Nanawall Multipoint Lock Cylinders Don’t Use Normal Pins – Seattle's Maple Leaf Locksmith LLC – (206)335-4559

Nanawall Multipoint Lock Cylinders Don’t Use Normal Pins

Before considering getting a “Nanawall” installed here are some pitfalls for you to consider. TLDR: use SFIC pins or reuse the bottom pins in a different configuration.

The Nanawall appears to be a well constructed door, my issues are with the lock cylinder itself. The main problems with this lock cylinder are that it is an odd size so replacement will be difficult and that it doesn’t use standard .115″ diameter pins. That means when you call some poor sap like me out to rekey it we will have a real headache trying to get regular pins into it.

Locksmiths are used to problems with pinning up profile or euro cylinders as they are variously called. CES cylinders use different depths despite using the Schlage SC1 key. If you are lucky there are threaded caps for each chamber so that you more easily rekey them but it is still more laborious than some other lock cylinders. If you aren’t lucky then you have to take the profile cylinder apart with a special follower that most North American locksmiths won’t have or know how to use.

Enter the Nanawall profile cylinder. It does have the threaded caps. The factory pins come out easily enough. When you put a .115″ pin in it will go through the top of the cylinder but get stuck in the plug. Then you will spend maybe 30-45 minutes trying to get that pin out of there by eventually dismantling the cylinder to get the plug out. Then you will discover that the pin holes are drilled too small for normal pins. SFIC pins will work but this is a hack, it means that you will have to use a lot of extra top pins to build up the pin stack making the lock less secure. I would also like to say that it is very obnoxious of this manufacturer to use a cylinder whose bible is drilled for .115″ pins but whose plug is not. It will earn the ire of locksmiths everywhere!

Replacing this bastardization of a lock cylinder is not cheap or straightforward. In North America the profile cylinders available to us are shorter than those in the Nanawall. They wouldn’t work. Both GMS and Ilco make these and Ilco has two lengths but neither are long enough. Ilco is willing to custom make them for a price. If you want to buy a $200 profile cylinder Ilco will do it for you. Abloy will also make custom profile cylinders for the Protec2 but those are well over $500 each!

To sum it up unless you’re cool with keeping the keys that come with a Nanawall and using those in perpetuity or spending a ton of money in the future, steer clear! If I was going to rekey that house again knowing what I know now I would keep the bottom pins from the nanawall and rearrange them in a different order and codecut a key for that configuration to rekey the rest of the house with. That’s a workaround. It shouldn’t be necessary though, using .115″ pins should be an easy thing to design a modern lock cylinder around.

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Bjørn Madsen

I am the Seattle locksmith you've been looking for. High Quality work at a reasonable price delivered in a timely fashion.