Reddit reviews Defender Security U 10385 Prime Line Door Strike, for Use with 5-1/2 in and 6 in Hole Spacing's On Dead Latch and Deadbolt, Steel, Satin Nickel

Perimeter hardening is often the most effective use of funds when starting out with home defense. By making it harder to get in, you will deter some criminals and give yourself additional warning time for those who continue their attempt to enter.

The most common point of forced entry is through an exterior door. Residential doors are often only held in by a dead bolt and strike plate that has 1/2 inch screws that only sinks into the soft wood of the door's trim. It's trivial for most people to kick in this door and fracture the wood trim and allow the door to swing open. To combat this, get a Door Jamb Reinforcement kit (other kits available at hardware stores, more expensive kits available that provide more protection). This kit consists of a metal plate and 3 inch screws that will distribute the force and sink into the strong wooden studs beyond your door frame, making it much stronger. Get some 3 inch screws to replace your hinge screws, which typically have the same 1/2 inch screws holding it to your door frame.

Other devices are available to help prevent forced entry while you are home. These should be used in addition to a deadbolt and door jamb reinforcement hardware:

• Adjustable security bar
  
• Reinforcement lock
  
• Sliding Door Lock
  
• Wooden dowel placed in the floor track of a sliding door or in a window to prevent it from opening
  
• Hinge Security Pins
  
  If you are concerned about lock attacks (bumping, picking), consider a high end deadbolt from a manufacturer like Abloy or Medeco from Security Snobs. These locks do not have the same vulnerabilities as typical pin and tumbler keyways found in most residential deadbolts. In addition, the key blanks are restricted, which means that they can't easily duplicate your key at a shop or create one from a blank.
  
  The second most common point of entry is through a first story window. Window security film can be installed by a professional or by the homeowner to increase the amount of time it takes to break through a window.
  
  If you have a side or back yard gate, remember to lock it.
  
  Trim down any large bushes or shrubs that conceal windows or entries. Burglars could use these areas to hide while they break in or wait for you to leave. These should be no higher than knee or waist level. If you want to have large bushes, consider one with thorns that would make it difficult to hide near.
  
  If you have the budget, get a monitored alarm. Either professionally installed (ADT, etc.) or self installed (SimpliSafe, Scout, Abode, etc.)
  
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>I hate guns

This is a response that a lot of people have who didn't grow up around guns. However, don't let that emotional response affect your safety. If you're open minded in having the best self defense tool available, go take a gun safety course. Preferably one that includes live fire after classroom instruction. This will demystify firearms, which for most people, removes the fear of them. After this, you should still have a healthy respect for them and what they can do. To keep them inaccessible to your children, get a quick access safe.

Whether or not you get a gun, here's some other things you can do:

• Door Jamb reinforcement kit. These cost between $8 and $70 depending on how heavy duty you want to go, but they will make your door many times stronger than it is currently. Here's a basic one: https://www.amazon.com/Prime-Line-10385-Strike-Accommodates-Centers/dp/B00D2K33NG/ - this comes with 3 inch screws to anchor into your studs behind your door frame.
  
• Replace hinge screws with 3 inch screws. If you have the door jamb reinforcement kit, you should do this too to take care of the hinges which may still be vulnerable to kick ins.
  
• Additional door security: https://www.amazon.com/Defender-Security-11126-Door-Reinforcement/dp/B00QR2QCJI - these will make it harder to break in while you're home.
  
• Additional door security: https://www.amazon.com/South-Main-Hardware-810185-Adjustable/dp/B0742TN5X6 - another thing to keep your door closed.
  
• If you have a window near your door that could be broken to unlock the door, consider window security film, which will make it harder to break.
  
• Get a monitored alarm system. Either professional install (ADT, etc.) or one that you install yourself (SimpliSafe, Abode, Scout, etc.). Typically the ones you install yourself do not come with contracts, but you have to buy the equipment up front.
  
• Security cameras can get expensive, and they can't stop a crime in progress, although they may be a deterrent if a would-be burglar sees them. I would skip this until your budget increases. The money you would have spent on that will go further with the other suggestions mentioned.
  
• That being said, a doorbell camera (Ring, Skybell) can be a great tool for when you're not home. Some burglars will knock or ring the doorbell to determine if the house is empty (they would rather break into an empty house). If you have a doorbell camera, you can respond to them when they knock or ring, making them think that you are actually home which is likely to make them leave.

You need to harden up your home and business first. Alarms and cameras are only good for after they stole everything. Alarms to let you know that you've been robbed so you can get pissed off that you've been robbed and cameras to maybe see what they look like, but will not be caught.

Put longer screws into the door strikers. Get something like this for the door.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D2K3IPE/

and a door striker like this.

https://www.amazon.com/Prime-Line-Products-10385-Accommodates-Centers/dp/B00D2K33NG/

For your home, while your sleeping, I would get something like this.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007Y7PVLK/

Have they been breaking in one particular way? If so, maybe we could help prepare for their preferred way.

I always highly recommend hardening your home. It helps that you are in the second floor, that means they are less likely to target your windows (unless there is access to your windows). So, let's focus on the door. Doors (and their frames) are often quite vulnerable.

If your door doesn't have a deadbolt, get one and use it! A deadbolt is much, much stronger than the lock on the knob, but it doesn't do anything for you if you don't lock the deadbolt. It is slightly less convenient because you have to use a key to lock it when you leave, but the extra security far outweighs the slight inconvenience. Use your deadbolt.

You may be limited in what the landlord allows you to do, but I'd suggest you do some version of the following to reinforce the door. You can get a door reinforcement kit like this or this (I've sometimes seen the prime-line kit for sale at HD or Lowes for more like $25). These will reinforce the weak door frame and make it much harder to kick in the door. If that is too big of a change, maybe you'd be allowed to replace the strike plate with one like this. That would be a good step up from a standard strike plate. If you aren't allowed to do any of those, at a minimum you should replace the short screws that your strike plate and hinges likely have now, with longer screws (3-4 inch screws are good). The longer screws will anchor the strike plate not only to the weak door frame, but to the strong 2x4 structure behind the frame too. Also a few of those long screws on the hinge side of the door; stock hinge screws are often too short for good security too.

Reinforcing the door will make it much harder to kick in, so they will probably move on to a softer target. It would also take longer and make more noise, giving you more time to call for help, arm yourself, or escape.

If their preferred method is not to kick in the door, but to attack the lock (using a bump key or lock picks), I'd suggest switching to a high security lock like a medeco or assa/abloy. If you can't afford that, then a lock that uses a non-standard key would at least help some. Kwikset KW1 and Schlage SC1 are the most common keys, so those would be the most common bump keys carried by thieves. Getting a lock that doesn't use either of those would at least make them less likely to have the proper key handy.

What I wrote above can help keep people out; that is most important in my opinion. After that, some sort of alarm may make an intruder want to leave more quickly, or also give you extra warning.

Edit: I just wanted to add that many companies use the KW1 and SC1 keys, not just kwikset and schlage. So if you want a less common key, you have to do your due diligence to know what key it uses. For example, I think Baldwin uses either a KW1 or SC1; also, i think Defiant uses a KW1. And definitely avoid anything that uses Kwikset's "Smart Key". The Smart Key locks are just weak junk.

Since the neighbor has suggested he'll get physically violent, I would also suggest reinforcing the door knobs and strikes. Relatively cheap, easy to install, and will buy you very precious time if the neighbor decides to start kicking the door down.

That's so the tenant doesn't complain about not having their preferred type of lock (usually bar/chain, knob, and dead bolt), not because it makes the door significantly more secure.

If you want a really secure door you need to reinforce the area around the door knob + deadbolt and use one of the long striker plate + dead bolt plates that screws throughout a significant portion of the door jamb. More locks doesn't help significantly.

Something like this https://www.amazon.com/Door-Armor-MAX-Complete-Reinforcement/dp/B00E9ZGWNQ/ref=pd_sbs_60_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01GWF2R70&pd_rd_r=BHA3GZQRWHZETC04GYK9&pd_rd_w=XrLDN&pd_rd_wg=v3WH3&refRID=BHA3GZQRWHZETC04GYK9&th=1 and this https://www.amazon.com/Prime-Line-Products-10539-Reinforcer-Stainless/dp/B006GDULOK/ref=pd_sbs_60_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B006GDULOK&pd_rd_r=BHA3GZQRWHZETC04GYK9&pd_rd_w=XrLDN&pd_rd_wg=v3WH3&psc=1&refRID=BHA3GZQRWHZETC04GYK9&tag=electronicfro-20&dpID=31nHV6bQZ9L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=detail .

or if you're not wanting to spend quite that much https://www.amazon.com/Prime-Line-10385-Strike-Accommodates-Centers/dp/B00D2K33NG/ref=pd_sbs_60_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00D2K33NG&pd_rd_r=V5PE4T17CV9YT4814EJT&pd_rd_w=jqrLM&pd_rd_wg=96nb6&psc=1&refRID=V5PE4T17CV9YT4814EJT&tag=electronicfro-20&dpID=31AjDUX1GIL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=detail and https://www.amazon.com/Prime-Line-Products-10539-Reinforcer-Stainless/dp/B006GDULOK/ref=pd_sbs_60_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B006GDULOK&pd_rd_r=BHA3GZQRWHZETC04GYK9&pd_rd_w=XrLDN&pd_rd_wg=v3WH3&psc=1&refRID=BHA3GZQRWHZETC04GYK9&tag=electronicfro-20&dpID=31nHV6bQZ9L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=detail

If you have a solid door you can make it prohibitive to break just with the longer striker plate and screws that reach deep into the 2x4s on the other side of the jamb.

This is incorrect. Most deadbolts in homes go into trim and little else and burglars are well aware of this (and kick them in with ease). Front doors are the most common entry point for burglaries. It's also why installing one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Prime-Line-Products-10385-Accommodates-Centers/dp/B00D2K33NG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1485109062&sr=8-2&keywords=security+strike+plate with LONG screws that go into the 2x4's is one of the best security investments any homeowner can make.

I bought two of these for my house to solve your exact problem.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D2K33NG/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pretty sure reinforced catch/strikeplate. It's a step up from just a strike plate (decorative), and a step down from a high end reinforced strike plate.