We did not expect this! Locksmithing Tips and Tricks -Key Hinders vs. Car Wash

It is such a beautiful day out today to experiment with some Hide A Keys. Hide A Keys are super popular, they're found everywhere, and it's always been popular locksmithing upsell, but the question is, 'Where's the best place to hide them, and which ones hold up better?' The Hide A Keys that I have with me today is the Velcro Key Hider by Pro-Lok. This super-big piece of Velcro on the back and adhesive you would use to stick to your vehicle. A lot of newer cars and vehicles don't have a lot of plastic available on the underside. This is an excellent option for it. The next one is a PEEBEE, it's the medium Hide A Key, and it has a nice, giant, one-strong magnet on the back. And then I got these two jumbos or extra-large key hiders that both have these two massive, powerful magnets on the back. So what we'll do here is I grabbed a bunch of Y159 keys that will represent an emergency key for my truck. You don't want to put a transponder key or an expensive key into one of these for two reasons: if someone were to find it, they'd be able to start your car and steal it, or if it were to fall off and get lost, you wouldn't want to lose an expensive key. So putting an excellent metal Hide A Key in there to get you inside the vehicle is the way to go. 

In a moment, we'll place these different Hide A Keys together, drive 10 miles down to a carwash, and I'm going to go through it a few times. Get the under spray and shake one or two off. We'll see how they hold up. I do go to the carwash probably two, three, maybe four times a week. I'm kind of weird obsessed with so let's see what happens and figure out which one of these is the best.

The first one we're going to hide is the medium Hide A Key with the giant magnet on the back. Since this is a truck, and I know a more popular place to put them is on the inside of the truck bed. But my truck has a bed winding, so the magnet isn't as good as it could be if it were all metal. So what we'll do here is I'll open it up, take the Y159 key, put it in it, and we'll put it right up here. The jumbo ones are a little too big for my truck to fit there, but this one fits pretty well. This is where they sprayed the Bedliner in, and there's not that much of that powder coat underneath here, so it is holding pretty good. Let's go to the next one. 

Here we're down on the ground getting a little dirty, and we're going to install the Velcro one. I'm going to put this Velcro one here on the upside on my truck bumper. We could put a magnetic key hider here, but I don't think it'll last. That is why I'm going to go with this Velcro one for this spot. The instructions involve cleaning the surface of the key pouch with alcohol. I'm not going to do that, so we're just going to go with it. Peel the back off, stick the key in Y159, place it right here on the inside, and push hard. It says to wait 12 hours before trying to release the key pouch, but I'm not going to do that, so on to the next one. 

The next is the Lucky Line extra-large key hider which will be installed underneath my truck too. I'm going to put this in a spot that I call the hurry position. Often, your customer will buy one, and they'll pop it underneath their vehicle somewhere. Maybe they'll ask you to help them, and you're in a hurry, so you find a metal spot and put it on there. Although I don't recommend this spot, let's see how it holds up. That is right here on the back of the hitch. I'd inserted the key and installed the key hider. As I said, I don't think it's the best place to put one. However, we all know that people are putting them on the spot just like this. Let's go on to the last one.

The last one is the PEEBEE jumbo magnetic key case. I went ahead and put the Y159 in it. This is the most surefire way to keep your key safe, and that's going to be right up here on the top of the truck frame. It's up above where the elements will be, and it's on solid metal, so it's going to get the best grip. The most surefire way to do it is we're going to put it right up here. Alright, let's head to the carwash.

We ended up going to the carwash three times. I said earlier that I liked going to the carwash several times a week, but these three times were for research. I didn't do it because I wanted to. I did it for doing this research project, but I'm pretty curious, which key hider will stay on? Will all of them be there? Will none of them be there?

My guess, if I bet it is going to be the one behind the hitch that I put. Like the quick, simple one to put on, and that's because it has quite a bit of exposure to the outside, to the ground of what's going on, and I think with the carwash, it definitely could have hit it.

Time to check the results. I started with the one in the truck bed. It still is there and wet. This is what it looks like on the inside. The key is wet, but it stayed. Impressive! Let's go to the next one.

The Velcro one is wet but still intact, and so is the key. Let's go to the next one.

I thought the one that I thought had the highest chance of not making it, the one right behind the hitch, is still there. It's also a little wet, but not too bad.

Since all other three were still there. I'm sure the fourth one is too. Not very wet and still has the key. 4/4.

So we ended up being 4/4. I'm a little surprised. I know that we only went to the carwash three times, which is not necessarily an utterly real-world situation. However, it's only the best I could do in a short amount of time, and I think it's given us some decent results. So I think it's safe to say that all four of these key hiders work well. The question is, is where are you going to put them? Hopefully, the spots I chose will help you or help you place them for your customers. Locations that will last and the key will be there when you need it. I appreciate you guys; we'll see you next time.