How do you know if your security door is going to do it's job when put to the test?

Are the tests good enough to call a security door a security door?

In short the answer to the second question is no.

Many doors that claim to pass fail time and time again.

When the impact test is the same as for a piece of safety glass. I don't know about you but, would you prefer your door to be stronger than a 4mm thick piece of glass?

A 1/8 Aluminium rivets barely 4mm in depth will not hang on to a grille when someone kicks it, yet it will pass the Australian standards 5039, 5040, 5041 - 2008 tests. You see it time and time again on the news when Tactical Response Unit (TRG) enters a house with just one blow. A properly constructed security door should not come apart that easily. Yet time and time again I go to break-ins and screen doors offered little to no resistance to the thief.

Even Engineers from UNSW-ADFA have gone on record saying the impact part of this test should be at least doubled.

I personally believe this still would not make the grade, three to four times the current level would better the standards and eliminate the number of poorly made doors and screens on the market. Too put the 100 Joules force into perspective for you, have a 45Kg child stand on a 1 metre wall. Than step off the force the child hits the ground at is 1 blow of 100 Joules. if your door stands up to four more of those then it will pass the impact test.

For 200 Joules have a 90 to 95Kg Adult do the same thing.

 

Although many of the doors on the market will now fail it is still not a real world test!

 

Along with Westral in Perth Crimsafe a Queensland based company has put a lot of effort into lifting the game of the security industry. Yet they have barely scratched the surface when it comes changing the standards. As the graph shows when Crimsafe asked UNSW-ADFA to test it's doors and that of it's so called competitors, just how bad the the industry is.

• All doors tested are available Australia wide
• All manufactures of the doors tested claimed to comply with the Current Australian standards tests
• They May even be on your home.
• Other Than Crimsafe ONLY two other stainless steel mesh doors can call them selves security doors.
• Crimsafe stands head and shoulders above the rest.

 

 

For the past 20 plus years I have been researching studying and testing security doors and screens. To find out why they fail and why they don't. Yet the Australian standards for security doors do not reflect what happens in a break-in. As weak as the Australian standards are in this area over 80% of the companies in Perth selling and making security doors have never tested them.

 

About ten years ago when I was having trouble with a company I was working for. Cutting corners and reducing material from their doors to reduce cost, after I had sent considerable time getting the doors through testing. It was under a recommendation of one of Curtin University's engineer's to work for Westral in his word "They are the only company in Perth that has put the effort into exceeding the standards as I was".

Westral a Perth based company has been manufacturing screen doors for over forty years. Leading the the industry for home security. And the first licensed manufacture of Crimsafe in Western Australia. Westral has made the same effort to ensure that the aluminium grille security doors also perform well above the Australian Standards. To the point Westral is the only Screen door manufacture in Australia with three of the security doors manufactured carrying the Australian standards endorsement.

 

One thing my years in this industry has taught me, to secure your home buy the best doors and screens alone is not enough. It is far better to start in your street, your neighbourhood. For you to have a safe home you need to start with neighbour relations. A street with good community spirit has a far lower chance of a break-in. Houses that fit in the neighbourhood and don't standout go for most parts undetected by the criminal.

You need to look at your yard.

Does it looked owned, cared for, letterbox cleared daily. Are you inadvertently hanging a neon sign saying take me I'm easy or I'm Fort Knox's and am worth your effort to break-in.

 

Fill out the form below to book a meeting