Industry security standards, for access control and personnel door locks, ensure the quality and durability of locks within defined and agreed-upon benchmarks of durability, operational stability, and overall security offered by the device.
The two most highly recognized and widely accepted organizations for assessing the quality of locks are the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Underwriters Laboratories (UL). In this post, we’ll dig into what the different ANSI grades mean, and which ANSI locks are best for you.
Visitors were also interested in:
Grade 1
The highest level of ANSI grades for personnel door locks.
Typically reserved for locks intended for commercial security.
To receive this grade from ANSI, a door knob or lock must withstand:
- 800-thousand cycles
- Six door strikes
- One 360-pound weight test
- 250-thousand cycles
- 10 door strikes with a hammer
Grade 2
Grade 2 locks are not expected to be as strong/durable as Grade 1 locks and are not ideal for commercial applications.
- Described by manufacturers as meeting most “light commercial requirements”.
- Grade 2 locks exceed most apartment building requirements and US-standard residential requirements.
Grade 3
The last and lowest grade of locks awarded by ANSI still maintains the high quality requirements to receive any ANSI rating.
- Most common application is apartment buildings, as Grade 3 locks meet most residential building requirements.
- Since Grade 3 locks are not as secure as Grade 2, they are not recommended for use on your main front/back doors, but could be used adequately on secondary/non-primary entry points.
Thank you for the simple explanation. I don’t know why it was so hard for me to find a straight answer.
This is perfect. I stumbled on this to tell me how to automatem y home. I’m loving this article pal.
Understanding lock grade allows the consumer to know what type of security to expect. Great content thank you for sharing.