Had a looksee at a potential job today where the client wants to add a strike to the door to his entry courtyard. Door currently only has a deadbolt and a friction latch, no knob. He does not want to add a knob or traditional latch so that is out. He had past negative experience with deadbolt strikes and frankly, so have I. Never spec'ed them or installed them, but have been responsible for integrating 2 of them and both were less then acceptable in their performance.

Door is solid wood, ~3-1/2" thick, 5+ feet wide ~10ft tall and is arched at the top. It is a swing in door. He would prefer not to have exposed hardware/ electronics on the door.

I seem to remember seeing mag locks somewhere that were internal to the door and jamb. Anybody ever seen one and if so, where can I get it?

Thanks in advance.

What about a Maglock made for gates?

Securitron makes them, I think the model is 34r

Shear Aligning Maglock,

[Link: securitron.com]

We have had good success with CR Laurence. Had to call tech support once (our fault) and they were knowledgeable, patient and...spoke English. Don't forget some sort of REX button.

Pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks guys!!

Just remember that these would be a fail safe lock, when there is a power outage the doors will be unlocked.

Noted and discussed with the client.
It is for a courtyard entry door on a house in a gated community and he will retain the manual deadbolt should he need to secure the door in the event of power failure and/or zombie apocalypse.

Those SAM mag locks look great! How to you keep them from literally pulling the screws out of either the jam mag or the strike plate? I didn't read up on it but it seems like a lot of force to be constantly pulling while still requiring some separation for the door movement??? Even if that gap is small.

They can be installed fail secure, with a battery backup.

While I'm not familiar with this particular product, the plate assembly often includes a certain range of movement to allow it to actually 'marry' flush to the maglock when active. You lose a large portion of the holding force if the plate doesn't properly sync up.

I would imagine something similar happens here, allowing the plate to move in-plane with the door...but I wonder if you need to monitor the open/close state of the door prior to allowing power to the maglock? Particularly in a self-closing door application where the active maglock might actually prevent the door from fully closing...

No, they can't.

Fail Secure means that when device FAILs, the door remains SECURE.
Mag locks are fail safe only.

You're referring to battery backup in the event of power failure and that's all good and dandy, but that does not make the unit fail secure and depending on battery size the mag lock will fail after a period of time.

Typical 7Ah alarm battery, with no other draw (controller, etc.) will last ~15 hours based on published 320mA draw of that mag lock. [Link: securitron.com]


[Link: digikey.com]

BTW, be careful when using mag locks.

The stiffness of the door and location of mag lock is very important.

I can show you my office door, made from alder with raised panels, with 1,200Lbs rated mag lock that failed when an attacker was pulling on the door handle.

The mag lock was installed in the top corner of a typical 7' tall door.

The torque of the door was enough to 'pry' the door open (think of sliding magnets apart vs. pulling them away).

Needless to say I will be replacing the door and installing typical door striker.

And, from now on my mag locks will only be reserved to totally un'bendable doors or mag locks located at door nob height.

Yeah, I should have said that Maglocks can be installed in a 'fail secure' manner, with a battery backup.

Were you attacked in your office? Or was it a burglar?

Maybe you could add a 2nd mag lock, and/or reinforce the door, to save money. Pretty nice looking door, I'll bet.