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Any lock that can't be opened from the inside should be illegal as a fire hazard.
by ClassyJacket 10y ago
Any lock that can't be opened from the inside should be illegal as a fire hazard.
- userbinator 10y agoI'll amend that to say "can't be opened without the application of unreasonable force". The possibility of a power outage causing the same scenario also worries me.
- AckSyn 10y agoThat's called pushing on the crash bar or twisting the handle/knob so it opens. It's fire code for a reason.
- kevingadd 10y agoA previous employer's office had electronically locked doors (magnetic, I think?). The studio head said that they were designed to 'fail open' (i.e. unlocked) in the case of a power outage. Then the power went out a couple weeks later, and the doors were locked. Oops. Our emergency exits were old-fashioned analog doors and still worked, at least.
- hackermailman 10y agoI once worked somewhere with magnetic locks and a decent shove easily opened the door. We did this for smoke breaks as our magstripe cards noted every time we left the control room.
- bitJericho 10y agoI've installed these doors. It's easy to mess up as the switch to determine the failure mode is part of the equipment. This was an untested install.
- cube00 10y agoHow does a mag lock fail closed with no power? Or are you talking about one of those strikes near the latch?
- kosievdmerwe 10y agoBatteries, I would guess. It's pretty bad if your security system allows entry to people when there is a black out.
- userbinator 10y agoElectromagnet locks --- which have an electromagnet in them to keep the door closed and are surprisingly strong for their size --- are truly fail-open since loss of power means loss of force keeping the door locked, but those doors might've also had an additional fail-closed type of electric lock that requires a brief pulse of power to open. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_lock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_lock
- fictioncircle 10y agoYes, for pretty much any commercial/residential area. That said, there should be exclusions to such rules for prisons or other areas that are designed to contain people. Some areas need secure doors.
- cperciva 10y agoPrisons should have backup power supplies, not electronic locks which fail closed. If there's a fire or flood, better that prisoners are released than trapped in their cells to burn or drown; they were sentenced to imprisonment, not to death.
- fictioncircle 10y ago> Any lock that can't be opened from the inside should be illegal as a fire hazard. I'm just pointing out the flaw in that statement taken literally. In theory, in the event of a failure, the guards should still be able to open the cells to release people. I wasn't advocating for fail-impossible-to-open-doors.
- ClassyJacket 10y agoStrangely, just two days after I wrote this, my house mate went out and locked me in the house. I had to climb out the window and unlock the door from the outside. I have a key, but I did not know the one deadlock has a different key for the inside and outside.