Narrow doors
Smart locks for aluminium joinery
This is where most smart lock purchases go wrong in New Zealand. The lock arrives, it is a good lock, and it is 20mm too wide for the door. Nothing about the technology matters until this is settled.
The problem in one sentence
A smart lock has to sit flat against the face of the door. On a timber entrance door there is usually plenty of flat face to work with. On aluminium joinery the flat face is often just the stile, which is the vertical section beside the glass, and it can be under 50mm.
Most smart locks on the market are 65mm to 75mm wide. Put one on a 45mm stile and it hangs over the glazing bead, will not sit flat, and cannot be fixed properly. That is not a fitting problem you can work around. It is the wrong lock.
What to measure
One measurement decides it: the width of the flat face of the stile, taken beside where the handle sits, from the edge of the door to where the glazing bead starts.
Measure the flat part only. Do not include the bead, and do not include any part of the face that steps up or curves. The lock needs that full flat width plus a little clearance for the fixings.
No tape measure? Hold an ordinary bank card flat against the stile. A card is 54mm wide. If the card overhangs the flat face, you have a narrow door and your options are limited to one. If the flat face is clearly wider than the card, you have more to choose from. Photograph the card held against the door and send it to us: that single photo answers most of what we would otherwise have to ask you.
The panel widths, so you can do the maths yourself
| Model | Panel size | Panel width | Realistically |
|---|---|---|---|
| KS300 | 303 x 43 mm | 43 mm | The narrow one. Built for this situation. |
| KS150 | 155 x 64 mm | 64 mm | Deadbolt only, no handle. Needs a generous stile. |
| KS250 | 255 x 65 mm | 65 mm | Timber doors and wide stiles. |
| KS280 | 280 x 65 mm | 65 mm | Timber doors and wide stiles. |
| KS200 | 193 x 75 mm | 75 mm | The widest. Timber doors. |
Note the KS150 is a deadbolt with no handle at all, so on a door you also need to open by a handle it is not a complete answer on its own.
Why the KS300 is the one that comes up
At 303 x 43mm the KS300 is the narrow model in the range, and it is the only one made in sliding door backsets. Its keypad is arranged in two columns of six rather than the usual three by four, which is how it stays narrow while keeping a full set of digits.
It is aluminium alloy and 304 stainless steel, rated IP65, and it runs on four AAA cells rather than the AA cells the wider models use. On the door it looks like a slim vertical strip rather than a box, which suits joinery better anyway.
None of that is a promise it fits your door. A 43mm panel still needs 43mm of flat face plus clearance. But if you have aluminium joinery, it is where the conversation starts and often where it ends.
The other two things narrow doors throw up
French doors. Two leaves meeting in the middle, so as well as the narrow stile, anything standing proud of the face can foul the other door as it closes. Check the closing action, not just the width.
Multipoint mechanisms. A lot of aluminium joinery runs a multipoint lock rather than a single mortice case. A multipoint adaptor kit is available for the KS300 where that is what the door has. Tell us which you have, because it changes what is needed.
Measure the flat face and put the number into the fit checker. It tells you which locks are ruled out and by how many millimetres, before you spend anything. Or send a photo through the contact page and we will tell you.