Schlage Electronics SPDT Magnetic Switch (0.3 amps @ 30 VDC) for Hollow Metal Door and Frame

Hollow metal only. The 679-05HM concealed magnetic switch is built for hollow metal doors and frames, so the switch body and magnet mount into the metal door edge and metal frame. On a wood door or an aluminum storefront frame you need a switch made for that substrate, not this one.

Both are SPDT switches used in door monitoring circuits, so either can feed a single set of normally-open and normally-closed contacts back to a control panel. The Schlage 679-05HM is a concealed SPDT magnetic switch specified for hollow metal doors and frames, rated 0.3 amps at 30 VDC, and reports whether the door is open or closed relative to its frame. The RCI 960 series SPDT switch is described for second position control, meaning it is applied where a switch signals at a secondary door position rather than simply closed versus not closed. A security integrator wiring straightforward open/closed status on a hollow metal opening is working with the 679-05HM application; an opening where the signal has to trip at a second position is where the RCI 960 series is aimed.

It tells the panel whether the door is open or closed. The 679-05HM sits concealed in the door and frame and relays the door's status relative to its frame back to a control panel, which is what drives door-forced-open and door-held-open alarms, and lets the panel confirm the opening actually closed after a valid credential. It is monitoring only, it does not lock or release anything.

SPDT, so you get a common with both a normally open and a normally closed contact off the same switch. That matters when your panel input expects normally closed supervision but you also want a normally open signal for something else, or when the existing wiring is the opposite polarity from what you assumed. You pick the pair at termination instead of ordering a different switch.

Concealed is what the 679-05HM is. The switch mortises into the door edge and frame so nothing shows on the face of the opening, which is what you want on a corridor or a lobby door where a surface housing gets kicked, painted over, or defeated. The trade off is that concealed means drilling the door and frame, so it is far easier on a new opening or during a frame replacement than as a retrofit on a door already hung and finished. If you cannot take the door down, a surface mount contact is the practical choice.

One per leaf. A concealed magnetic switch reads one door's position relative to the frame, so a pair needs a switch in each leaf if you want to know which leaf is standing open. Wire the two normally closed contacts in series into a single panel input if you only care that the opening as a whole is secure, or take them to separate inputs to identify the leaf.

Check the listing that matters before treating them as interchangeable: the Schlage 679-05HM carries UL10C/CAN-ULC-S104, the positive pressure fire test standard that an institutional or MRO buyer needs when the switch is going into a fire-rated hollow metal door and frame assembly. The RCI 960 series is an SPDT switch built for second position control, and its identity in the catalog is the 960 series designation rather than a hollow metal fire assembly application. Both switch the same SPDT contact form, so the wiring back to the panel is comparable, but on a fire-rated opening the deciding factor is the assembly listing rather than the contact configuration, and that is where the 679-05HM is the one specified for hollow metal doors and frames.

Yes, as long as the leaf and the frame are hollow metal. Magnetic position switches of this kind are used to monitor roof hatches and gates the same way they monitor doors, since all the switch cares about is the magnet's proximity to the frame. The limit is the substrate: the 679-05HM is specified for hollow metal, so a wood hatch cover or a chain link gate is a different switch.