I recently wrote a post about a change to NFPA 80 related to field-installed glazing in wood fire doors, and Hal Kelton of DOORDATA Solutions pointed out another change to the standard.  In both the 2022 and 2025 editions of NFPA 80, Section 6.4.4 is called Locks and Latches.  In addition to addressing active latchbolts, dead bolts, and flush bolts, this section covers the labeling of latching hardware.

If you’re not paying close attention, you could miss the change from the 2022 to 2025 edition.  The 2022 edition states:  Fire exit hardware shall be labeled for both fire and panic.  The 2025 edition reads:  Fire exit hardware shall be labeled as such.

Being involved in code development myself, I know that code changes – even small ones, are submitted by someone who has a good reason to propose the change.  It often takes a fair amount of work to convince the committee that the change is worth making.  So I wondered what prompted this change and I spoke to a couple of technical committee members to get some insight.

It seems that there has been some confusion in the field caused by the original wording.  Either panic hardware is being installed on fire doors instead of fire exit hardware, or code officials are looking for indications of both panic and fire on the fire exit hardware label.

As most of you probably know, panic hardware must be listed to UL 305 and is installed on non-fire-rated doors.  Fire exit hardware is panic hardware that is listed to UL 305 AND UL 10C, and is typically installed on fire doors (but may be installed on non-fire-rated doors, IMO).  I don’t see a lot of room for confusion here, but the standard now clearly states the required wording for the label.  Seeing “UL” on the label is not enough, because both panic hardware and fire exit hardware have this symbol.

I have to admit, I hadn’t looked closely at a fire exit hardware label lately, at least not close enough to realize that the labels either state panic hardware or fire exit hardware, not both as the original wording in NFPA 80 would suggest.  Here is a fire exit hardware label from a while back when it was an actual sticker, and the etched panic hardware label that Von Duprin uses now.  I think it’s kind of odd that neither the panic hardware label nor the fire exit hardware label references UL 305.

What do you think about this change to the standard?  Will it help to clarify the requirements?

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