I just installed three U-Bolt Pro WiFi deadbolts. My front door has a Baldwin Mortise lock, so I can’t put a smart lock on that door.
The front door Mortise lock uses a key that matches the Schlage standard key blank. I tried the front door key in the U-Bolt locks and it has the same profile.
So I took all the locks out and removed the lock cylinders by unscrewing the two screws that secure the cylinder in the outer control box and took it to my local locksmith.
It is possible to key these locks to use the same key regular locks that use the Schlage blank… but don’t try it in an automatic key shaper. Utec has used the same profile as the standard Schlage key blank, but they have made the key longer so that it is proprietary.
But a locksmith may be able to set the pins so that your standard key still activates pins even though the throw of a standard key is shorter than the Utec key. A machine can’t do it, but a locksmith may be able to if your key doesn need the shortest pin in the number 1 position (tip of the key).
I find it very strange that Utec would make any part of the mechanical lock “proprietary”. They are selling smart locks and buy the cylinders from Schlage. They don’t care about the mechanical lock. In fact, it is in their interest to make it easy for you to rekey their lock to match the mechanical locks in the rest of your doors.
When I got my lock I thought the easiest way to make my lock match the other locks in my house would be to swap the Schlage cylinder from the deadbolt I was removing with the Utec cylinder. When I looked I could see they were not the same, so I did some research and discovered that Schlage sells tons of different cylinders, so I expect Utec just selected a cylinder that is not the same as those that are common in the Schlage locks we buy here.
At that point I realized that I would only be using the key in rare emergencies (I can easily enter through another door), so why bother finding a cylinder that takes the same key as the rest of my locks.
My mistake- my Lock smith said it was proprietary and showed me how it differs from my regular key- which it turns out is that standard Schlage A-B blank. The shaft of the U- Bolt keys are longer. I repeated what the locksmith said.
In fact the U-Bolt keys are Schlage type C. Less common, but a standard.
The takeaway is this- you won’t be able to re-key these locks yourself and you are unlikely to get lucky if you try to make duplicate keys in an automated key duplicating machine.
In my case, my front door mortise lock used the common Schlage type B key blank and the pins in the 1 position were long- so the locksmith was able to re-key all three of my bolts to match the key to my mortise lock in spite of they keyway being deeper in the U-bolt locks.
We have 2 U-Bolt + bridges, a U-Bolt Pro Wi-Fi, a U-Bolt Fingerprint, and a Latch 5 on our home. U-tec changed cylinders starting with the U-Bolt Pro series, as we were able to get copies of keys made for the U-Bolts at a Lowe’s hardware store.
The simple fix is simply grind off some of the shoulder so the key will slip past the raised edge on the lock. I had some keys made by machine at the hardware store then carefully cut the shoulders to match the original and all the keys worked fine.
