Expect to pay about $70-75 for the keyed locks and probably around $30-45 for a decent deadbolt. 20 years from now, you'll be glad you did.
Sorry for the long-winded and boring dissertation, but I get tired of having customers complain about their imported big box locks when they come looking for replacement parts only a year out of warranty. Repairing this type of lock is sort of like polishing turds...

Agree with the above post entirely.
As a finish carpenter have installed 1000s of locksets from the worst to the best.
Some of the big box store locksets will be falling apart before the owners move in. Usually the one between the garage and the house that gets the most use.
And yes, Schlage sure isn't what it used to be.

I agree almost entirely with the above post. In my case my store bought Schlage locksets are about 5 years old, and still work perfectly.

Also in my case I knew a divorce and house sale was coming, so I wanted sub $50 per lockset good enough to last 5 to 10 years. The "not as good as they used to be" Schlage fit the bill. I would not have gone this way if I was going to retire in this house.

Thank you all for the education. It turns out that my immediate problem was actually caused by the prolonged "bitch cold" weather we have had here. The latch had seized in the retracted position and was held there by the thickened grease. This AM I went out to pull apart the Schlage lockset (in the balmy 35 degree weather) and noticed that the latch had released and was working again.

I pulled off the knob assemblies and inspected the latch, etc and it looks like new (to me, anyway). Rather than degrease the latch (for now), I sprayed some silicone in the latch barrel (not on any mechanism), and figured I'd ask here (again) for recommendations regarding latch lubrication. For now, it seems to work smooth & easy.

This lockset was installed by my late father in 1989, and even I can tell it's a much better piece than either my older Harlocs and newer Kwiksets. The aligning tangs that position the knobs so that the screws can be easily aligned and started are a huge help compared to the time wasting annoying attempts of trying to get both screws in the others!

Now that II know (much) more thanks to you all, I'll seek out better locks at a commercial door dealer and not go for any Grade 3 stamped steel units at The Home Cheapo.

Thanks again!

I've been converting my house over to Emtek door hardware. They are about double the costof the stuff from the big box stores but the quality is way better. Very solid heavy feel to it with no cheap stamped components. Even the trim rings are cast or machined rather than cheap stamped sheet metal.

Ditto! Good call redprimo.
I have in the last year or two replaced the exterior lock sets with Schlage from Lowe's. The back door with entry set and deadbolt gets a lot of use thanks to the cat. The sets wore in quickly, and have a lot of sloppiness to them. So in my search to replace all the interior door hinges and lock/knob sets to change from brass to black, I was turned towards Emtek through my local commercial/residential door hardware company. The quality of the upper brand stuff, and not much more than Schlage crap.
Emtek does have a couple price points, but all there stuff is good. Bonus is they keyed to match your existing Schlage.

Hey HapHazard!
Glad to hear you got your lock working. Grease can be a real problem in cold weather and it can attract and hold dust creating premature wear.
My favorite lock lubricant is a couple of puffs of powdered graphite.
It's messy and a little goes a long way. About once every two years, each lock cylinder I use gets a small puff or two and I run the key in and out a few times to distribute it among the pins.
Wipe the key off pretty well (especially if you wear white pants) and you'll find that formerly sticky cylinders now turn as if they're on ball bearings.
I've seen locks of your vintage have some factory lube (grease) which has hardened over the years and needs to be cleaned out with a couple of squirts of carb cleaner and then lubed up with graphite. Sounds like you got some of the last "good ones" made by Schlage (IMHO).
The Emtek locks I've seen are a pretty good copy of the original Schlages and seem to be a good value.

Marks

Made in the USA and darn good lock-sets. They cater more to commercial but, have custom & ornamental sets as well.

You will never buy a Yale or Schlage after installing a Marks.

revisit this post in 5 years and let us know if you still feel the same way. You said it exactly right with "Very solid heavy feel to it"...

For the money spent on emtek you can get a considerably better grade of Schlage.

I got turned on to Emtek 15 years ago when I installed one in my brothers house as part of a kitchen remodel. The door it's on is the one they use as the main point of entry. Both the deadbolt and the knob are working like the day they were installed.

We have gone with the electronic keypad locks. I think we have the Kwik-Set door lock with a Schlage deadbolt. The deadbolt reads your fingerprint to unlock the bolt, while the doorlock uses a keypad. We have used them for ~6 years with no issues. It's liberating not having to carry a house key around!

Until the battery dies.

I have changed the deadbolt battery twice and the keypad 3 times in ~6 years. It tells you when the battery is getting low long before it dies. And, of course, there is still the key that can be hidden somewhere accessible.

That's the important thing to remember for any key pad/touch pad lock with a battery is to keep an override key stashed somewhere (outside the house) in case the battery(s) go tits up.

Don't do like my neighbor who kept the spare key in the kitchen cabinet.

Told him "at least you know the spare key is safe & secure in your locked house that you can't enter."

I have to carry so many keys that it would be no advantage to eliminate one (or even three).

Any specific recommendations on the keypad or fingerprint locks? I just installed a screen/security door and it looks like I'll be replacing all my locks too (two doorknobs, two deadbolts).

i have had excellent experiences with Defiant brand lock sets. can get same-keyed sets by comparing key codes on packaging. purchased mine at home depot.