Automating cabinet locks?

[wkearney99]

Anyone automated the locking/unlocking of residential cabinets?  As in, kitchen, bar or workshop cabinets.  I'm talking typical wood construction here, not metal.
 
There's a product that looks like an interesting solution for this:
http://stealthlock.com/what_is_stealthlock.html
 
Neither their literature or website mentions any option for interfacing them to an automation system.  I've used their contact form to inquire.  If there was a way to use a contact closure or something with the RF keypad that would be interesting.  
 
I'm not favoring this product, I just stumbled across it in a search and found it interesting.
 
I'm not after high security here, just keeping kids out of cabinets.  Yes, there's always likely ways to get around stuff like this.  Again, it's casual prevention I'm after here, not Ft. Knox.  Besides, there's likely going to be a door sensor on at least one of the cabinets, so it's not like an intrusion would go unnoticed.
 
Likewise I'm not at all interested in having to deal with physical key locks.  I'd be looking at at least a dozen cabinets and do not want to have that many key cylinders all over the face of the doors.  Not to mention the inconvenience of having to scramble for a key all the time.  Nor do I want to use the combination lock or magnet kind.  It's going to be either something hidden and automated, or nothing at all.

 

[wkearney99]

There's also this one, that at $29 is considerably less expensive. 
 
http://phantomlock.com/#anchor-about
 
I prefer the idea of having a keypad nearby, but at 1/3 the cost I'd go without.

 

[Del91574]

Are you running wire or not?
 
Assa's Aperio is a good unit. Other than that, something like RCI would also fit the bill. Got a few hundred installed.

 

[wkearney99]

I can run wire, if necessary.  I was figuring it'd be worth considering all options.  The fewer batteries I have to babysit, the better.  
 
And, to clarify, I'm talking about cabinet doors here, not entry/passage doors.  So something designed as a retrofit to existing cabinets would be ideal.  A few of them are double doors, so I'd likely put a lock on one side and a vertical slide bolt on the other.  If just to avoid doubling the lock expense.  The way the cabinets are setup I'd likely be opening both doors at the same time anyway.
 
My hope with automation is to have schedule events doing the relocking.  That first one, with a local hard keypad would be convenient, in that it'd allow for a separate code from anything else being used in the house.  
 
I got a reply from the Stealthlock folks and there's no current interface for automation, but he did suggest they'd be willing to look into it.  

 

[pete_c]

Personally here was paranoid about this stuff with my children before automation times.  The kitchen plastic on wood interior latches took 2 days to install and it was still a PITA to open the kitchen cabinets.  I had to teach the baby sitters how to open the kitchen cabinets.  It was though an on demand thing with no schedule of when they were opened.  IE a local locking keyboard would have been a nice to have.
 
A plus too was that the infant walkers blocked any cabinet doors from being opened.  I made hidden latches on the glass and wood media cabinets.  I had an obi wan carpenter redo the bathroom lower cabinets.  (new locking draws and doors on the cabinets and front wood).  I removed other bathroom sink cabinets and went to wall mounted cabinets instead. 

 

[wkearney99]

I used the hidden magnet latches when our son was younger and they worked quite well.  Installation was tedious, and the cleaning lady managed to wreck them more than once, but all-in-all they were a perfect solution.  Truth be told, though, he really didn't have much interest in the cabinets and their contents.  But better paranoid than distraught...
 
My current quest is geared more toward fending off adolescent problems with the liquor cabinets and workshop tools.  I'm not all that worried about my own son*  but more regarding other suburban children likely hanging around.  I was one, I know better than to leave some things unsecured.   Doing it now, while he's young (7yo) will help avoid it being seen as a "you don't trust me" problem. 
 
* (yet)  his being from the same genetic makeup gives me pause to be worried.... a LOT.   :blink:

 

[pete_c]

Yup; here the worry was power tools which were never touched anyways. They were kept in locked cabinets anyways.
 
I did see a kid (probably 18 or so) accidently while using a rotory saw severe his tendons/nerves in no man's land (palm) while working one summer (still in college).  He didn't really understand how a small cut did what it did.  I had seen this way before my kids were born.

 

[wkearney99]

Safety is a concern, but I'm more motivated to just keep their grubby mitts off my stuff and out of my liquor.
 
When it comes to tools, the worst thing I've heard recently was some poor bastard put a CIRCULAR SAW BLADE on a hand-held ANGLE GRINDER.  It kicked back and nearly severed his neck, killing him of course.  Even with the shroud correctly installed, angle grinders scare the hell out of me.  They're damned handy but the kind of job you usually use them for is often fraught with "hurry up and get this done" stress.   Nothing like combining impatience and frighteningly fast rotating metal to lead to injuries.  

 

[pete_c]

You know I was going to say that it's a bit early considering the current age is 7. 
 
Then again thought about the above sentence.  I did similar way before my children became adolescents. 

 

[wkearney99]

My folks, rest their souls, were hopelessly ten steps behind me and my brother when it came time to deal with adolescent issues.  I'm sure there's going to be plenty of ways I won't be as savvy as I'd like to be, but I'm damned sure going to get a lot closer than my folks were.  My wife's taken up the mantle of 'out of touch with pop culture' parent, so he'll still have that...

 

[ano]

Just put some wireless door sensors on the cabinets and have that trigger your internal sirens.  If its as loud as mine, they won't be opening those cabinets a second time. :nono:

 

[wkearney99]

Just put some wireless door sensors on the cabinets and have that trigger your internal sirens.  If its as loud as mine, they won't be opening those cabinets a second time. :nono:

 
Yeah, that's one angle, but that does nothing to stop the entry when there's not someone around to deal with it.  That only tells me something got opened, not which bottle and how watered-down it's become...

 

[ano]

Sounds like you need one of those bottle holders like they have in hotel mini-bars that report exactly which bottle was touched. :wacko: Then just subtract the cost from their allowance.  :rofl:
 
http://www.dometic.com/QBankFiles3/EPiServer/Dometic/IE/Catalogs/Lodging/HiPromatic-Broschure_5256.pdf

 

[pete_c]

Try the fake camera approach. 
 
I had a combination security / automation device in the old house with a voice the kids called diamond.  I told them that diamond was helping watching over them and the house.  I only configured maybe 4 speakers with it and didn't wire up all of the 48 zones on the panel at the time.

 

[wkearney99]

Yeah, not going to do cameras, fake or otherwise.  That's pushing it.