How should you maintain electronic locks? We at Omnitec, a specialist access control company, give you a series of tips so that your devices work better and for longer.
Like conventional locks, electronic locks also require periodic maintenance: small actions to help extend their useful life and prevent breakdowns.
The most important things in the maintenance of electronic lock systems are regular cleaning and changing the batteries when they run out. Applying such simple care, locks installed 15 years ago can still work perfectly today.
However, provided below, are 6 maintenance tips to extend their useful life and prevent faults:
6 Tips for proper maintenance of electronic locks
How should you properly maintain electronic locks in a hotel or institution? The best thing is to establish a series of tasks that should be carried out during the daily cleaning of the room, annually and every 5 years or so.
These steps can be used for Omnitec electronic locks and, in general, can be extended to other products on the market, while taking into account the particularities of each manufacturer. Let's begin!
1. Battery level control and replacement
Electronic locks work with batteries, so one of the key issues in their maintenance is to check their charge level. Alkaline batteries that guarantee a useful life of 1.5 to 2 years, depending on how much the lock is operated, should always be used.
Most electronic locks you will find on the market have visual or acoustic indicators to notify staff when their battery is low. On Bluetooth-equipped Omnitec locks and devices, the battery level is also indicated on the administrator app.
When changing the batteries, you should clean the springs and contactors in the battery compartment to prevent premature degradation due to an accumulation of lead sulphate crystals, which makes them fail sooner.
2. Annual emergency opening
Once a year, you should open the lock with the emergency key and confirm the record in the lock audit. This process guarantees the proper functioning of the cylinder and the switch that records mechanical openings.
3. Lubricate once a year
Once a year, lubricate the handles and bolts with '3-in-one' type lubricating oil. These are designed to lubricate, clean and protect iron components from rust.
4. Adjustment every 5 years
Every 5 years, remove the security escutcheons from the locks to adjust the screws on the handles and other moving parts. Then remove the mortise lock and clean away dust that may have accumulated in the door housing. After this process, you should take advantage of access to these moving parts, inaccessible from the front of the door, by lubricating them with oil or grease.
5. Use the proper daily cleaning products
Another maintenance tip to prolong the useful life of electronic locks is to be as less aggressive as possible with the cleaning products applied to these mechanisms. In fact, when cleaning the rooms, a damp cloth is enough to remove any dust or dirt from the handles, without using any chemical products. These tips are extendible to electronic cylinders, which also do not need cleaning products applied.
6. Perform more periodic maintenance on exterior locks
For locks installed outdoors and within environments with high humidity and/or salinity, maintenance periods should be shortened in proportion to how aggressive the environment is to which the lock is exposed.