Strybuc 16108C-48 Charley Bar for Sliding Glass Door, 48" Bar

After fighting with a variety of sliding door locks, latches, bars, poles,over the years I bought these for the four sliding doors around my patio. The Charley bar installation instructions are simple and straight forward. Once I got the drill and hacksaw out and started it took me about 10 minutes per door to install, I got the tools out, mounted four of these, and put the tools away in less than an hour. I was surprised at how well it went and how easy they were to install. The quality is good, and these bars actually returned all my doors to use. Before having been reduced to putting poles in the track to secure the doors, nobody wanted to crawl around to dig those out, so the doors rarely got used. With these bars, no bending, no storing, no problems. Pull the little keeper key out (if it is used at all), flip the bar up. It is out of the way, it stores itself, and drops back into place immediately when you want to lock down the door. This is a great product if you have elderly in the house. I love these. Delivery was four days faster than posted on receipt, so I had them before friends came to town!

Just to clarify with everybody the reviews saying the box this thing came in was too big are just complaining. Sure the box is quite a bit bigger than the item itself but would you rather have a bigger box and have the item undamaged or squeeze it into a box and potentially have it damaged? Now to the bar itself. The bar is absolutely amazing and my girlfriend thinks its the best thing ever. It literally changed how we open the back sliding glass door and how often we do it. The ONLY problem with this bar is the fact that you will need a saw or some kind of cutting device that can cut through the metal and some ingenuity to measure and cut the bar properly; but aside from what it's perfect. The 48" bar is more than long enough for almost ANY situation and the hinges are made very well. If i had known how much easier this was going to make opening the back sliding glass door I would have paid double or triple the price for it. The bar itself is very light weight yet extremely sturdy so you can mount it without requiring screws (if you so desire) and by just using some kind of adhesive. The locking mechanism on the bar also makes it nearly impossible for someone to unlock the bar if you really need it to be super secure for a period of time. At the same time the bar is secure enough without the locking mechanism to just lower it into its bracket and go to sleep knowing the door will not open no matter what. I would rate this bar very highly and say it's definitely worth the price and a lot more!

It's not often that you come across this sort of product - one that's inexpensive, ingenious in its simplicity (both to install and to use) - and actually works! Since I first moved into the house that I'm in now (several years ago), I've used a bar across the bottom of the sliding glass door track. It works, but I always have to bend down to move it, my dogs can knock it out of position if they get excited, etc. The Charley Bar is wonderful - I had it looking professionally installed within 15 minutes or so. In addition to a screwdriver, you'll also need a Hacksaw (a Miter Box , a Level and a drill will also come in handy). The aluminum bar is very easy to cut to size with a hacksaw. I feel much more secure using this setup (as opposed to a bar laying at the bottom of the door). The only potential problem I can see is that the Charley Bar swings down into its locking position very easily (once I've released it from the clip that holds it up). If I don't have it firmly stored into its upright position when I close the door, I could see the bar possibly falling down, locking me outside. I'll just have to watch for this - it in no way would stop me from giving this system five stars.

When my 90 year old Grandfather slipped and fell after going through his nightly ritual of putting a dowel in the track of his backdoor slider, I knew it was time to get him something that didn't require him to bend down so low. After some brief searching on Amazon, I can across this Strybuc Charley Bar and knew it was exactly what he needed. PROS - Tough, durable and reliable - Bar maneuvers easily into and out of position - Offers SAFETY - not just for keeping intruders out, but in my case especially -- preventing bending and potential falling CONS - Need hacksaw to cut to size, very minor assembly required - Only steel color available (although it does go pretty well with just about any color door) BOTTOM LINE If you're a handy person, this can be installed in a matter of minutes. For someone like me who is not so handy, it was still fairly easy although it did take longer. It looks good, serves its purpose, is much more practical than a wooden dowel in the track, and in my case -- prevents my Grandfather from having to bend down every night and risk falling. You can't put a price tag on that. And he loves it!

Worked perfectly, and as advertised. Took 2 minutes to trim the length and another 5 minutes to screw it in place. Very happy!