Keys and Keychains – A Locksmith’s Position

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I have seen a lot of stuff about car keys on the forum lately, and it has got me up on my high horse about a few key things.

Let me preface this by saying that I worked as a locksmith for the last three years, and for two years before that I worked for a company that unlocks peoples’ cars when they’ve locked themselves out. I have seen a lot of peoples’ keys, and here is something that is nearly universal. People seem to see the little split ring on the remote for their vehicle and assume that it’s there to keep their car key on.

When you lock yourself out of your home or vehicle you are experiencing a “two is one, one is none” episode. The trick is this: Your remote and your key are both the same tool – a tool for unlocking your vehicle. When you tie your vehicle key to your remote fob you are essentially making two tools into one meaning that when you lose access to that one tool you go from one to none.

Here is what I suggest:

First, don’t think of your keychain as a place to keep all of your useful tools for quick and easy access. I mean, it’s a convenient place to keep your keys together so they’re not knocking around in the bottom of your pocket individually like loose change, but you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, metaphorically speaking.

Keep your most commonly used keys on one small ring. I have one ring with my car key, house key, and a discount card for my grocery store (you have to actually scan the card to get the ancillary benefits).

On a side note, many club cards like that have a note on the back that says if the keys attached to them are found you can drop them into a mailbox with no postage or cost to the finder and the keys will be returned to the club member at the cost of the institution sponsoring the club. If you have one of these little keychain cards with that kind of note on it, for the love of all that is sane and righteous, put it on your freaking keychain! Even if you never use the card itself, having it on there makes it that much more likely that you will get your keys back if you lose them, and without anyone finding out where you live (more on that later).

So, I have another keychain with my vehicle’s remote on it. It also has another house key (and a handcuff key – just in case!) and that’s it. I use a belt attachment point (I like using the kind that slides onto the belt from the end instead of just clipping on from the top because it means it can never come off) that allows me to clip my keys onto my belt. I keep my remote and my car key both on this clip. “Wait,” you say, “you said not to keep them together!” Relax, because they’re not “together” they’re just hanging out at the same place.

I almost never take my remote off of my belt. It just sits there and waits for me to need a spare way to get into my house or my car. I can still use the buttons on it to unlock my car remotely without taking it off my belt. I just take my ignition key off and then unlock the doors remotely, get in and start the car. This comes in handy in a number of situations. If I somehow lock my keys in the car I can use the remote to gat back in. If I somehow manage to lock myself out of the house I have a spare house key to get back in. I keep a spare house key and a spare key to my wife’s car in my own car too, just in case, as well as an additional key to my car that I can use to give to valet parking people.

A note on valet keys:
If your car has a trunk that is separate from the main cabin your car probably originally came with what is called a valet key. This key is typically slightly different from the others (usually the main key is black and the valet is grey), and here’s how they work. The valet key only starts the car and opens the doors. It won’t unlock the glovebox, the center console (if it locks), or the trunk. If you lock the glovebox with your main key then the valet won’t be able to open it, or your trunk, or anything else. On Honda sedans there is a little lever that pops the trunk. It has a lock on it too that you can use to disable the lever so they can’t use it to get into the trunk.

Never give anyone else your main bundle of house keys unless you trust them absolutely. Even better, never give anyone else your keys. If you need to leave your car with a valet or at the mechanic, give them your spare, and here’s why. Most people don’t realize that there’s almost always something in your car (probably your registration?) that has your home address on it. A clever criminally-minded individual could get your home address, copy your house key, and then send his friends to clean your place out while you are out having dinner or watching a movie at the fancy place with valet parking.

I mentioned this in another thread, but it should be mentioned here briefly, and it’s even one more reason why you shouldn’t keep a bunch of stuff on the ring with the keys to your car. If you have a great big heavy lump of keys hanging from your car key it will create undue wear on your vehicle ignition cylinder, eventually damaging it beyond proper function. Keep that stuff separate. It doesn’t NEED to be with your keys.

You can absolutely have a huge lump of keychain tools all tied together, but leave your keys out of it. They’re special, and they are just one component of a delicate piece of machinery – your locks. If your keys get messed up, the machine won’t work, and then where will you be?

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