Security classes: how safety is your door from 1 to 6?

The door security is assessed by resistance classes: let’s discover what we are talking about.

The armoured door is a passive security system. This means that there is no active operation in order to contrast the burglar resistance, but its efficacy on the resistance from sabotage comes from its structure and materials.

Burglar resistance classes – or security classes – of armoured doors are established depending on the capacity to withstand specific resistance test set out by Standard UNI EN 1627:2011, which are assigned after specific tests (UNI EN 1628, UNI EN 1629, UNI EN 1630), which simulate burglary attempts.

The tests differ depending on the tools used and the duration of the burglary; they identify 6 Security Classes by Standard UNI EN 1627:2011.

Starting from basic tests, made with elementary tools, in short time (15 minutes), going to more complex tools, electrical, more noisy, with long time till almost an hour (50 minutes).

In the specific case of Italy we can reject from the start class 1, because it is considered insufficient for private properties in general and the same for class 6, reserved for public and military buildings with high risk.
The armoured doors usually applied for private properties are Class 3.

In order to identify the most suitable Resistance Class to the armoured door of our home, we must consider the value of the building and what we keep inside it, then its position.
For example a home in a isolated area could give the burglars the chance to use noisy tools and to act undisturbed for a longer time than a home in city center.

Here follow-up a recap of the definition of Resistance Classes from 3 to 5 (classe 1,2 and 6 are particular cases which we retain useless to be analyzed) reading them you can get an idea of which one is the most suitable for you.

Class 3

Class 3 is the most common level of safety for external access doors. Access is attempted using, in addition to the tools used for tests in Classes 1 and 2, crowbars, screwdrivers, pin punches, hammers and other manual tools, aiming to defeat vulnerable locking devices.

Class 4

Class 4 doors are able to withstand more advanced tools, in addition to the tools used for tests in Classes 1, 2 and 3, such as club hammers, axes, chisels and drills. It is suitable for detached or isolated houses, or shops where a higher burglary risk is present.

Class 5

In this case, in addition to the tools applied in the former classes, there are some stronger burglary attempts; here are used power tools, such as drills, hacksaws, saber saws, and angle grinders, with a wider range of attack methods and generating more noise. In a long term the burglar must have a certain experience and must be well organized.

 

In case of doubt or curiosity in the section Resistance Classes you can examine in depth this topic.