Door Access Control System Price in Kenya: One-Door Kit, Part by Part

A one-door access control system in Kenya, built from a fingerprint and card reader, a magnetic lock, an exit button, an emergency break glass, a battery-ready power supply and a door closer, comes to KSh 27,850 in parts from our shop using the list below. That covers the hardware for a single office, server room, store or staff entrance. It does not include the standby battery, a mounting bracket if your door needs one, or installation labour, which is quoted after we have seen the door.

Below is each part, what it costs, where you can save, and the two things people most often get wrong: what a magnetic lock does when the power goes off, and how people get out in an emergency.

What goes into a one-door kit

Every access-controlled door has to do five jobs: identify the person, hold the door shut, let people out from the inside, release the door in an emergency, and stay powered. The parts map onto those jobs.

• Reader and controller. The ZKTeco F18 reads fingerprints and cards, stores up to 3,000 fingerprint templates and 30,000 transactions, and has its own lock output and request-to-exit input, so a single door does not need a separate controller box.
• Magnetic lock (maglock). An electromagnet fixed to the frame and a steel armature plate fixed to the door. Ours is rated at 280 kg (600 lb) holding force, runs on 12 V and suits wooden, metal and glass doors that have a frame.
• Exit button. Mounted on the inside next to the door. Pressing it releases the lock for a few seconds.
• Emergency break glass. A green or yellow call point that cuts power to the lock when the element is broken. It is the backup way out if the reader or exit button fails.
• Override key switch. Lets the owner or guard release the door with a key, useful when the reader is offline.
• Power supply. Converts mains to 12 V DC for the lock and reader. A boxed unit with a battery keeps the door locked through KPLC outages.
• Door closer. A maglock only holds a door that is fully shut. A hydraulic closer pulls the door back onto the plate every time so it is not left ajar.

One-door access control parts list and price

These are our current shop prices. Each item links to its full specifications.

Not included in the subtotal:

• A 12 V 7 Ah sealed standby battery for the boxed power supply. Ask us for the current price.
• An L, Z or glass-door bracket, if the door swings away from the side the lock mounts on or has no frame to fix to.
• Network cable from the F18 to your office switch, if you want to pull logs to a PC over the network.
• Installation labour. We install in Nairobi and quote per door after a site check. Elsewhere in Kenya the parts ship for a flat KSh 300 with cash on delivery; for installation in your town, call or WhatsApp us to discuss your site.

Ways to change the price

The kit above is a sensible middle. These swaps move the total up or down.

Card frequency matters when you buy fobs. The F18 ships with an EM (125 kHz) card, while the Hikvision terminal reads 13.56 MHz M1 cards. Tell us which reader you have when ordering fobs so the two match.

Fail-safe vs fail-secure: what happens when the power goes off

A fail-safe lock releases when it loses power. A fail-secure lock stays locked when it loses power and needs a key, or power restored, to open. A magnetic lock is fail-safe by design. It is an electromagnet, so no current means no holding force: cut the power and the door opens to a push.

That is why maglocks are the usual choice on doors people may need to escape through, and it is also why backup power matters. Without a battery, every KPLC outage leaves the door free to open until power returns. With the boxed supply and a charged battery, the lock keeps holding and the reader keeps working through the outage.

Fail-secure devices, such as electric strikes or bolt locks set to fail-secure, suit cash offices, stores and server rooms where an open door during an outage is the bigger risk and nobody can be trapped behind it. They are not in our online catalogue at the moment, so ask us if your door needs one.

Getting out in an emergency

A door on an escape route must open from the inside without a code, card or finger. The exit button does that in daily use. The break glass is the backup, and how it is wired matters: it should break the power line feeding the magnetic lock directly, not just send a signal to the reader. That way breaking it releases the door even if the reader has frozen or the exit button has failed. Mount it on the inside next to the door, where anyone can reach it.

If the building has a fire alarm panel, ask your installer to link it so that maglocks on escape routes lose power when the panel goes into alarm. Our fire alarm guide for businesses covers the panel side. And never add a padlock, chain or barrel bolt to a maglocked exit door for extra security; it defeats the point of a fail-safe lock.

Power supply and battery backup

The boxed 12 V 1 A unit in the parts list outputs 13.8 V DC, holds a 12 V 7 Ah battery inside its enclosure and charges it, has a front tamper switch, and accepts mains input from 90 to 264 V AC, which helps on sites where voltage dips. When mains fails, the battery takes over without the door releasing.

How long it lasts depends on what the lock and reader draw. Read the current on each device's label or datasheet, add them up, and keep the total comfortably below the supply's 1 A rating. As a rough guide, runtime is battery capacity divided by load: a 7 Ah battery feeding a 0.5 A load gives about 14 hours on paper, and less in practice as the battery ages. If your total load is close to 1 A, use a larger supply.

The 12 V 3 A open unit is good value where battery backup is not needed. Its listing gives an adjustable 12 to 15 V output, short-circuit, overload and over-voltage protection, and a two-year warranty. It has no battery charging, so on its own the door will release in every outage.

Cabling and installation notes

• Cable. Run 6-core cable from the power supply and reader to the lock, exit button, break glass and key switch. One 100 m reel is more than one door needs, and the rest does the next door. On longer runs, double up two cores for the lock's positive and negative to reduce voltage drop.
• Keep everything on the secure side. The power supply, battery and cable should sit inside the protected room, in trunking or conduit. The reader is the only part on the outside.
• Lock position. A standard surface maglock fixes to the top of the frame on the side the door swings towards. If the door swings the other way, or it is frameless glass, you need a bracket. Send us a photo and we will tell you which.
• Alignment. The armature plate must sit flat against the magnet. A sagging door or a plate fitted at an angle gives a weak hold, which is often blamed on the lock.
• Weather. Indoor readers such as the F18 should be under cover. For an exposed gate, look at weatherproof readers in our biometric terminal price guide.

Choosing how people identify themselves

Fobs and cards are cheap at KSh 100 each and fast to use, and a lost fob is deleted from the reader in a minute. The weakness is that a fob can be lent. Fingerprint means nothing to lend or lose, which is why most small offices choose a reader like the F18 and keep a few fobs for visitors or staff whose prints read poorly. Face recognition suits sites where hands are dirty or worn from work, or where you want touch-free entry.

For more than one door, a controller and software start to make sense; our office door access control guide covers that step up, and the apartments and estates guide covers residents, gates and shared entrances. To price your own door, send a photo of both sides on WhatsApp at +254 718 811 661 or use the contact page, and browse the rest of the access control range.