Exit Device Comparison 2026: Every Push Bar in the Range by Length, Latching and Door

A search for panic bars on a supplier's site usually returns a wall of near-identical photographs: a red or silver bar, a gray housing, a model number. The differences that decide whether a device fits the door are in the specification rows, and on most sites they are spread across dozens of pages. This guide puts every exit device in our catalog on one page, as of 27 October 2026, so the comparison can be made in a few minutes rather than an afternoon.

HYDE (Canton Hyland, Zhongshan, since 1998) makes the 300, 302 and 307 covered in this article.

First, what the family actually contains. There are 37 published records in our panic exit device family, and 23 of them are exit devices. The other 14 are the parts that go with them: 12 outside trims (the lever or handle on the pull side of the door), one lock case for the 307 and the 036 door coordinator. Trims have their own guide on this site, and the other door coordinators that pairs need are listed with the hardware accessories; this page is about the devices.

How to read the tables

Every cell comes from a specification row on the product page. Where a device publishes a row, the table shows it in the words the record uses; where it does not, the cell says not listed. Lengths are the published bar lengths, in millimeters with inches alongside. There is no material column: apart from the 315 touch bar, which is iron, and the 311, which is ABS with aluminum, every device here has an aluminum alloy body and an iron push bar.

Of the 23 devices, 15 publish a length. That is the single most important row for a push bar, because the bar has to suit the leaf it is fitted to, and it is the row buyers most often send us without. Our article on push bar length explains how to measure the leaf so the length question has an answer.

Single doors: devices with a published length

These are the rim-type push bars for a single leaf that publish their length. A rim device latches into a strike on the frame at the lock edge, one point, and is the ordinary choice for a single escape door.

Two groupings are worth pointing out. The 307 and the 311 are not rim devices in the ordinary sense: each works with a mortise lock body in the door, the 307 with our 072 case (65mm backset, 72mm center distance, two euro cylinder apertures) and the 311 as a complete set. Choose one of those where the door already has, or needs, a mortise lock and a keyed cylinder on the outside.

Where a project has many door widths, the adjustable 300 and 302 are usually the economical answer: one part number cut or set to each leaf, rather than a different fixed length per opening. Only devices published as adjustable, or made to length like the 330, should be shortened; a fixed-length device cut on site is no longer the device that was supplied.

Pairs of doors and multi-point latching

A pair of doors is where exit devices differ most, and where a wrong choice is most expensive. A rim device on each leaf only works where there is a center mullion for the strikes. Without one, the inactive leaf has to be held at the top and the bottom, which is what vertical-rod and multi-point devices do.

The 316-D is the pair set that publishes the most, and it states its latching in words: top and bottom. The 308-D comes with top and bottom rods for a leaf up to 2400mm high. The 309-D states that it works the active and inactive leaf, with a 1100mm bar, and the 306-D lists the longest bar in the range, 1200mm, for leaves up to 1300 × 2500mm. On any pair, the device is only half the answer: the leaves also have to close in the right order, which is the coordinator's job, and our article on door coordinators for double fire doors covers that. Our coordinators, the DC01, DC02 and DSL02, are listed with the hardware accessories.

One record in this table does not say how it latches. We are not going to give the 306-D the rows of its neighbors: ask, and we will confirm its latching against the drawing before you specify it.

Special purposes

Four devices are built for one situation each, and each is the right answer only there.

The 314 is the device for a door that must be escapable but should not be used casually, a fire exit from a shop floor for example: pushing the bar opens the door and sounds the alarm. The 317 answers a safety question that ordinary hardware does not: a person shut inside a cold store must be able to get out without a key, from the inside, in the cold. The 315 is a touch bar for commercial emergency exits, in painted iron at 800 or 1000mm; like every record on this page it lists no test standard, so check it against the one your door has to meet.

Records that do not list enough to compare

Five devices have a photograph and a page but too few rows to place in a table: the 301, 309-S, 312, 313 and 316-S. Some publish a material and nothing else; for the 312 the material is the only row. The 316-S shares its construction rows with the 316-D (surface mounted, reversible) but not its length. If one of these is the device you want, tell us the leaf and we will confirm the rows before quoting.

Fire ratings on these pages

None of these records states a fire duration. A fire duration means something only as the rating of a tested door assembly, identified in a report or a listing, and none of these records publishes one. We do not hold a UL listing; the 307 and 311 do not hold certificates today, and until certificate numbers exist we will not imply a listing or a rating for them. Our article on UL 305 explains what a listing is and how to check one.

Choosing, in four questions

Is it one leaf or a pair? A pair without a center mullion needs top and bottom latching and a coordinator, which narrows the choice to the second table. How wide is the leaf? That decides the length, and whether an adjustable device or a made-to-length one is the economical answer. Does the outside need a key or a lever? Then choose a device that works with the trim you need, or a set like the 311 that includes it. And does the door face something other than an ordinary corridor, a cold store or an alarmed exit? Then the special-purpose table is the place to start.

Send those four answers with the leaf size and the door thickness, and the first reply can name a device and a trim. Send a photograph of a red bar, and the first reply will be these four questions.