By Kent · Lock Depot Staff Writer

The Strike Wasn't Bad. The Power Feeding It Was.

A property manager called about a front-door strike that failed twice in fourteen months, both times the same way: it started sticking on release, then stopped pulling in at all. Two brand-new strikes, two early failures, same wiring, same power supply. Nobody had touched the strike wrong. The building had. It shared an electrical panel with the elevator and the rooftop HVAC units, and every time a compressor kicked on, the strike's power line saw a voltage spike it was never built to absorb. The strike wasn't the problem. What was feeding it was.

This is exactly what the HES SMART Pac III (2005M3) exists to catch, and it's a part most people never think to spec until they've already replaced a strike once for no reason they can identify.

HES SMART Pac III: An In-Line Filter, Not a Strike

The HES SMART Pac III is an in-line power controller that installs between the power supply and the strike itself, a plug-in job with no rewiring of the opening. It doesn't replace or upgrade the strike. It sits in the circuit ahead of the solenoid and filters dirty power before that power ever reaches the coil. HES backs it with a concrete number: installing the 2005M3 extends the HES strike warranty from five years to ten, which is the manufacturer's own way of saying they expect it to meaningfully extend the strike's working life, not just its paperwork.

What "Dirty Power" Actually Means on a Job Site

Most commercial buildings don't run clean, stable voltage to every circuit all day. Older transformers sag and spike as load shifts. A shared circuit with an elevator motor, a compressor, or heavy HVAC equipment throws a voltage transient every time that equipment cycles on or off. A strike's solenoid is a coil of wire built to pull in reliably at its rated voltage, and every surge above that rating stresses the coil a little more, whether or not it's enough to fail the door that day. Over months, that stress is what shows up as a solenoid that runs hot, sticks, or stops pulling in cleanly, long before it should have worn out on cycle count alone.

None of this shows up as an obvious wiring fault on a meter check at install time. It shows up months later as a strike that "just died," on a job where everything tested fine when it went in.

When to Actually Spec It

Not every opening needs one. A new building on modern, dedicated circuits with a clean power supply and no shared heavy equipment on the same panel is a low-risk install as-is. The 2005M3 earns its place on the jobs where the power itself is the suspect: older buildings with aging transformers, any strike sharing a electrical closet or panel with elevator or HVAC equipment, a retrofit where the existing power supply is unknown or inherited from a previous system, or any opening that has already burned through a strike faster than it should have for no wiring reason anyone can find. If a strike is dying early and the wiring checks out clean, the power feeding it is the next thing to suspect, and the SMART Pac III is the fix that sits ahead of the coil instead of after the failure.

It's Cheap Insurance Against a Truck Roll

A second service call to swap a failed strike costs a technician's time, a new strike, and a tenant or facility manager who now doubts the hardware. The SMART Pac III installs once, in-line, in the time it takes to make the same connections the strike wiring already needs. On a job with a known dirty-power history, or on any install going into an older commercial panel shared with heavy equipment, it's the kind of part that pays for itself the first time it prevents exactly the callback described above rather than causing one.

Lock Depot Sells It New, Full Warranty

Every HES part sold through Lock Depot ships new with the full manufacturer warranty behind it, the SMART Pac III included. There's no gray-market risk on a part this small and this easy to overlook on a bill of materials, and no reduced coverage because it looks like an accessory instead of a strike.

Common questions

Does the HES SMART Pac III work with any HES electric strike?

It's an in-line power controller designed to install between an HES strike and its power supply, wired ahead of the solenoid regardless of which strike model is on the door.

Does installing it change how the strike is wired to the panel?

No. It's a plug-in, in-line addition between the existing power supply and the strike. It doesn't require rewiring the opening itself.

Do I need one on every HES strike I install?

Not on a clean, modern electrical system. It earns its place on older buildings, panels shared with heavy equipment like elevators or HVAC, or any opening where a strike has already failed early with no wiring cause found.

What does it actually do to the power reaching the strike?

It filters dirty power and protects the solenoid from voltage surges before they reach the coil, which is what HES credits for doubling the strike's rated warranty when the SMART Pac III is installed ahead of it.

Is this a warranty add-on or does it change how the strike performs day to day?

Both. HES extends the warranty from five to ten years with it installed, and the practical effect on a dirty-power circuit is a strike that runs cooler and lasts longer instead of stressing on every voltage spike.

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Shop the full HES electric strike line for the strike itself, or read how to pick the right HES strike for an access-controlled metal-frame door and how the HES 9600 handles a windstorm-rated coastal opening before deciding whether this job also needs the SMART Pac III ahead of it.