Yup the workmanship is important. Cheap grilles cut corners and have major flaws in core components e.g hinges, weld joinery quality, padlock ears, material thickness, even common parts - how well the (floor- and ceiling- position locking bars and the opposite matching hole for the grille lock) are made, determines the strength of a grille - whether its a strong one that requires ten minutes to saw through, or something that can be easily defeated in seconds with a hydraulic jack/hammer/crowbar.

Of course all those are qualitative components which can't readily be measured with $ and cents. I am very pleased with my 3kim grille as compared to the cheap one my neighbours took.

This post has been edited by ceo684: May 8 2019, 12:06 PM

Yes, compared with whole floor, my unit's grille done by threekim is the best looking.

Many horror stories of bulk order grille maker. No show for remeasure because too busy fixing up mismeasured orders. Or need to take down like five times edit back to factory. Unless one is full time housewife no need to take leave the value of those annual leaves already cost many hundreds of RM more than threekim price differential.

I got mine with threekim. Measurement perfect and come on time. Installer plug and play no need bring up welding kit - because if already cun measurement for what need to edit. One time measure. One time install. Perfect.

It can range from 700 to 1500 for a typical door. Depending on materials and powder coat or just spray paint.

ElCheapo (bulk purchase) contractor, multiple edits needed also need more AL leaves to settle, work output does not follow management design spec, measurement off by two inches, no show for measurement appt waste my leave. If add together my leaves also probably cost more than the grille itself.

If you have too much time to baby sit them or WFH nowadays if it doesn't cost leaves, then maybe can try the more exciting route. This will tick the box for "have a grille" lah.

Premium contractor, no edit needed, 1x measure 1x install, came 15min early for appt, look for threekim. Weld quality also nicer.

This post has been edited by ceo684: Mar 29 2021, 05:50 PM

Threekim pricing is certainly not the cheapest, they focus on very good quality output, if take only main door maybe pricey, if do 200sf total aka whole unit OR u do a controlled bulk of 5 ppl (max 10) then wont be expensive at all.

Do not do bulk more than 5 to 10pax
Your turn be like #57 on the list, wait long long, and hard to manage.
If want to do bulk make sure within two hands' fingers can count will be optimum point between manageable and best price. 5 to 10 main door installation can settle within couple days' slot. Below 5 i think can squeeze in to one day if same location. Technically share out the transport cost since same location thats why can be cheaper la. 5 ppl easier to coordinate than 80-100

There's many digital locks around - mostly on door usage for convenience, grille digital lock I think only Abrain has it
see https://abrain.com.my/compare-our-abrain-door-lock/

For grille (this is Msia) not apartment in Kdramas - where we still need grilles here as added physical protection, I wouldn't trust it alone to one single digital lock though. The enemy of the state are using bolt cutters and hacksaws and to some extent, car jacks to pry open grilles.

In terms of price-performance for security I still trust triple duty of:
Viro padlock + Viro 4143 padlock + St Guchi standard grille lock.
3kim carries St Guchi and can specify which model P/N you want during quoting stage (I did). You can enquire with them if they supply digital locks; else when they come to do measurements I think you can also pass to them then.

They seem to be 2 diff designs one vertical and one horizontal?
Generally if the grille design doesn't have too many weak spots, they will aim to cut the weakest spot i.e. at the padlock 'ears'.

Your imaginationnon how to cut a grille will be using a hacksaw blade, a car jack, or a hammer/crowbar (usually aim at weaker hinge pins).

From Korean series "To catch a criminal, you have to think like one."

They will likely target the easiest method - your padlock ears.
Noone really cuts and yanks the grille anymore.

Whilst the L shape cover protects the padlock ears from direct access, a padlock with larger shank (e.g. Viro 4143) fills up the holes and covers (encases) more area of the padlock ears as a further deterrent.

This post has been edited by ceo684: Apr 14 2021, 12:03 AM


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Time to install laser beam intrusion slicers like resident evil laser beams

3kim hinges better built over the elcheapo grilles. After you install you can walk around and compare

For the same weight, a hollow bar/tube is stronger than a flat bar.
The thickness of material used i.e. 1.2mm over 1.0mm will give some additional protection from bending/yanking; however at the equillibrium point even with best material thickness used also it will just transfer failure point from the hollow bar deformation (like the one in the pic) to the welds of the bars.

With the same material - Longer (vertical design) bars are relatively easier to yank than shorter (horizontal) bars design, due to angular velocity providing lots of leverage with tiny effort.

You may be able to 'cheat' the design approval a little by incorporating more bars than required (ie. More densely located bars than reference design spec); if people fit in 25 bars you fit in 32 bars for the same door size (packing them closer). It adds more time needed to cut and yank back the grille

This post has been edited by ceo684: Apr 14 2021, 01:04 AM


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No need. It will be fine material-wise. The tube structure of hollow section gives more strength against bending as compared to a flat bar of the same mass (weight).

Its more to a deterrent device rather than total bulletproofing like a bank vault door

I used the matte white powder coating (not glossy), no prob Matte look stands out from the typical glossy one that looks like paintjob rather than powder coated..also matte is harder to do

That's weird. Powder coating has one problem, it doesn't fill in the pinholes from welding.

But I installed mine around August 2018 till today still standing strong.
Of the others.. since 2017 RFQ until today never even reply to email.



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Besides the hardware:
Materials (thickness and frame profile), welding of hinges, hinges used, padlock "ears".

The little things:
On time for appointment
No editing required (measurement cun cun).

I've seen alot of popcorn show of friends' new condo grille maker not following design, or other units' mismeasured grilles being way off with few finger gaps (inches off); not few mm off.
And I was stood up by a lousy bulk order group buy contractor that wasted my leaves waiting around for them to come to remeasure.

I did a double layer custom job with removable "security mesh" for about 2k main door only. With uprated material and frame (due to stupid flawed mandated design).

powder coated mild steel or Stainless steel will be good enough.

aluminium waste of money I think, if the grille is supposed to be your security barrier. https://www.rsgsecurity.co.uk/blog/more-faq...uminium-grilles

that 5k should cover main door and all windows easily, exclude balcony multi doors

cant see the pin head design (top view) for 1st type.
hint: the weak part of any hinges is the exposed pin. remove the pin is also another silent method to dismantle grille.

Technically its my main door grille for apartment.. too poor to afford landed it is still in pristine condition, only thing that happened it collected dust only.

Powder coat when done correctly is one of the best coating coz its electrostatically applied. Its used in lot of commercial appliances/lab machine outer boxes too.

Can ref https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/custom-m...powder-coating/

Whether you need a grille vs security door.. that depends on the level of ghettoness/Not-For-Human-Live-One index of your house

This post has been edited by ceo684: Oct 15 2021, 12:07 AM

Looks like a bit on high side.
Should be 1.2mm material for that price bracket.
Get a few quotes to get a feel for pricing. U can contact threekim.

Even some horror stories take leave and installer don't even want to show for measurement.
Wasting my leaves all in all calculate still cheaper to take 3kim direct in the first place, factoring in MY day rate as well.

10" KDK minimum, 12" KDK is good if you cook heavy oily stuffs. 10" can't squeeze thru that easily for burglar tho.

This post has been edited by ceo684: Jan 14 2023, 11:56 PM