Anti-Snap vs Anti-Bump vs Anti-Pick | What to Buy
Snapping, bumping or picking: one of these ends 90% of UK cylinder attacks. Lorraine ranks the real threats so you spend on the right protection first.
Walk into any DIY shed and you'll find lock packaging plastered with security badges. Anti-snap. Anti-bump. Anti-pick. Anti-drill. Some boxes have all four, printed in a font that suggests the cylinder inside has personally repelled a heist. What the packaging won't tell you is how often each attack method actually gets used on real front doors in real streets, or whether two of those features are almost entirely irrelevant to you.
So let's settle it properly, using Office for National Statistics data and the Crime Survey for England and Wales, not a supplier's marketing sheet.
How Burglars Actually Get Through a Cylinder Lock
The 2023 Home Office research into dwelling burglary methods (carried over into the CSEW 2023/24 data) is consistent with what locksmiths have been saying for a decade: snapping is the dominant cylinder attack in the UK. Estimates vary by source, but figures between 80% and 92% of cylinder-based forced-entry attempts using the snap method are routinely cited by Sold Secure and the Master Locksmith Association.
Bumping sits somewhere in low single digits as a share of real-world residential attacks. Picking is lower still.
That doesn't mean bump and pick resistance are worthless. It means you should buy them after you've sorted snap protection, not instead of it.
What Each Attack Actually Is
Snapping
A snap attack exploits the weak point where the cylinder meets the cam inside the lock. A burglar grabs the protruding cylinder with locking pliers, applies rotational force, and the cylinder snaps at that point. The whole process can take under 30 seconds on a standard cylinder. No noise, no mess, no specialist knowledge.
The fix is a cylinder that's designed to sacrifice its outer section cleanly, leaving the internal mechanism intact and the door locked. That's what TS007 3-star and SS312 Diamond test for, among other things.
Bumping
A bump key is a specially cut key for a given key profile. Strike it sharply while applying light turning force and the pins jump momentarily, sometimes long enough to rotate the plug. It's a real technique. It works on cheap cylinders. But it's slow compared to snapping, it requires a key for the right profile, and it leaves marks. Professional burglars in the north-east aren't queuing up to use it on Pennywell semis or Roker terraces.
Picking
Picking requires skill, specific tools, and time. A skilled picker with the right equipment can open many standard cylinders, but the average opportunist burglar is not a skilled picker. High-security cylinders like the Ultion or Mul-T-Lock MT5+ have anti-pick pins, false sets, and tolerances so tight that even experienced locksport hobbyists struggle. Good. But picking is the least common real-world attack by a distance.
The Priority Ranking, in Plain Terms
| Threat | Real-world frequency | Cost to defend against | What to buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snapping | Very high (dominant method) | £40 to £90 for a decent cylinder | TS007 3-star or SS312 Diamond rated cylinder |
| Bumping | Low | Often included in mid-range cylinders | Look for anti-bump pins in spec sheet |
| Picking | Very low | Higher-end cylinders only | Ultion, Mul-T-Lock, Avocet ABS if budget allows |
Anti-snap is not optional. It's the baseline. Everything else is a bonus you're paying for once snap is covered.
What the Standards Actually Test
TS007 is the British Standard for cylinders. A 3-star rating means the cylinder has passed tests for snap resistance, as well as picking, bumping, drilling, and extraction. A 1-star cylinder is the door handle escutcheon. A 3-star cylinder alone, or a 1-star cylinder combined with a 2-star handle, gets you to the full TS007 3-star door standard. Yes, it's a slightly confusing system.
SS312 Diamond is Sold Secure's own grade. It's arguably more demanding than TS007 3-star in some respects. A cylinder with this marking has been physically tested, not just assessed on paper.
BS3621 is the standard for the lock mechanism itself, not the cylinder. If you've got a mortice lock, that's what you're looking at. For a uPVC door with a euro cylinder, TS007 is the one that matters.
PAS24 is a door set standard. It covers the whole door, frame, and lock together. It's what your insurer often wants to see on new doors, and what new-build doors in England should meet under Document Q of the Building Regulations.
Which Cylinder Should You Actually Buy?
For most houses in SR1 to SR6, whether that's a terraced rental in Millfield, a semi in Silksworth, or a flat in the city centre, the answer is a TS007 3-star anti-snap cylinder from a brand whose spec you can actually read.
The cylinders worth specifying, in rough order of what I'd recommend:
- Ultion (Brisant). TS007 3-star, SS312 Diamond, and genuinely tough anti-pick design. Around £55 to £75 supplied and fitted depending on size. Good value for what you get.
- Avocet ABS Ultimate. Long-standing workhorse. TS007 3-star, sold with a decent guarantee. Around £50 to £70 fitted.
- Mul-T-Lock MT5+. Exceptional pick and bump resistance. Pricier, around £80 to £110 fitted. Makes sense on a commercial premises in Washington or a buy-to-let portfolio where key control matters.
- ERA Fortress. Budget-friendly TS007 3-star option. Not as refined as Ultion, but it passes the standard and costs less.
- Yale Platinum. Widely available, TS007 3-star. Fine for most residential applications.
What I wouldn't fit is a non-rated cylinder from a supermarket, regardless of how many words are on the box. A cylinder with no TS007 or SS312 mark that claims to be "anti-snap" has been tested by its own manufacturer under conditions of their choosing. That's not the same thing.
The Exception: When Bump and Pick Do Matter
If you're a landlord with multiple properties across, say, Houghton-le-Spring and Seaham, key control becomes a real concern. Tenants leave, copies get made, and a standard key profile is easy to duplicate. A restricted-profile cylinder like the Mul-T-Lock MT5+ or a Winkhaus keyTec system means keys can only be cut by authorised distributors. In that scenario, the anti-pick and anti-bump properties are secondary to the key control. But snap resistance is still in the spec, because you need all three.
For a homeowner in Ryhope or Fulwell who just wants to know their front door is properly protected: buy a TS007 3-star cylinder, have it fitted correctly so it doesn't protrude more than 3mm from the handle on the outside, and stop worrying about bump attacks.
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If you want to know which cylinder fits your door before you buy, give Locks Local a ring. We cover Sunderland and the SR postcodes and can usually get to you within 30 minutes. Pricing is given honestly on the call, before we come out.
Lorraine Jessop, Security and standards specialist
Lorraine is the one who reads the test reports, and handles the survey work, the insurance questions and anything where the British Standard actually matters. Will happily explain why the number on the box is not the number that counts.
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