A digital door lock (locking device) sold through direct purchase on the Chinese shopping platform AliExpress has been confirmed to have a significant possibility of not opening or exploding when a fire occurs.
On the 18th, the Korea Consumer Agency tested 10 types of digital door locks made in China sold through direct purchase on AliExpress, and found that 3 types could not open the door during a fire, and 5 types had secondary batteries that exploded.
Digital door locks should be structured to allow residents to open the entrance door manually with a lever even in high temperatures, enabling evacuation during a fire. However, the agency noted that in this test, the lever of 3 types melted, preventing the opening of the door in emergencies.
To verify this, the consumer agency heated the locked door lock from room temperature to 270 degrees for 30 minutes, and then checked the operation of the manual lever.
In the case of 5 types of products powered by lithium secondary batteries, the batteries ignited and exploded at temperatures between 170 to 260 degrees, before reaching 270 degrees.
Currently, domestic digital door locks cannot use secondary batteries. However, starting from May 7, the use of secondary batteries will be possible, so the consumer agency advised that if purchasing, consumers must choose products that have received "KC safety certification."
The consumer agency pointed out that one type of digital door lock sold on AliExpress could not open the entrance door externally when the internal battery was discharged.
Digital door locks should allow opening the door using an emergency power supply terminal installed externally when the internal battery is discharged, but the product in question lacked a terminal, requiring damage to the lock or the entrance door to gain access.
Additionally, while the positions and sizes (drilling standards) of holes for installing domestic digital door locks are standardized, all 10 types sold on AliExpress differed from domestic standards. This led to an additional expense during installation and the issue that the entrance door must be restored to its original state when moving.
The consumer agency notified AliExpress of problems with 6 products that cannot open the door or have explosion risks when a fire occurs, and noted that the AliExpress side has blocked searches and sales for those products.
AliExpress has decided to refund consumers who purchased the 6 types. Consumers who bought the products can contact AliExpress customer service to receive their refunds.