Rockwood 603 Door Guard Latch

The 603 swing bar door guard is a commercial-duty latch. It is built for institutional and commercial openings, and it meets ANSI A156.16, L33042. Rockwood specifies this kind of hardware for offices, schools, detention, sports facilities, hotels and restaurants, so it is the guard to standardize on across guest rooms or dorm doors rather than a residential chain.

Everything to mount both halves ships with it: 3 each #6 x 1-1/2 inch flat head sheet metal screws for the body and 4 each #6 x 1 inch flat head sheet metal screws for the strike. No separate mounting kit. The one thing that is not in the box is the 1/8 inch clear plastic shim, ordered separately as 603 SHIM, which you add when the door and frame faces do not sit flush enough for the bar to swing clean.

Not much. The 603 body measures 29/32 x 2-1/2 inches and the strike 31/32 x 2-1/2 inches, so you need a clear run of roughly two and a half inches on each face plus room for the bar to swing. That fits comfortably beside most hollow metal frame stops and on narrow door faces where a bulkier guard plate will not land.

The Rockwood 603 door guard latch is designated ANSI A156.16, L33042 and is classified as commercial hardware, which is the designation a specification or facility standard is usually written against. The Delaney Safety Door Guard is a peer swing bar guard in the Safety Door Guard series and is the alternative where a BHMA-designated auxiliary trim item is not being called out. Specifiers standardizing a fleet of guest room or resident doors generally match the ANSI/BHMA designation across every opening rather than mixing guard types.

The 603 SHIM is a 1/8 inch clear plastic spacer that goes behind the body or strike when the two mounting surfaces are not on the same plane, which is common where the door is set back from the frame face or where a stop or applied trim gets in the way. It is a separate order, not included, so specify it up front if you are doing a run of openings and the frame detail varies.

Cast metal, not plastic. The 603 uses a cast aluminum body with brass in the substrate, and it carries the ANSI A156.16 L33042 designation for auxiliary door trim, which is the standard commercial specifiers write these to. That is why it turns up in hotels, dorms and detention work where a chain guard would be pulled off the door inside a season.

A swing bar like the Rockwood 603 is the commercial choice. The bar is a rigid cast piece that pivots into a strike, so there is no slack, nothing to saw through, and no chain to rattle loose. Chain guards flex and pull their anchor screws under a shoulder. The tradeoff is that a swing bar needs the door and frame faces close to co-planar, which is what the 603 SHIM handles when they are not.

Both are secondary door guards, but they are different mechanisms. The 603 is a swing bar guard in cast aluminum, bright chrome, with a 2-1/2 inch strike and a published ANSI A156.16 L33042 commercial designation. The Delaney Safety Door Guard is a ball bearing type from Delaney's Safety Door Guard series. If your spec calls out an ANSI A156.16 auxiliary guard by number, the 603 is the one that carries it.

Both work, with the right substrate prep. The 603 ships with #6 flat head sheet metal screws, 1-1/2 inch for the body and 1 inch for the strike, which is a hollow metal and wood door fastener. On hollow metal you are drilling and tapping or screwing into the face sheet, so plan for reinforcement or a through-fastening detail on high abuse openings; on wood doors and frames the supplied SMS drive straight in.

The Delaney Safety Door Guard in the Safety Door Guard series is another swing bar door guard to consider. The Rockwood 603 is built for commercial use, with a cast aluminum body meeting ANSI A156.16, L33042, a 29/32 inch by 2-1/2 inch body and a 31/32 inch by 2-1/2 inch strike, and it ships with 3 ea. #6 x 1-1/2 inch flat head sheet metal screws for the body and 4 ea. #6 x 1 inch for the strike. Where an opening does not need a commercial door accessory to that standard, the Delaney unit is the peer product in the same guard format.

Treat them as separate preps rather than a hole-for-hole swap. The Rockwood 603 has a 29/32 inch by 2-1/2 inch body and a 31/32 inch by 2-1/2 inch strike, fastened with 3 ea. #6 x 1-1/2 inch flat head sheet metal screws at the body and 4 ea. #6 x 1 inch at the strike. The Delaney Safety Door Guard is a different product in its own Safety Door Guard series, so the mounting pattern should be confirmed against the existing holes before a retrofit; on a door and jamb already drilled for the 603, replacing with another 603 keeps the existing prep.

One finish only, bright chrome, ordered as 603-CRM. There is no brass or satin option in the 603, so if you are matching existing hardware on a floor of doors, this pairs with polished chrome or bright nickel trim and will read as a mismatch next to oil rubbed bronze or satin brass.