Phoenix Gate Lock Installation
Gate Lock Service for the Phoenix Valley
Keyed, keyless, and electronic gate locks for homes, businesses, HOAs, and pool gates
Gate Lock Installation and Repair in Phoenix
ACME Locksmith installs and repairs gate locks across the Phoenix metro for homeowners, HOAs, and businesses. Keyless gate locks are one of our most requested installs. We are a licensed, veteran-owned company (ROC #271563), in business since 1997, with four valley shops and more than 170,000 jobs completed. We install keyed locks, mechanical keypad locks, and electronic PIN and fob systems for side gates and commercial entries. We install pool gate locks with gate closers that meet Arizona pool code. We repair gate locks when they fail or the gate stops latching.
Four Ways to Lock a Gate
Padlock, keyed, keyless, or electronic, matched to your gate and to who needs in.
Padlock
The cheapest way to lock a gate? A padlock. We key padlocks to your house key, and we can master key the padlock so your house key opens the lock, you have one key, but the yard crew gets a separate key to open the gate.
Keyed gate locks
Deadbolts and lever locks with a gate latch, keyed to match your house or business key so one key runs everything or master keyed. Most gates need a mounting plate or frame work to accept them.
Mechanical keypad
Push-button codes with no power, no wiring, and no keys. The most affordable keyless option, often no-weld, single or double sided, with lifetime mechanical warranties on many models.
Electronic PIN and fob
Codes or fobs with multiple users, audit trails, scheduling, and remote management. Ideal for HOAs and businesses, though the gate almost always needs a welded gate box. Don’t put a home smart lock on a gate without proper protection.
How Do I Lock My Gate and Still Let the Landscaper In?
You want the side gate locked, but the pool guy, the landscaper, and the bug guy all need to get back there, and they come when nobody is home. But you don’t want two keys (one for the house and one for the gate).
ACME Locksmith will master key gate locks to solve that problem. We install padlocks or door locks on the gate and master key them to open from two separate keys.
Your house key opens the gate for you; the landscaper, bug guy or pool guy get a separate key that opens the lock as well, but not your home. When a crew changes or a key goes missing, we rekey the lock and your house key stays exactly the same.
The ABUS padlocks we recommend make ideal gate locks, and we key them to any house or business key.
Keyed Gate Locks Using Door Locks
ACME Locksmith installs standard door hardware, deadbolts or knobs, on community and side gates. Unless the gate already has a gate box, we have to install one to support the hardware. On common Arizona side gates that makes door locks cost prohibitive, because modifying the gate to support the lock is often more expensive than just buying a new gate.
Gate deadbolts aren’t off-the-shelf deadbolts. They don’t use the same latch a door deadbolt uses. They use a gate latch, and the bolt on it is angled and spring loaded like a doorknob latch is. The gate swings shut, the latch rides over the strike, and the gate locks itself automatically.
Keyed door locks are the right call when you want one key for everything, you don’t want to manage codes, and you don’t want to reach over the gate to unlock a padlock.
Locks for Gates From Both Sides
Almost every side gate in the Valley is built the same way. An aluminum or metal tube frame with wood slats set in between. It looks good and it survives the sun. It’s also what makes these gates hard to put a lock on.
The tube frame is thin. There’s nothing solid to bore through, and welding a gate box onto tubing divided by wood slats takes quite a bit of modification.
The low cost answer is a mechanical keypad made to mount right on the edge of the gate frame. No power, no wiring, no gate box, and no key. Double sided models put a keypad on both faces, so the gate locks and unlocks from both sides. You punch a code in from the street side and punch out from the yard side. This is what ACME Locksmith installs on most Phoenix side gates, and it’s the cheapest way to get a lock on both sides.
The other way costs more. We weld a gate box onto the frame and fit a keyed deadbolt with a thumb turn or a second cylinder on the inside. That gets you both sides on your house key. The weld and the fabrication are what drive the price, and it’s the right answer on a heavy gate, a commercial property, or an HOA gate that gets abused.
Keyless Gate Locks Are Our Specialty
Keyless locks are more convenient and more secure than keyed gates. You enter a PIN instead of hunting for a key, the gate can auto-lock when it closes, and codes change in seconds. There are three kinds: mechanical keypads that need no power, low-voltage wired locks, and battery-powered wireless code locks. For most homes and any property with fewer than four gates and infrequent code changes, an affordable mechanical keypad is the right call.
One warning we give constantly: don’t put a home smart lock on a gate. Residential smart locks fail on gates, unless you take proper precautions, because only one side is weather resistant.
Mechanical vs Electronic Keyless: Which One
Mechanical keypad locks are the most affordable, many carry lifetime mechanical warranties, and several mount to a 1-inch or wider post with no welding. The trade-off is a single shared code that takes some disassembly to change, and no remote monitoring. For a typical Phoenix side gate, this is the best keyless lock you can put on.
Electronic keypad locks add everything mechanical locks can’t do: multiple user codes, frequent code changes, scheduling, and a log of who entered and when. They suit communities and busy commercial gates and run up to 100,000 cycles per battery set. The catch is cost, and the frame almost always needs a welded gate box to mount the lock.
What It Takes to Install a Keyless Gate Lock
A gate box
Locks with a standard door bore need a metal gate box welded on the gate to mount the lock to. ACME Locksmith can fabricate and weld these when the lock can’t mount to the post.
Post width
Many gate locks mount straight to the post if the post is thick enough. A 1-inch post fits our favorite mechanical lock; the heavy-duty Lockey GL2 needs about 1.5 inches. Our new favorite gate lock (shown here in our YouTube video), makes use of the wooden slats in the gate for mounting.
Bridging the gap
The lock has to cross the gap between the swing post and the fixed post. On older gates that gap is too wide. We adjust gates to swing correctly so they latch automatically.
A gate closer
To auto-lock on close (required by pool code) the gate needs a closer that swings it shut and latches it. We install no-weld closers like the Kant Slam.
Pass-through barrier
If someone can reach over or through the gate to the lock, we add a double-sided keypad where egress code allows, or a barrier so the inside release can’t be reached.
The lock itself may be inexpensive, but the labor to make a gate accept it is where the real cost lives. We tell you up front what your specific gate needs.
Locking a Chain Link Gate
Chain link gates are the hardest to lock. You can’t weld to galvanized metal, the gaps are wide, and the gate never closes the same way twice, so self-latching is tricky. The simplest fix is a strong combination padlock like the Abus 190cs/60, or a padlock ACME Locksmith keys to match your house key, often with a heavier chain or a longer shackle.
For keyless on chain link, the Lockey GB2900 gate box bolts on with no welding and accepts a mechanical keypad lock, with the 2985 adding self-latching. A MagnaLatch is a great keyed, child-safe option on shorter pool gates. It works if the rail is 1 5/8 to 1 7/8 inches and the gap can be closed to under half an inch.
Pool Gates and Arizona Code
Arizona requires pool gates to be self-closing and self-latching, so a pool lock has to latch on its own every time. We install and adjust residential spring closers and commercial pneumatic closers so the gate shuts and latches without slamming.
Even when we install a manual keypad deadbolt that you throw by hand, we leave the top auto-latch in place for safety, so the gate still latches if someone forgets to lock it. Our guide on Arizona pool code covers the rules in detail.
Serving the Phoenix Valley
We serve the entire Phoenix Valley from four shops: Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, and Gilbert, with mobile service across the metro.
What Phoenix Homeowners and HOAs Say
- We needed a lock to be installed for our side gate. After researching many locksmiths, we decided to work with ACME Locksmith. We watched an online side gate lock installation video posted by the owner Robert and knew this was exactly what … More
- I needed a replacement locking mechanism for a small "security gate" outside my front door. I first tried calling one of the companies on Angies List with more reviews overall, but they weren't able to locate the locking … More mechanism I needed.
- Our animal shelter had an issue with our lock mechanism on our gate and I called Acme Locksmith of Scottsdale for repair. They gave a reasonable amount of time for their response. Mike showed up on time and was extremely knowledgeable about … More
Need a Gate Lock in Phoenix?
Keyed, keyless, electronic, chain link, or pool gates. Call or schedule today.
