I’ve been known to get confused about hardware grades from time to time. In fact, there’s an entire outtake of me arguing with Eric about which hardware grade is for residential use.

He was right.

But not after I argued him up and down for five minutes on the topic AND enlisted a large people from sales and marketing to help figure out the answer. In the end, we got it right and went on to make a video with the correct information.

However, it did give me an idea to go over hardware grades here on the blog, so that you guys can have the information written out for you.

Without further ado, here’s the correct order of hardware grades and in what situations they should be used.

Hardware Grades

Grade 1

Think of Grade 1 hardware as the first place finisher in a marathon. This type of hardware is built for heavy duty commercial use and should be used on commercial buildings. It’s been tested for many, many cycles and this means it can withstand a lot more wear and tear.

Grade 1 hardware is more expensive so you want to be sure that this grade is necessary for your building. If you’re using grade 1 hardware on the door to your bathroom at home, you’ve just wasted a lot of money…

Grade 2

Grade 2 hardware is probably the most commonly used type of hardware. It’s built for commercial use but it isn’t as hardcore as Grade 1. Grade 2 is tested for fewer cycles than Grade 1, and again, it’s not something you would ever need in your own residence.

It’s important to know too, that like for like doesn’t always equal the same quality in hardware grades. Always check the hardware to make sure it’s been tested for the same amount of cycles.

Grade 2 hardware can handle significantly more cycles than a residential piece of hardware so, like a Grade 3, it would be a waste of money to have this in a location that doesn’t get a ton of use. So, again with that race analogy, Grade 2 would be the hardware that finishes in 2nd place. It doesn’t work as hard as Grade 1, but it’s still beating Grade 3. Grade 2 is best used in moderately used facility openings

Grade 3

Speaking of Grade 3 hardware, this is the hardware you’ll find in most residential homes. You don’t have a ton of traffic at your house, entering and exiting your doors so there would be ZERO reason you would ever need anything other than a Grade 3 in your house. Grade 3 hardware finishes in third place in this analogy. It’s a great contender, does what it came to do, but it’s never going to outshine Grades 1 or 2.

Before the race analogy, I automatically assumed the higher the number grade, the higher number of cycles the hardware could withstand. The race analogy works much better and if you keep that in mind when thinking about hardware grades, you’ll be good to go.

If you have more questions about hardware grades, you can always contact us here! We’d be more than happy to help you out!