Deltana BC218 Ball Catch with 2-1/8" Strike

A ball catch holds a door closed by friction, using a spring-loaded ball in the door edge that seats into a strike plate on the frame. Deltana's BC218 is built for light duty doors where there's no latch present, so it's the answer for a closet, pantry, or a dummy-trim door with no latching hardware. If your door already has a latchbolt in a knob or lever, you don't need a catch. Where these get used most is on a pair of doors, French doors, or a set of double doors where one leaf stays put and a catch keeps it from drifting open.

The BC218 ships with a 2-1/8 inch strike, and the catch body itself is 2-1/8 as well. That matters if you're mortising a frame: the strike prep has to be cut to the 2-1/8 inch plate, not to whatever the old catch left behind. The strike plate and matching screws are in the bag with the catch, so nothing separate is needed to mount it.

The BC218 is a residential-duty catch, built for light duty doors. For a commercial opening with real traffic, an occupancy load, or anything on a fire-rated or egress door, this isn't the part. Property managers doing unit interiors, closets, and French doors are the right fit; a facility corridor or a tenant entry is not.

The BC218 is a mortise-style catch with a 2-1/8 inch face, so the door edge gets bored for the barrel and the plate is let in flush. If you'd rather not cut a mortise, a drive-in catch installs into a plain bored hole with no plate routing on the door edge. ZenSupply carries drive-in versions from Delaney Hardware and from Orca Hardware in its 70DR Series, which comes with a radius strike. On a jobsite where you're doing a stack of closet doors, the drive-in is faster; the mortised plate looks cleaner on a visible edge.

Only if the prep matches. The BC218 takes a 2-1/8 inch strike and a mortised plate, so it drops in cleanly where an existing mortised catch of the same face size came out. Coming out of a drive-in catch, like the Delaney or the Orca 70DR, the frame side will need the strike plate let in because a drive-in typically pairs with a different strike footprint. Emtek's 8802 is the closest brand-equivalent ball catch we carry if you're matching an Emtek-outfitted opening. Pull the old catch and measure the strike cutout before you commit.

A drive-in ball catch, such as the Delaney Drive-In Ball Catch or the Orca Hardware 70DR Series Drive In Ball Catch, is installed by driving the body into a bored hole in the door edge rather than mounting it with a flanged face. The Deltana BC218 is a 2-1/8 inch adjustable ball catch supplied in a poly bag with its strike plate and matching screws. For a contractor, the practical consequence is prep: a drive-in body wants a clean bored hole and no screw holes in the door edge, while the BC218 arrives as a catch plus strike set ready to screw off. If the doors on the job were already prepped for one style, order that style rather than swapping mid-run.

The Emtek 8802 Door Ball Catch is the closest like-for-like alternative: it is the same type of part, a door ball catch that holds a light duty door closed where no latch is present. The Deltana BC218 is solid brass with a 2-1/8 inch ball catch body and a matching 2-1/8 inch strike, packed with the strike plate and matching screws, and it comes in ten finishes including PVD Polished Brass, Oil Rubbed Bronze, Polished Nickel, Brushed Nickel, Antique Nickel, Paint Black, Polished Chrome, Brushed Chrome, Polished Brass, and Antique Brass. If you are matching an existing brass catch on adjacent doors, the BC218 finish range is where to start; the Emtek 8802 is the substitute to look at when the rest of the opening trim is Emtek.

The Deltana BC218 is a light duty ball catch intended for residential use on doors where no latch is present, such as closet, pantry, and double door inactive leaves. It is not a latching or locking device - the ball is spring tensioned and adjustable, so it holds the door shut against light pressure only. On a corridor or entry door in a commercial building carrying real traffic, a ball catch is the wrong class of hardware regardless of brand: the Delaney, Emtek 8802, and Orca 70DR alternatives are all ball catches too. For an opening that needs to stay latched, specify a latching lockset rather than any catch.

Yes, the BC218 is adjustable, so the holding force can be dialed in after it's installed. That's the fix when a door is either popping open on its own or taking too much pull to break free. Adjust rather than re-mortise: the catch and its 2-1/8 inch strike stay where they are and you only change how hard the ball pushes.

Solid brass. That's the body material, not just the plating, which is why it holds up on a door that gets cycled daily and why the finishes wear the way brass wears rather than flaking off a steel core. Brass also won't rust in a bathroom or an exterior-adjacent opening.

Ten finishes on the BC218: PVD Polished Brass, Polished Brass, Antique Brass, Oil Rubbed Bronze, Polished Nickel, Brushed Nickel, Antique Nickel, Polished Chrome, Brushed Chrome, and Paint Black. That covers the standard Deltana finish range, so if the hinges and knobs on the opening are already Deltana, the catch matches. The PVD Polished Brass is the one to pick over standard Polished Brass where the catch will get handled or wiped down often, since PVD is a harder coating.

That's the common use. On a pair, one leaf is usually held by flush bolts top and bottom and the active leaf needs something to hold it shut; a light duty catch does that where there's no latch in the door. Mount the catch in the top edge of the door with the 2-1/8 inch strike in the head jamb so nothing shows on the face. Since the tension adjusts, you can set it light enough that the door still opens with a normal pull.

The Orca Hardware 70DR Series Drive In Ball Catch With Radius Strike is the one to order when the door edge or jamb prep calls for a radius corner strike. The Deltana BC218 ships with a 2-1/8 inch strike plate and matching screws in solid brass. Strike shape decides whether the plate drops into an existing mortise without rework, so match the strike to what is already routed in the jamb: radius prep takes the Orca 70DR, and the BC218 strike is the one to plan around if you are cutting fresh prep in a brass-trimmed opening.

The Deltana BC218 is the one to standardize on when finish matching across a fleet of doors is the constraint. It is offered in ten finishes - PVD Polished Brass, Oil Rubbed Bronze, Polished Nickel, Brushed Nickel, Antique Nickel, Paint Black, Polished Chrome, Brushed Chrome, Polished Brass, and Antique Brass - all on the same solid brass 2-1/8 inch body with a 2-1/8 inch strike, so the prep and the strike plate stay identical from unit to unit and only the finish code changes on the order. The Delaney, Emtek 8802, and Orca 70DR ball catches are alternatives on function, but if a property manager wants one prep and one part number family across mixed-finish buildings, the BC218 range is the simpler specification.

The BC218 is sold each, one catch per unit. Each one arrives in its own poly bag with the strike plate and matching screws, so if you're outfitting eight closet doors you order eight and no separate fastener line is needed.