Hardware Grades
Door
locking hardware is classified by Grade. There
are three grade levels that are qualified primarily by performance as evaluated
by standards created by the Builders Hardware Manufacturer’s Association, (BHMA).
Those particular standards have also been adopted by the American
National Standards Institute, (ANSI).
The
standard is called BHMA 156.5 and may be downloaded online.
There are many qualifications that must be met for each grade level
outlined in the standard document. Generalizing,
it can be said that;
Grade
1 locks are considered Commercial Heavy Duty
Grade
2 locks are considered Heavy residential or light Commercial
Grade
3 locks are considered standard Residential duty.
Prices
can range from around $8.00 for residential locks that aren’t even Grade 3 all
the way up to $700.00 or $800.00 for some Grade 1 locks.
If you want to add an electronic component the price can go up from
there.
Just
remember that old adage, “You get what you pay for” and its corollary “You
don’t get what you don’t pay for”. If
you have a high traffic residential door that gets unlocked 8 or more times a
day, that less than Grade 3 lock may last for just a few months.
Don’t be fooled either by locks that proudly proclaim that they have
‘Grade 3 FEATURES’, or similarly Grade 2 or Grade 1 'features'.
Those claims don’t usually mean that they are that grade of hardware.
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