Classic Portable Door Lock Red

My son is autistic, non-verval, and elopes from safe spaces. I have spent years not being able to travel with him because he's outgrown baby locks that might be handy and not damaging for use in a hotel but I can't go to sleep because he's likely to just leave by himself while I'm sleeping. Special needs parents know that that's the nightmare that really keeps us up at night. Suddenly I had an idea that maybe I can use this lock on a hotel door as instructed but add a small zip tie between the smallest hole in the silver plate and the handle of the red wedge. This weekend we went on a family trip and stayed in a hotel. I brought a little kit with this lock, a few small zip ties, and scissors to snip the zip tie to remove. It worked like a charm. I set it up the way I described and tried my best to open the door from the inside like he might. I couldn't do it. I actually slept and my son slept and had a great time. Seeing him be safe and still included in what everyone else is doing made me want to cry. It just really meant a lot to me. If you have eloper in your life, you should have one of these around for travel/and or emergencies like staying with a relative unexpectedly during a home emergency. It's a pretty affordable peace of mind.

Needed if you live alone

This is a clever little device. I have no idea of the amount of pressure/impact it might withstand, but at the very least it looks as if it offers greater security than the traditional chain slide-lock...which won't hold up against a single, healthy kick.However, as other reviews have noted, pay attention to the face plate of the unit and determine if it will work for your needs. I didn't do that. I travel a fair amount and it was the small size and the word "portable" in the description that had me click "Add to Cart." But...I've taken it with me to two hotels since I purchased it 10 days ago, and I couldn't use it in either of them. I never paid much attention, but I believe the issue is with doors that have both an interior-activated lock AND the typical keycard lock. These represent two distinct bolts that are situated right next to each other. Ergo, this single-bolt security device won't work. I'll inspect the doors on the next hotels I stay at, but for now the AceMining Portable Door Lock won't be traveling with me.

White hat hacker approved

I think, from personal experience, that this type of portable door lock has a dangerous design and can easily trap you by not letting you open the door once you have used it. In short, the design does not consider that most spring latches weaken with age, and the latch does not fully retract to the edge of the door. The 1/16" or 1/8" part of the latch still sticking out gets behind the metal of the portable door lock and you are trapped.I tried out this portable door lock inside my bathroom at home. The flat metal part slipped easily enough through to the strikeplate.But the tool would not come out, and I was trapped in my bathroom! No one home. No phone on me. The window too small to crawl out of, and besides, the entry doors were all locked and I did not have a key on me.But I did happen to have a pocket multi-tool on me, a Leatherman Skeletor, and eventually thought to use it to remove the screws holding the lock to the door and removed the inside lock handle and pushed the outside lever to the floor. The door still would not open.The immediate problem was that the door strike latch spring mechanism would not retract the latch enough, using my multi-tool flat tip screwdriver bit to turn the latch back. I had to use the pliers part of the multi-tool to destroy the mechanism enough so I could force the latch back enough to escape.Free at last, I found out the problem and why this product and others like it are so dangerous. In a house with wood doors, the latch mechanism spring eventually weakens, and the latch does not fully retract to flush with the edge of the door. In my case, the latch still stuck out about 1/8" inch or so, which did not effect the door from opening, as there is a gap between the door and the door frame/buck.But with this portable door lock metal inserted, it took up enough space so that 1/16" of my latch was stuck behind that metal insert, and that is why I was trapped inside.I think this type of portable door lock is dangerous. Maybe a commercially installed steel door with a commercial spring latch would be OK, but I would not trust it at all. You'd have to measure the door gap and check if the spring latch fully retracts into the door edge first, if you happen to travel with a micrometer and feeler gauges.And on a wood door, it swells a bit as the humidity changes, so this portable door lock might just work when you check in, but might not let you check out if the door swelled a bit, say after a hot shower or during a rainstorm.Dangerous Design! Once trapped inside like I was, the only way out besides busting the door (which is hard to do anyway when you are inside an inside-opening door, and doors are expensive), is to not only remove the lock (which usually has to start from the inside of the door) but to then bend and break the strike latch mechanism so you can physically force the latch all the way back and flush or inside the door edge. Then you need to buy a new spring latch and install it.I just now went and looked at all 10 doors in my house, and on 8 on them, including one steel exterior door, the spring latch does not fully retract to the edge of the door or within it. All of these doors and spring latches are only about ten years old, and none ever failed to open before.

Unfortunately I didn’t want to make the trip to return this single small item but it doesn’t fit our door. I just assumed all locks were pretty standard size but I guess they aren’t? Anyways I think we’ll keep for hotel trips etc but can’t use in our house so advise you measure or check against your lock somehow first!

I must say this gadget really does work. I take it everytime I travel which provides added security, and the size is small, so no issue there, very light weight, VERY easy to install

Performed as expected