Digital Locksets on Fire-rated Doors
Fire-rated doors ("fire doors") are used to minimise fire spread within buildings. These doors and their hardware, such as digital locksets (aka digital door locks, "DDL"), are certified to ensure they meet fire safety requirements. If uncertified hardware is installed on a fire door, this may affect the door's ability to minimise fire spread.
Some Types of Digital Locksets
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To know whether a door is a fire door, you may check for serial labels pasted near the hinges of the door or door frame. The label would rate the fire rating of the door, e.g., 30-min fire rating, 60-min fire rating, etc. If unsure whether the door is
a fire door, you may also check with HDB (for public homes) or your MCST (for strata-titled properties such as a condominium). Please refer to this link for serial label samples.
With effect from 1 March 2024, if you wish to install a DDL on a fire door, the DDL must be certified for fire resistance. The DDL can be certified together with the fire door, or certified individually on its own.
How to Check if a DDL is Certified
For DDLs which are certified together with the door, you may ask the door supplier to show you that the brand and model of the DDL is listed in the fire door's Certificate of Conformity ("CoC") (usually in the Appendix). This is usually for DDLs which were originally supplied with the fire door.
If you are a consumer (homeowner / premises owner) who wishes to install a DDL for an existing fire door, you can look for DDLs which are individually certified for their fire resistance. Such CoCs are issued by product certification bodies. Currently, only three certification bodies (see samples below) can issue CoCs for DDL. You may ask the supplier to show you the product's Coc.
Samples of DDL CoCs
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You may ask the supplier to show you this key information on the CoC (see sample below).
- Brand and model - the brand and model printed on the CoC matches the brand and model of the DDL you want to buy.
- Product details - the product's fire-rating (in minutes) must be at least as high as the fire door's. For example, for a 30-min fire door, you can use DDL certified with fire rating of 30-min, 60-min or 120-min. Product details should also state mechanical fail-safe feature (so that you can still unlock the DDL to leave the house, even if the battery dies).
- Test standards - the product is tested to SS 332, or EN 1634-1.
Uncertified DDLs Installed before 1 Mar 2024
DDL in the market are generally robust (e.g., with metal backplate and lockcase to prevent fire from burning through the door early). However, for fire doors in residential premises (which are typically 30-min or 60-min fire-rated) with uncertified DDL
installed before 1 March 2024, homeowners are encouraged to replace it with a certified DDL.
For any questions on requirements for DDLs, please contact scdf_pls@scdf.gov.sg
