Electronic Door Locks for Business: Types, Security Grades and Buying
By the DC Fire & Security engineering team — installing and maintaining fire and security systems since 2010. Updated June 2026.
Quick answer
Business electronic locking spans five families: maglocks (fail-safe holding force — escape routes), electric strikes (latch-keeping retrofits), motorised/solenoid multipoint locks (key-equivalent security with control — main entrances), battery escutcheons (Salto-class interior estates) and smart cylinders (retrofit-into-existing-locks niche). Match family to door duty, standards (EN 1125 exits, fire ratings) and the access platform driving them.
The five families and where each belongs
The maglock-vs-strike fork has its own guide; this table adds the heavier and lighter ends — motorised locks where insurance-grade physical security must coexist with control, and cylinders/escutcheons where retrofit constraints rule.
| Family | Character | Belongs on | £ fitted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maglock | Fail-safe electromagnet, 300-600kg | Escape routes, glass/aluminium doors, interiors | £150–£350 |
| Electric strike | Latch keep release; fail-safe/secure options | Timber/steel latched doors, retrofits | £120–£300 |
| Motorised multipoint | Full mechanical security, electric control | Main entrances, external doors needing key-grade security | £400–£900 |
| Battery escutcheon | Self-contained handle/reader/lock | Interior estates at scale (Salto-class) | £400–£700 |
| Smart cylinder | Electronic cylinder in existing lockcase | Heritage/lease constraints, mixed estates | £250–£500 |
Standards and compliance the spec must name
- Escape compliance: EN 1125 (panic bars) / EN 179 (emergency handles) on relevant doors with electric locking arranged fail-safe + break-glass + fire-release — the recurring trinity (fail-safe guide), surveyors check it, so do we, loudly
- Fire doors: locking/furniture must respect the doorset's certification (fire-rated furniture, intumescent kits — the fire-door hardware logic; an uncertified maglock through an FD30 leaf is two failures in one)
- Security grading: EN 12209/EN 14846 grades on mechanical/electromechanical locks where insurers specify (entrance doors on commercial policies — check wording as with alarm grades)
- Standards-rated cylinders (TS 007 etc.) where cylinder attacks feature locally — physical security underneath the electronics still matters
- Power/monitoring: lock-state monitoring (door-forced/door-ajar events) specified where the platform supports — the difference between locked and known-locked
Buying patterns and the retrofit art
What businesses actually face is retrofit: existing doors (often nice ones), lease constraints, and an access platform decision already made — so lock selection becomes the art of minimum-intervention security: strikes into existing keeps where latches serve; cylinders where lockcases must stay; escutcheons where interior scale argues; motorised multipoint when entrance doors get replaced anyway (specify control-ready at joinery stage — the fit-out timing rule again); maglocks where nothing else fits glass. Procurement notes: door surveys door-by-door (generic lock lines in quotes signal nobody looked — variance is the honest tell), closers assessed alongside (electronic locks expose bad closers brutally — the closers guide's adjustment wisdom), and maintenance reality per family (strikes wear, maglocks don't, escutcheons want batteries, motors want exercising — the per-door cost guide's whole-life table absorbs it). Locks are where access control meets joinery; respect both trades and doors stay boring for a decade.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which lock is hardest to force?
Can electronic locks go on our fire doors?
Smart cylinders vs proper access control?
Do electronic locks work in power cuts?
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