Huge Increase in Lock Prices and What You Can Do About It
Due to the U.S. – Canada Trade War, everything in the Lock and Door Hardware sphere will experience huge price increases starting March 21st, 2025. That’s when all the major U.S. lock manufacturers are raising prices from 14% to 18% due to the impact of tariffs. Combined with the usual annual price of 4% to 5%, this will result in price increases ranging from 18% to 23% across the board.
These significant lock and door hardware price increases will include all the product lines including, but not limited to:
- Deadbolts
- Knobs and Levers
- Mortise Locksets
- Door Closers
- Hinges
- Commercial Steel and Residential Steel Clad Doors
- Knock Up and Welded Steel Door Frames
- Aluminum Thresholds
- Aluminum Frame Retail Glass Doors
- Fire Rated and Non-fire rated push bars/exit devices
- Electronic Deadbolts and Levers
- Electric Strikes and Magnetic Door Locks
- Access Control
- Keypads
- Fobs
- Controllers
- Power Supplies
- Handicap Push Buttons
- Automatic Door Openers
I mean, the list goes on and on. The March 21st start date on price increases has been confirmed for Dormakaba and Assa Abloy product lines which include brands such as:
- Dorma
- Kaba
- Ilco
- Silca
- Best
- Assa Abloy
- Yale
- HID
- Abloy
- Adams Rite
- Alarm Controls
- Arrow
- Baldwin
- Corbin Russwin
- Ditec
- HES
- Interlock
- Lawrence
- McKinney
- Medeco
- Mul-T-lock
- Norton Rixson
- Papaiz
- Pemko
- Sargent
- Securitech
- Securitron
- Tesa
- Vingcard
- Weiser
There are 190 brands under Assa Abloy and the above list has just the brands I see regularly in the Vancouver and the Greater Vancouver area. All of these brands will see price increases close to 20% starting on March 21st.
The other major conglomerate in our industry, Allegion, has yet to announce price increases. However, they are expected to make similar price increases in conjunction with their competitors. Allegion brands popular in the Vancouver and surrounding municipalities include:
- CISA
- Falcon
- Dexter
- Ives
- LCN
- Locknetics
- Schlage
- Stanley Access Technologies
- Von Duprin
Basically, these 3 brands roughly control all the major lock and door hardware brands in North America and Europe.
So what can you do?
There are two easy ways to get around paying the large price increases due to the tariffs.
The first one is time sensitive and the second not so much.
#1: Stock up on spare parts before March 21, 2025
I would never encourage hoarding, but strategic pre-purchasing is never a bad thing if the budget allows for it. If you are planning on renovating your home or office, I would highly encourage you to purchase your lock and door hardware before March 21st. This will lock-in a certain price point.
Besides the obvious advantage in beating the deadline, there are a few negative aspects you need to consider:
- You will need to invest a lump-sum of cash into assets you may not need in the near future.
- Custom orders and special finishes that need to be ordered from the factory will not fit into the March 21st deadline.
- You will need to store the items in a secure, climate-controlled space for a significant amount of time.. This may incur storage costs.
I can’t stress the last point enough. I have worked on projects where the client stored the hardware in less-than-ideal conditions which either ruined the products mechanically, electronically, and/or destroyed the finishes. There’s no point spending all that money if you don’t have a good place to store it.
#2: Seek Alternatives
Anyone who has read my blog articles or met me knows that I’m not a huge fan of off-brands and knock-offs. I started my business with the philosophy of installing quality products with a high level of professional care. That way, we don’t have call-backs to fix the same problem over-and-over again.
However, over the years, it has been hard not to notice the increasing price gaps between the off-brands and the branded products from Dormakaba, Assa Abloy, and Allegion.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the high inflation broke the proverbial camel’s back and we began installing more off-brands. These off-brands include products from:
- Dorex
- Canaropa
- Halsco
- Spartan
- GMS
When I first started my business, a Schlage Grade 2 Lever retailed for about twice the price of a Canaropa copy. As of 2025, the same Schlage lever (albeit with an AL to ALX redesign but meeting the same standards) is about four times more expensive.
Is the more popular brand worth 4x the price of the off-brand copy? I would say it depends on the client and the client needs. Here are some of the factors you should consider before seeing a cheaper alternative.
Factor #1: Level of Expected Traffic
The first factor I consider during consultations with my clients is the number of times a door will be used on a daily basis. For example, some doors like the emergency stairwell doors on the 32nd floor of a condo tower rarely get any use nor any attempted break-ins.
Meanwhile the bottom first to fifth floor stairwell doors may see significant use as users may decide to walk up/down the stairs to avoid the elevator. Also there usually are more attempted break-ins on those doors as well.
In this case, I would recommend the “good” stuff on the bottom floors and perhaps the cheaper stuff on the top floors.
Rule of thumb is that higher traffic doors need the higher quality locks while lower traffic doors can get away with lower quality locks.
Factor #2: Exterior or Interior Door
While those of us living and working in Vancouver enjoy a fairly temperate climate, our weather conditions are getting more extreme like the rest of the planet. So it really does matter if the door is an exterior freestanding, perimeter or interior door.
The more exposure a lock/door has to things like humidity, heat/cold, rain/snow, etc, the better it is to use a higher quality or grade of hardware. Better quality locks tend to weather the outdoor conditions a lot better.
This is due to things like more brass and other non-ferrous alloys like stainless steel, heavier springs, better finishes and coatings, designs to allow water to run-off, more and better quality grease, etc.
During the cold snap a couple of years ago, I had several clients with the cheaper Dorex/Canaropa levers whose handles snapped or shattered from the cold. Instead of using solid brass or surgical grade stainless steel, the cheaper levers used a thin pot metal handle with a large plastic piece to bulk it out.
The same off-brand lever may last a decade inside a light traffic interior door, but it is not a good choice when facing the elements.
Another option to consider would be to upgrade from a Grade 2 Off-Brand to a Grade 1 Off-Brand product. Generally, we find the Grade 2 Major Brand and a Grade 1 Off-Brand to be priced similarly. Nevertheless, the Grade 1 Off-Brand will always be better than the former as it is designed to meet a much higher bare minimum standard.
Factor #3: Expected Level of Performance
The old adage of “you get what you pay for” applies to the locksmithing world in terms of both product and expert service. For example, I get quite a number of calls from price shoppers who are just looking for the cheapest locksmith service possible. I happily tell them our cost because there is always someone willing to do it for a cheaper price. We cannot make everyone happy.
Similarly, please don’t expect the highest level of performance from the off-brands. In my experience, the finish won’t last as long, it might start drooping, and it won’t have the same snappy heavy duty springs that is the hallmark of the “good” stuff. Even right out of the box, I had clients comment that the lever or something looks and feels cheap. My response is that it feels and looks cheap because it is cheaper than the “good” stuff!
In North America, every lock and door hardware meets a certain ANSI or BHMA minimum standards for the Grade they belong in. These standards include certain performance requirements divided into four categories:
- Operation
- Durability
- Security
- Appearance
Different types of hardware will have different standards per category. For example, here are some common durability standards as of the latest BHMA A156 standards.
| Type | Grade 1 | Grade 2 | Grade 3 |
| Deadbolt | 1,000,000 | 400,000 | 200,000 |
| Lever/Knob | 1,000,000 | 400,000 | 200,000 |
| Push Bar/Exit Device | 500,000 | 250,000 | 100,000 |
| Mortise Lock | 1,000,000 | 800,000 | 800,000 |
| Door Closers | 2,000,000 | 1,000,000 | 500,000 |
While these numbers seem impressive, there are two things to note. First, these are just the average number of cycles (open/close) and there are other standards when it comes to factors such as Security.
Regardless, it is easy to see that some categories of locks just start off with a higher standard. For example, a lot of newer condo buildings and most commercial buildings use mortise locks vs the typical cylindrical bored locks. Mortise locks are just designed to last longer compared to their more simpler counterparts.
Coming back to the question of off-brand vs major brand. It is one thing to meet the minimum standard and another to exceed it. For comparison, a Grade 1 mortise lock from Lawrence/Taymor/etc should meet the 1,000,000 cycle testing standards. However, the Sargent 8200 Series Grade 1 not only meets the 1 million cycle, it is designed to last on average 20 million cycles.
If you had a choice between hiring an employee who just barely obtained his/her qualifications and another who was top of the class, which do you prefer? Obviously the latter as long as the budget allows.
Conclusion
In conclusion, all the major lock and door hardware brands will be increasing in price by around 25% by the end of March. You can offset the impact by stockpiling items for your project(s) before the March 21st, 2025 deadline. Another way would be to seek cheaper alternatives in the off-brand product lines. However, you should remember that “you get what you pay for”. So cheaper alternatives may alleviate the burden of the U.S tariffs, they may not be the best choice for longer-term value and performance.
One final factor I would add is the question of master keying. Never ever master key off-brand cylinders. Stick with the Major Brand Original cylinders. Master Key Systems require a level of precision manufacturing for long-term performance that the cheaper knock-offs are not budgeted for. The master pins will wear down the cheaper cylinder plugs and you will have problems with both the locks and keys down the road.
As always, if you have any questions or comments please call or text me at 604-363-2760 or email me at alex@locksmithvancouver.com. Or you can visit our Downtown Vancouver Key Store located at L21A – 555 W Hastings St. The Key Store is open Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm while Mobile Service is available every day from 8am to 11:30pm.
