Beware cheap door locks - Got locked in the lav.

[Crossy]

2 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

Odours?

 

Keeping them in (dutch oven) or letting them out?

[chickenslegs]

Reminds me of a song we used to sing at school ...

 

Oh, dear, what can the matter be?
Poor old Crossie stuck in the lavatory;
He was there from Sunday till Saturday,
Nobody knew he was there.

 

To the tune of "Johnny's so long at the fair".

[Beggar]

2 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

Odours?

Who cares about odors if there is no one else. Should I sit in the small room with closed doors like in a gas chamber? And with the door open my fan in the bathroom can work more efficiently. 

[saakura]

All the bathroom doors in our house are installed with locks that can be opened from outside, just for such emergencies. The lock has a small horizontal groove into which you can insert a screwdriver or a baht coin and turn it to unlock the door.

[sirineou]

3 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

And flush it down the loo?

 Where most of my writing belongs

[lopburi3]

Older Thai bathroom doors do not have knobs and use simple turn lock on inside and may have indicator on outside (with coin turn to open).  They work well and available - could just remove the locking part of door knobs and still use them to open/close (have done so on bedroom door with automatic closure).

[transam]

Went to go into my downstairs loo to find it was locked. strange, I am home alone. Got my bunch of keys to unlock it, did so but the latch would not move with the handle turned.

 

Hmmm, had to use two thin blades through the door gap to slowly move the latch back. Took a while, found the lock internals were stuffed. If it had happened with me inside, I would have been in trouble..????

[johng]

Years ago my wife  got trapped in a similar way  we had to get to the airport  so  in desperation I used the angle grinder to  hack the door lock off.. 

 

There are a few problems with these locks   firstly the mechanism that hold the lock in place to the door relies on compressing 2 metal disks together..often the door is made of plastic or some other "squidgey" material so after a while  the lock becomes loose,this allows the  latch mechanism to become detached and you're stuck in the toilet !

 

Sometimes the adjustment thread on one metal disk is very poorly made and overnighting/vigorous handle pulling  results in

the plate jumping threads and becoming loose then when you turn the knob the latch mechanism becomes detached and you're stuck in the toilet.

 

The other big problem is rust, as the toilet/bathroom often gets  sprayed down with chemical and water  rust can quickly set in and cause lock malfunction and you're stuck in the toilet again.  ( now I liberally spray grease into all the internal locking mechanism bits before installing the lock )

 

Locks for the bathroom/toilet  are labelled "Privacy"  they don't have keys  and can be opened from the outside in "emergencies"  by turning the slotted button on the outside..where the key slot normally would be.

 

on  a slightly different note the  "entrance" locks that have  a button on the inside  which you press before shutting the door

cause a lot of problems  with "forgotten keys"    it becomes a habit to press the button on the way out without first checking you have your key with you  then  you're locked out of the house !   also in bedrooms  the door will often open in such a way as the door knob  with locking button will hit against a wall and the lock button unknowingly gets pushed then a gust of wind or someone shuts the door  and where are the keys...in the bedroom of course ????

Edited January 6, 2020 by johng

[Jai Dee]

15 hours ago, Rimmer said:

Feed the zip tie around the offending latch though the gap in the door and catch it underneath as it comes out back toward you, clip the tie together so you can get a good grip on it then sharply pull the door and the zip tie together. the latch will click open.

 

That's very similar to the piece of string and a paperclip method.

 

 

[bankruatsteve]

Just went through this.  ha ha

My bathroom door has the hinges on the inside.  You must have something in the bathroom that could be used to pop the hinges, yah?

[alanrchase]

I live on my own and had the same thing happen about a month ago. Went into the spare bathroom to give the toilet its  periodic flush. Fortunately the lock broke after I had exited the bathroom, shut the door then decided to leave the door open. Have got vented plastic doors so probably could have kicked the vents out had I been stuck inside.

[Pattaya46]

On 1/5/2020 at 7:37 PM, saakura said:

All the bathroom doors in our house are installed with locks that can be opened from outside, just for such emergencies. The lock has a small horizontal groove into which you can insert a screwdriver or a baht coin and turn it to unlock the door.

This will not help a lot if you are alone at home or - worse - live alone. 

 

In case of real emergency, I really doubt that a bathroom or toilet door lock will resist to a strong kick. Yes you will probably explode some wood, but you will be free. 

[NightSky]

https://youtu.be/Uw6I_LuriHk

 

 

[lopburi3]

13 minutes ago, Pattaya46 said:

This will not help a lot if you are alone at home or - worse - live alone. 

 

In case of real emergency, I really doubt that a bathroom or toilet door lock will resist to a strong kick. Yes you will probably explode some wood, but you will be free. 

All toilet doors I have seen open inward - kicking is not likely to free any lock = you will have to destroy the door to get out if you can not pull it loose.  Perhaps a good reason to have heavy fire extinguisher inside bathrooms?

[AgMech Cowboy]

Good advise. Glad to know you're free. Thanks for sharing and great job deflecting the bashers. ????

 

I keep tools in my loos; although, I'd have a hell of a time using them on a door knob & lock without my reading glasses.

[bluesofa]

8 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

All toilet doors I have seen open inward - kicking is not likely to free any lock = you will have to destroy the door to get out if you can not pull it loose.  Perhaps a good reason to have heavy fire extinguisher inside bathrooms?

A fire extinguisher is part of my personal equipment I have on me anyway.

[bluesofa]

6 minutes ago, AgMech Cowboy said:

Good advise. Glad to know you're free. Thanks for sharing and great job deflecting the bashers. ????

 

I keep tools in my loos; although, I'd have a hell of a time using them on a door knob & lock without my reading glasses.

A good opportunity to learn braille.

[Tropposurfer]

What a shi.ty experience ...

[MadMuhammad]

On 1/5/2020 at 4:36 PM, Beggar said:

I never close the door if I am alone at home. For what reason should I close it? 

I don’t close it when my gf is here lol

[Dumbastheycome]

My sympathy for the experience. I once had to liberate a sister in law due to same failure. She  became hysterical and trying to get her to even listen let alone  understand what  to do with a  knife I passed under the door was impossible. The frantic solution was  to find tools to  dismantle the handle from the outside  before she smashed  her way through  the door while I was doing so. ????

[sometimewoodworker]

3 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

All toilet doors I have seen open inward - kicking is not likely to free any lock = you will have to destroy the door to get out if you can not pull it loose.  Perhaps a good reason to have heavy fire extinguisher inside bathrooms?

I didn’t realise that we were so prescient that we had designed our toilet/shower areas with escape in mind so even a moderately active person couldn’t get trapped, this is a view from the throne ???? 

We just wanted a room with a view as SWMBO does like to take her time.

[KKr]

On 1/5/2020 at 3:58 PM, Crossy said:

How would you escape in similar circumstances?

not only in Thailand, in Middle East one of the people on call center single person Friday duty got locked in similarly. Not Funny at all. 
when security did their rounds an hour or two later they got him out.

so, common sense rules, and a compulsory requirement in some countries by the way::
Washroom doors open to the outside.
1) person inside can kick the door out when tired of waiting.
2) if someone is unwell inside the washroom, a first aid provider can open the door.

[hugh2121]

Oh dear what can the matter be?

Not there from Monday to Saturday then.

[manchega]

luckily for me the toilets in our house are made of weak material, it did happen in an updoor toilet my foot went through and it could be opened with tools after

[natway09]

Funny subject I know, but did you know that dunnies are a very popular place to have heart attacks.

That is why there was a big push (excuse the pun) to have loo doors open out.

A big man inside who has fallen on the door makes it all but impossible to get too quickly

[Pattaya46]

11 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

All toilet doors I have seen open inward - kicking is not likely to free any lock = you will have to destroy the door to get out if you can not pull it loose.  Perhaps a good reason to have heavy fire extinguisher inside bathrooms?

Every safety rules explicitly insist that all small rooms (toilet, bathroom,...) must have their door opening outward !

If someone were to faint inside, you couldn't open a door opening inward !

 

Edit: Should have refresh the page. Several members already talked about that... But good to see that some people know about these rules.

Edited January 7, 2020 by Pattaya46

[rosst]

Hmmm maybe a good reason to take the phone to the loo? 

[jastheace]

17 minutes ago, rosst said:

Hmmm maybe a good reason to take the phone to the loo? 

gone are the days of taking a book or the daily newspaper to peruse. 'phone is the object of choice now i'm sure. you?

[elgenon]

I got locked out of the loo. Closed the loo door and it locked. Took a while to find something to fit into the hole. Luckily could hold my water in the meantime. At least you could pee. 555

[tjo o tjim]

I have had several doors that jam locked because there is an eccentric force on the latch tongue.  Often lifting straight up, pushing closed, or pulling the handle towards the hinge in the plane of the door will loosen things up enough that you can operate the handle. If you have plastic doors then it is even easier to temporarily deform the door to force it open.