An exit device has one job that cannot be negotiated: a person pushes the bar and the door opens, first time, in the dark, in smoke, with no knowledge of how the hardware works. Everything else it does — keeping the door locked, controlling access, reporting to a panel — is secondary to that.

Which is why the failures that matter on an exit device are rarely the ones that get reported. A device that will not lock generates a call that afternoon. A device that will not release generates nothing at all until the day it matters.

Dogging: the Feature Most Often Misused

Dogging holds the latch retracted so the door push-pulls freely without the latch engaging. It is for business hours — a shop that wants a free-swinging door while staff are present.

Two things go wrong with it constantly.

The first is that it gets left dogged overnight. The door looks closed and is not locked, and nobody notices because the handle behaves identically either way. The second is that dogging gets used as a workaround for a device that has stopped latching properly. Someone dogs it to stop the door sticking, and a mechanical fault becomes a permanent security hole.

Fire-Rated Doors Cannot Be Dogged

This is the part that gets missed. Mechanical dogging is not permitted on a fire-rated exit device, because a fire door has to latch to do its job — an unlatched fire door is a hole in a fire separation regardless of whether it looks shut. Fire-rated devices either have no dogging at all or use electric latch retraction that drops out on alarm.

If someone has fitted a hex key dogging device to a fire exit door, or filed down a latch to stop it catching, the door’s rating has been defeated and the label no longer describes what is on the building.

Why Devices Stop Latching

The single most common real fault, and it is almost always alignment rather than the device.

The door is not closing fully. A tired closer, a stiff hinge or a dragging bottom means the door arrives at the frame without enough momentum to latch. The device is fine; the door never reaches it properly.

The strike has moved. Frame settlement, a loosened strike, or a door that has sagged puts the latch and the strike out of register by a few millimetres. On a rim device the latch then catches on the strike lip instead of dropping behind it.

The latch itself is worn. Years of catching on a misaligned strike rounds off the latch, at which point even a corrected strike will not hold it reliably.

Vertical rods out of adjustment. On surface or concealed vertical rod devices, the top and bottom latches have to arrive at their strikes together. Rods drift out of adjustment and one latch stops engaging, which halves the door’s holding force and is invisible from the push side.

Why Devices Stop Releasing — the Serious Ones

These are the faults worth looking for deliberately, because nobody reports them.

Corrosion and grit in the mechanism. Exterior doors, loading areas and anywhere washed down regularly collect contamination inside the device. The bar still moves, but it needs more force than it should.

Binding from a racked door. A door under pressure — a wind-loaded exterior opening, or a slab that has twisted — puts side load on the latch. The latch then needs more push to retract, sometimes considerably more.

Something added to the door. A chain, a secondary deadbolt, a padlock on a hasp, a bar across the inside. These appear because someone had a security concern, and they turn a code-compliant exit into a trap. Any additional locking device on an exit door that requires a key, a tool or more than one action to release is a problem regardless of intent.

Electrified hardware failing locked. Electric strikes, electric latch retraction and maglocks all have a defined behaviour on power loss, and that behaviour is part of the design. A unit that has been wired or replaced without regard to fail-safe versus fail-secure can leave an exit locked during exactly the event the device exists for.

What a Real Inspection Checks

The checks are quick and the order matters, because each one depends on the last.

• Push the bar from a standing start, with one hand, without bracing. It should release easily and consistently along the full width of the bar — not just in the middle.
• Let the door close on its own from 90 degrees. Does it latch every time, unaided?
• Confirm the device is not dogged, and on a rated door confirm it cannot be.
• On vertical rod devices, check that both top and bottom latches engage.
• Look for anything added: chains, bolts, hasps, bars, signage covering hardware.
• Check that the door swings in the direction of egress and that nothing obstructs the path on the outside.
• On electrified units, confirm what happens on power loss and on alarm — and test it rather than assuming.
• On a rated assembly, check that the label is present and legible, and that no field modification has compromised it.

Requirements vary by occupancy, building and jurisdiction, and the authority having jurisdiction is who settles any specific question. But the push test and the self-latching test are universal, and they catch the majority of real problems in under a minute per door.

Repair, Rebuild or Replace

Exit devices are built to be serviced. Latches, end caps, bars, dogging assemblies, rods and trim are replaceable parts, and a device with a worn latch on a sound chassis is a repair rather than a replacement.

Replacement becomes the answer in three situations: the chassis is corroded or cracked; the device is old enough that parts are no longer available; or the device was never the right grade for the traffic it is carrying. That last one is the most common and the least diagnosed — a light-duty device on a high-traffic entrance will keep failing no matter how well it is serviced, and continuing to repair it is the expensive option. Getting the grade matched to the opening is the part of panic bar and exit device repair that determines whether you are back next quarter.

It is also worth doing this alongside the rest of the opening. The device, the closer, the hinges and the frame all affect each other, and a commercial door repair that corrects the device while leaving a closer that cannot shut the door has not fixed the latching problem.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add a deadbolt to an exit door for extra security?

Not in a way that requires separate operation to get out. An exit door has to release with a single motion in the direction of travel. If the premises need more security, the answer is a higher-grade exit device, electrified access control, or an alarm — not a second lock that someone has to think about during an evacuation.

Our exit door is only used as a fire exit. Does it still need servicing?

More than a busy one, in practice. A door that is never cycled is where corrosion, seized mechanisms and quietly misadjusted rods go unnoticed, precisely because nobody touches it until the alarm goes.

What is the difference between a rim device and a vertical rod device?

A rim device latches into a strike on the frame at the latch edge. A vertical rod device latches at the top of the frame, the floor, or both. Vertical rod devices are common on double doors where there is no mullion for a rim strike to attach to.

The bar works but it is stiff. Is that a problem?

Yes, and it is the fault most worth acting on. Stiffness means contamination, binding or side load. The bar you can push today is the bar someone has to push in an emergency, possibly in a crowd, possibly without being able to see it.

Can the dogging be disabled on a non-rated device?

Usually, and on premises where doors keep being left dogged overnight it is a reasonable thing to ask for. The alternative is a procedural fix, and procedures lose to habit over a long enough period.