Narrow doors
Smart locks for aluminium joinery
This is the mistake to avoid. 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.
Narrow doors
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.
Three of the five current models in our range have panels 65mm wide or more. 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, upright, so its short edge (54mm) runs across the flat face. If the card hangs over both edges by a few millimetres, up to about 7mm each side, the face is around 40 to 48mm and the KS300 is the one current model still in the running. If it hangs over by more than that, the face is under about 40mm and nothing in the current range clears it. 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.
Panel widths
| Model | Panel size | Panel width | Realistically |
|---|---|---|---|
| KS300 | 303 x 43 mm to confirm | 43 mm | The narrow one. Built for this situation. |
| KS150 | 155 x 64 mm to confirm | 64 mm | Deadbolt only, no handle. 64mm wide panel, check your stile. |
| KS250 | 255 x 65 mm to confirm | 65 mm | 65mm wide panel, check your stile. |
| KS280 | 280 x 65 mm | 65 mm | 65mm wide panel, check your stile. |
| KS200 | 193 x 75 mm | 75 mm | The widest, at 75mm. Check your stile. |
Sizes marked to confirm are published more than one way, and we are confirming them. 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 comes in a sliding door version. Its keypad is arranged in two columns of six rather than the three by four of the other current models, 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 four AA cells of the KS150, KS250 and KS280. 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.
Other things to check
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.
If your door has a Yale Induro
The Yale Induro 4-point mortice is the mortice we name when we list compatibility. If that is what is in your door edge, say so when you get in touch, because it is the single most useful thing you can tell us.
To be clear: we hold no fitting drawing for that combination, so we are not going to tell you it drops straight in. Send a photo of the door edge with the faceplate visible and we will confirm it properly rather than guess. Yale and Induro are marks belonging to their owner and are named here only to describe what may be in your door.
Hold a bank card against the flat face and answer two questions in 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.