We had a client call our mobile locksmith service because he was having a problem with his push bar/panic bar that was mounted on the back door of his shop. He told our technician that it had been a gradual problem that kept getting worse until the whole push bar was stuck in the open position. That meant he wouldn’t be able to lock his shop when it came time to close last night.
A fully functioning push-bar should lock when a person lets the door swing shut, and allows them to open the door in an emergency simply by pushing the big bar that runs horizontal to the door, hence why it’s also known as a panic bar. A dogging function is present on most push bars which gives the user the option to keep it in the always unlocked position so employees can open and close the door without it locking on them each time, even if you have a key to open the push bar from the outside, its still an inconvenience, that’s why the dogging mechanism is in place.
Upon exposing the mechanism for the push bar and dogging function, we noticed that everything was in working order on the push bar side, that led our tech to think it was the lock on the external side that wasn’t returning to locked position 100%, keeping the locking mechanism for the bar disengaged.
Our mobile locksmith technician’s diagnosis was accurate. upon removing the lock, he saw that the exterior lock was jammed causing the mechanism to not lock all the way keeping the push bar open. He was able to repair the broken mechanism instead of replacing the whole push bar assembly which saved our client a few hundred bucks $$$ for a brand new push bar. The tech reassembled both sides of the lock and showed the client that everything was back to working order. The end result was that the client was able to secure his shop last night and anytime he needs to. Call us if you need help today: 619-313-6214
