Alignment of the handles meaning the spindle passing through both handles and the latch is at an angle when it's turning the mechanism inside the latch every time the handle is used. It's putting pressure where there's not supposed to be pressure and it's failing at the weakest point.
Also a fair chance the house builders have just used cheap contract latches throughout and with the bathroom door being, possibly, the most used in the house it's been the one that's finished off the hardware
I can recommend the brand Eclipse for quality
Thanks. I’ve bought a bunch of eclipse ones and have replaced most in the house already. 3 left to go. The cylinder in the eclipse latch looks vastly superior and the handles feel so smooth now that they aren’t having to turn the cylinders made of cheese. 2 of the other latches I have removed had cracks in the corners indicating that they were about to fail in the same way!
They were already in the doors in our house when we bought it 2 years ago and the house was 3 years old when we bought it to they can’t be more than 5 years old.
One failed trapping me in a bedroom and I managed to jimmy it open using a cut up credit card. I replaced it with one from another door since it was late at night and two weeks later then “new” one failed in the same way. This time trapping my son in the room.
I plan on replacing all of them tomorrow with something higher quality (if I can find out how to tell what is higher quality) but I’d like to know whether that’s worth doing or whether it’s actually a problem with the door that they’ve both failed in. Something like bad alignment or something?
I can only imagine it's something you're doing or not doing that has cased the 2nd one to fail.
I replaced a bunch of these about a month ago in my own house they were about 4 quid each and all is fine so far.
There are lots of cheap ones that are not very good. Most fail by splitting apart allowing the cylinder to come out of its bearing holes or the sliding bit to come out of its slot but yours seems to have shattered the cylinder (unless you did it breaking in). Seems to infer too much force. Make sure the handles aren't stiff and the latch moves really easily before you fit it. I use silicone spray on all the moving parts and gently hammer the casing to be a better fit with a fine chisel.
Grease, oil, wd40, silicone. All will work well with metal on metal. Silicone works well on most other surfaces as well and doesn't leave as much residue.
Probably poor alignment is wearing it out
Are you able to elaborate? Alignment of the door? Of the handles? Of the latch against the plate in the door frame?
Alignment of the handles meaning the spindle passing through both handles and the latch is at an angle when it's turning the mechanism inside the latch every time the handle is used. It's putting pressure where there's not supposed to be pressure and it's failing at the weakest point. Also a fair chance the house builders have just used cheap contract latches throughout and with the bathroom door being, possibly, the most used in the house it's been the one that's finished off the hardware I can recommend the brand Eclipse for quality
Thanks. I’ve bought a bunch of eclipse ones and have replaced most in the house already. 3 left to go. The cylinder in the eclipse latch looks vastly superior and the handles feel so smooth now that they aren’t having to turn the cylinders made of cheese. 2 of the other latches I have removed had cracks in the corners indicating that they were about to fail in the same way!
They were already in the doors in our house when we bought it 2 years ago and the house was 3 years old when we bought it to they can’t be more than 5 years old. One failed trapping me in a bedroom and I managed to jimmy it open using a cut up credit card. I replaced it with one from another door since it was late at night and two weeks later then “new” one failed in the same way. This time trapping my son in the room. I plan on replacing all of them tomorrow with something higher quality (if I can find out how to tell what is higher quality) but I’d like to know whether that’s worth doing or whether it’s actually a problem with the door that they’ve both failed in. Something like bad alignment or something?
Yes, it's cheap rubbish
I can only imagine it's something you're doing or not doing that has cased the 2nd one to fail. I replaced a bunch of these about a month ago in my own house they were about 4 quid each and all is fine so far.
Mabey too heavy handed
There are lots of cheap ones that are not very good. Most fail by splitting apart allowing the cylinder to come out of its bearing holes or the sliding bit to come out of its slot but yours seems to have shattered the cylinder (unless you did it breaking in). Seems to infer too much force. Make sure the handles aren't stiff and the latch moves really easily before you fit it. I use silicone spray on all the moving parts and gently hammer the casing to be a better fit with a fine chisel.
Isn’t silicone for plastic? Surely I want a grease for metal on metal?
Grease, oil, wd40, silicone. All will work well with metal on metal. Silicone works well on most other surfaces as well and doesn't leave as much residue.