Burglar Alarm vs Locks Priority | Spend in the Right Order
Alarms react to a break-in. Locks prevent one. Here's the sensible spending order for Crawley homes before you sign an alarm contract.
The burglar alarm industry has convinced most homeowners to buy the second line of defence before the first. That's not cynicism, it's just what the sales model rewards.
An alarm doesn't stop a burglar opening your door. It makes a noise after they've already opened it. A decent cylinder and a properly specified lock, on the other hand, can make entry so slow and loud that the attempt gets abandoned entirely. These are not equivalent products doing the same job at different price points. One is prevention. One is reaction. The industry sells the reaction first because it comes with a £25-a-month monitoring contract attached.
What an alarm actually does
A monitored alarm, correctly installed, will alert a response centre when a sensor triggers. The average police response to a residential alarm in West Sussex is not instant. In many cases it's over 20 minutes, and that's assuming the call gets a graded response at all. A burglar who forces a weak uPVC door in Broadfield or Bewbush is typically in and out in under four minutes. The alarm confirms the burglary happened. It doesn't undo it.
That's not nothing. Alarms do deter some opportunists at the decision stage, when they're sizing up the outside of a property. A visible bell box has value. I'm not arguing against alarms. I'm arguing against buying one as your first security spend.
Where the money does more work
A standard uPVC door in Crawley, especially anything built before 2015 on estates like Tilgate, Three Bridges or Pound Hill, almost certainly has a single-star or unrated euro cylinder. Those snap in about 20 seconds with a tool you can buy for a tenner. The lock itself might be a basic BS3621 nightlatch or a multipoint with a cylinder that offers no snap resistance whatsoever.
Upgrading that cylinder to a TS007 3-star rating, or fitting an Ultion, Avocet ABS, or Mul-T-Lock MT5+ costs between £60 and £120 for parts and fitting. A Sold Secure Diamond-rated cylinder sits at the top end of that range. It's a one-off cost. No contract. No monthly fee. And it closes the most common attack vector used against homes in RH10 and RH11 right now.
Here's a rough comparison:
| Spend | What you get | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| TS007 3-star cylinder upgrade | Snap, pick and bump resistance, BS tested | £0 after fitting |
| SS312 Diamond cylinder (e.g. Ultion) | Same plus manufacturer's guarantee against forced entry | £0 after fitting |
| Budget alarm, self-monitored | Noise on breach, app alert | £0 to £5 |
| Monitored alarm with contract | Response centre, possibly police URN | £15 to £40/month |
The cylinder upgrade wins on pure prevention. The monitored alarm costs more over five years than most people's entire door hardware.
The obvious objection
Someone will say: what about windows, back doors, sheds? An alarm covers all of it. A cylinder upgrade only fixes the front door.
True. And if you have a vulnerable back door or a conservatory with a weak lock, those need attention too. A Maco or Fuhr multipoint on the back door, a Winkhaus or GU mechanism on the French doors, proper hinge bolts, a decent padlock on the side gate. None of that is glamorous. All of it closes real attack routes before an alarm ever needs to trigger.
Do that first. Then add the alarm if you want the deterrence value or the insurance discount.
The fair caveat
If your physical security is already sorted, a monitored alarm is a genuinely sensible layer. Some insurers in the RH10 to RH12 postcode area will reduce premiums meaningfully for a Nacoss-approved system, which can offset part of the contract cost. And for a landlord managing a property in Maidenbower or Ifield from a distance, remote notification has real practical value. None of that changes the order. Lock first. Alarm second.
The sensible sequence: upgrade your cylinders, check your multipoint mechanisms are engaging fully, fix any door that drops or drags, then decide whether a monitored alarm earns its monthly fee on top of that.
If you're not sure what your front door cylinder is rated, we cover Crawley and the RH postcodes with an average arrival under 30 minutes where possible. A quick call to Rapid Response gets you honest pricing before we come out, no obligation.
Priya Nair, Security and standards specialist
Priya is the one who reads the test reports. She handles the survey work, the insurance questions and anything where the British Standard actually matters, and she will happily explain why the number on the box is not the number that counts.
Need a locksmith in Crawley?
We answer the phone day or night. Quote on the call, fixed at the door.
01293 229085