Rockwood 628 UL Rated 190 Degree Door Viewer with Heavy Duty Privacy Cover for 9/16" to 13/16" Doors

UL fire rated for 1-1/2 hours. That covers the typical 90 minute opening in a corridor, stairwell, or unit entry door, so the viewer can go into a labeled door without voiding the rating on that basis. The body is brass.

The Trimco 977 door viewer with heavy duty cover is the nearest match, pairing a 200 degree viewing angle with a heavy duty cover, versus the 190 degree angle on the Rockwood 628. The Trimco 977U covers doors from 1-17/64 inch to 2-1/8 inch, so on thicker doors it is the one that reaches. Another close pick is the Cal-Royal PRIULDV200, a UL listed privacy door viewer with a 200 degree glass lens and privacy cover, also a privacy/bed/bath function part like the Rockwood 628.

Several one way viewers in the same size class have no cover at all. The Ives U698 is a wide angle UL fire rated viewer at 190 degrees, the same viewing angle as the Rockwood 628, but it is a plain one way viewer with no privacy cover. The Ives U696 at 150 degrees, the Ives 701 at 120 degrees, the Ives U700 brass one way viewer, the Trimco 975 at 160 degrees, the Trimco 976 at 200 degrees, and the Emtek 2610 solid brass viewer are all uncovered as well. If the requirement is blocking a view in from the corridor side, the cover is the whole point and those will not do it.

The Rockwood 628 is UL fire rated for 1-1/2 hours. Among the alternatives, the Ives U698, Ives U700, Ives U696, and Ives 701 are all fire rated, the Hager 1756 is a one way viewer with a fire rating, and the Cal-Royal PRIULDV200 is UL listed. Match the viewer's door thickness range to the labeled door you are drilling before you commit.

At 190 degrees the Rockwood 628 sees slightly past the plane of the door face, so a person pressed to the wall beside the frame is still in view. That is the practical difference between a wide angle viewer and an older narrow one, and it is why apartment and hotel entries get specified this way. If you want a wider field still, the Cal-Royal PRIULDV200 and the Trimco 976 are 200 degree viewers.

The cover is a heavy duty flap on the inside of the door that swings over the lens so nobody outside the room can look in through the viewer. The occupant works it from inside, which is the point in a hotel room or a dorm, where a plain viewer is a hole a stranger can reverse. Rockwood classes the 628 as privacy/bed/bath hardware for that reason.

On a unit entry or an office door where nobody is sleeping behind it, a plain viewer is fine, and the Ives U698 is a UL fire rated one way viewer at 190 degrees, the same viewing angle as the Rockwood 628 without the flap. Take the covered version when the room is occupied overnight, such as a hotel guest room, a dorm, or a patient room, since an uncovered lens can be looked through from the corridor side. The 628 is the covered one.

The Rockwood 628 gives 190 degrees. The Ives U698 also views at 190 degrees. Wider than that, the Trimco 976 and Trimco 977 are 200 degree viewers and the Cal-Royal PRIULDV200 uses a 200 degree glass lens. Narrower, the Hager 1756 and Hager 1759 are 185 degrees, the Trimco 975 is 160 degrees, the Ives U696 is 150 degrees, and the Ives 701 is 120 degrees. A wider angle sees more of the corridor at the door face; a narrower one gives a tighter field on a longer approach.

Two: bright chrome (CRM) and black (BLK). Chrome matches the satin and bright chrome lever and lockset trim on most institutional and multifamily entries; black is the one to pick when the unit doors are already on matte black or oil rubbed hardware. Both are brass bodies, so the finish is over solid metal rather than a plated pot metal barrel.

Brass is the substrate on the 628, which matters on a door that gets cleaned with the same chemicals every week and on a viewer that gets threaded and unthreaded during turnover. Brass barrels also thread more forgivingly than plated zinc when the bore is a hair off.

All three Trimco viewers share the same 1-17/64 inch to 2-1/8 inch door thickness range but differ in optics and cover. The 975 is a 160 degree viewer, the 976 is 200 degree, and the 977 is a 200 degree viewer with a heavy duty cover. Only the 977 carries the cover feature that the Rockwood 628 has; the 975 and 976 are viewer only. Trimco lists them as the 975, 976, and 977U series respectively, so specify the series when ordering against a drawing.