Not sure what you need to order? Here's what you need to know:

Lead or wire length:

Our standard is about 8 inches on a side; plenty to wire up your lock and power wires, but not too much to try and stuff into a service loop (that is where your wire connections go in a hole in the door). If you want a long wire that goes completely through the door, you would order long leads. 

How many wires do I need?

If you have an electrified lock or panic exit device, the 2+4 will do fine, unless you have more than two switches that need to be connected, in which case you would need the 10 wire model. 

Knuckles:

Five knuckle is what we have a photo of at the top of this page. A three knuckle would be one leaf having one large knuckle and one leaf having two smaller knuckles. These are also called Concealed Bearing hinges.

Weight:

The weight of a hinge is determined by the thickness of the hinge leaf material. Rather than measure that thickness though, there is a very simple way to tell the weight on the 5 knuckle hinges (the most popular). If you look at our photo above again, you will notice there are two ball bearing packs. Those are the small (about 1/4 inich) high parts that are between the top and bottom knuckles. Standard weight hinges (most popular) have two of those bearing packs. Heavy weight have four bearing packs. 

Determining Size:

Hinge size is measured by the height first, then by the width. A hinge is only measured from the flat steel of the hinge (the leaf) and never including the post, or pin head. 

Corners:

Round corners are usually used for certain types of frames. Kawneer aluminum frames typically have a round corner of 1/4 inch, but may also be 5/8th inch. 

And last but not least, if you are unsure of exactly what you need, you can contact us through the web contact form, or, you can call us toll free (800) 500-1449.