You have probably noticed most high crowd businesses use panic bars, or push bars, on their exit doors. Specifically educational places and assembly occupancies have been required to use panic bars on all of their exit doors since the early 2000s. The rule of thumb for panic bars for educational and assembly occupancies is that they must use panic bars if the occupancy holds more than 100 people. Panic bars are also required on all high hazard occupancies with 50 or more people. This is understandable because high hazard companies must be able to provide the fastest possible way for all of its employees and other occupants to evacuate the building in case of an emergency. All of these rules and regulations can be found online through your city’s website so make sure you check it out and get the correct panic hardware installed.

Why are panic bars/push bars required?

What would be the most crucial factor in getting out of a building that caught on fire? Making sure you can quickly push open the door and run out. Opening a door using a regular door handle will not be a problem if there is only 1-5 people in the building because there will not be the same pressure to quickly open the door and get out. However exiting using a regular door handle becomes an issue when you have 50 people pushing to get through the door. What research found out is that the first person who reaches the door has a hard time turning the handle in order to open the door because of all the pushing that goes on in a panic situation. Panic bars on the other hand only require the person to push it and since it covers about 80-90% of the door’s width it is simple to push open and exit. In an emergency situation every second is critical so the fire department made panic bars a requirement for highly crowded places such as schools and assembly occupancies.

What are the benefits of installing a panic bar or push bar?

Safety is not the only benefit of panic bars because a lot of commercial workplaces prefer to use a panic bar even though the law does not require them to use it. This is because panic bars are extremely durable and they are made specifically to last through heavy use and abuse. Door handles cannot handle heavy use especially when people like to pull on them hard and over time they break. Panic bars on the other hand are made specifically to handle heavy use and they will last much longer. This is why businesses prefer to pay a little extra and upgrade to a panic bar or a push bar in order to save the headache of having to deal with broken locks.