Hello all,
So when we bought our house, our doors came with Baldwin handlesets > really nice brass units. I never really thought about them, though.
Anyway, our neighbors’ kids have a penchant for SLAMMING our front door on their way out, and over time, the handleset started getting squirrelly. You had to jiggle the thumb press and wiggle the door a bit to open the door from the outside. It got worse and worse until I finally took the handle off to find out what was wrong.
Turns out that the teeth on a little gear were broken, which didn’t let the gears catch eachother. I called around town and nobody carried Baldwin products or sold that little gear. Even the locksmiths here in town didn’t have a solution. The gear is proprietary.
So I begrudingly went to Home Depot and bought a new Schlage entrance set for $100 (all because I couldn’t find a replacement for a 25cent gear).
The measurements were slightly different for the Schlage, so I had to redrill my door and patch the old holes.
I complained about this to a friend at work, and then he mentioned that Baldwin guarantees its products for life. I had a hard time getting in touch with somebody at Baldwin, but when I did, they asked if I had the receipt for the handleset. When I said no because it was on the door when we bought the house, the Baldwin rep. said, “Well, I’ll just send you the part anyway”.
They rush shipped a replacement kit that had every single part for the handleset short of the knob and the handle itself, free of charge! I didn’t even pay shipping.
Awesome!
But the bummer is that I didn’t know about this before I redrilled the door for the Schlage set. There’s no going back now. And even thought the $100 Schlage looks pretty much the same as the Baldwin, there’s no comparison. The doorknob for the Baldwin is nice and heavy like a shotput. The handle is substantially heavier and is the real deal in terms of detail and design.
So, long story short > go with Baldwin if you have the extra $$. Great product, but more importantly, a great company.
-Benthicriver
p.s. – I have the Baldwin handleset up on ebay right now if anyone is interested in it. Here’s the link> http://www.ebay.com/itm/111064934025?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
Replies
If your common neutral wire has the breakers on the same side of the panel bus bar, the white wire may turn brown.
I see there is something else brown about the OP post, blatantly, eh?
Ya gotta admint it's a pretty creative eBay ad.
Well, I'm definitely trying to sell it, but it's all true. Nothing really creative about it.
The one downside about Baldwin though was that it was really difficult to get in touch with someone at the company. I sent an e-mail through their "Contact Us" feature on their website and never heard back. All the phone numbers lead you to recordings or sales, and then when I got someone, they gave me a separate number to call for waranty issues. So that was annoying.
But, like I said, when I finally got through, they rush shipped me a box of parts.
I e-mailed Baldwin with pictures of my lock set and closeups of the broken part. They e-mailed me right back with a simple question, as soon as I answered they sent the part.
I looked and would have bought it, but I have all my locksets including the gate padlock keyed alike to kwikset keys. I don't know if baldwin can be keyed to kwikset keys. Love baldwin quality though, very good feeling and looks.
schlage
Baldwin an Schlage are compatable keys.
but keys not compatible with kwikset, will not insert. also, although the pins are the same diameter, the lengths are 1 off from each other for the key number.
When we built our house here in Japan (1994), we had Baldwin locksets/handles throughout the inside rooms, but had only ordered the front-door (2F) Baldwin lockset when our contractor went belly up and disappeared. I ended up buying a Schlage set for our 1st Fl door, and then replaced it with another Schlage a few years later, but the inside lever-handles were never tight (lots of play/wobble). Since my wife uses that door the most she kept hinting she'd like it changed. Last year I was at a conference at UC Santa Barbara, and was given most of one day off, so I went to the local HD and bought one of the Baldwin "prestige" series locksets.
I finally took down the door and repainted it yesterday/today, and took the opportunity to install the new Baldwin lockset. I had to use epoxy to fill in some areas where the screw holes didn't match--and the instructions were incomplete/mistaken in one spot, but today finally got the door repaired and the new Baldwin set installed. The difference was really remarkable: where the previous Schlage sets would wobble from Day One, the new Baldwin set is smooth and non-wobbly. I did have to reform screw holes with wood putty, but once it was installed it's much smoother and secure-feeling than the cheaper Schlages (and the difference in price isn't that great).
Yeah, it's exactly the same with our door. The Schlage looks fine (how many people actually study a handleset closely?) and it opens the door just fine. But it feels loose in comparison to the Baldwin. It's not as tight and not as solid. You know, I just didn't feel like patching the door again and going to all the trouble, but now I'm thinking about it. Hmmm....
"Just do it."
"Just do it."