Which Sliding Window Lock: Crescent, Touch, Domal or Maruti?

The lock has to match the section

Before comparing types, establish what section your window is. Aluminium sliding windows are built from several different profile families, and a lock cut for one will not seat in another. A Domal lock fits a Domal section and nothing else.

If you do not know the section — and most homeowners reasonably do not — the quickest route is a photograph of the existing lock and the meeting stile on WhatsApp. That identifies the family in a minute. Working from "aluminium sliding window" alone is not enough to pick a lock.

Crescent locks

The crescent lock is the small rotating lever on the meeting stile that you turn by hand through roughly ninety degrees. As it rotates, a cam draws the two sashes together and holds them under tension against each other.

That drawing action is the point. It does not just stop the window sliding; it pulls the sashes tight, which closes the gap they meet on. That improves the weather seal as well as the security, and it is why a crescent-locked window usually rattles less in wind.

It is the most secure of the common options because the sashes are held under load rather than merely caught. It is also the most familiar to anyone who has used an aluminium window, which matters more than it sounds for a fitting people operate daily.

Touch locks

A touch lock is spring-loaded. Push the window shut and it latches by itself with no second action.

The convenience is real, particularly on a window that is opened and closed many times a day, or a high one where reaching a lever is awkward. The trade-off is grip: a spring latch catches the sash but does not pull it tight, so the seal is less positive and the window is more likely to rattle. It is also generally the easier of the two to defeat.

Reasonable for an internal or upper-floor window. We would not choose it for a ground-floor window on a street.

Domal locks

Domal locks are mortise locks built for Domal-section windows specifically. They sit into the section rather than surface-mounting, which gives a flush appearance and a solid engagement.

There is nothing to decide here beyond confirming the section: if the window is Domal, this is the lock, and if it is not, this lock will not fit.

Maruti locks

A Maruti lock is a compact side latch used widely on residential window frames. It is small, straightforward and inexpensive, and it is a sensible choice for ordinary domestic windows where a full crescent is more than the opening needs.

Also in the range

T-locks, SA-20, are a T-handle security latch for commercial window sashes, where the larger handle suits heavier or more frequently operated windows.

Air lift locks, SA-23, are for vertical sliding sashes rather than horizontal sliders — a different mechanism for a different motion.

When stainless steel is worth it

Most of these locks are available in both mild steel and stainless steel. Mild steel versions are plated, and the plating is what stands between the metal and the air.

In a dry interior, plated mild steel lasts a long time and the extra cost of stainless is hard to justify. In a bathroom, a kitchen, anywhere with sustained humidity, or in industrial air of the kind found around the Korba and Raigarh plants, that plating eventually fails at a scratch and corrosion works underneath it. In those conditions stainless is the cheaper fitting over the life of the window, because it does not get replaced.

Our stainless options are SA-18 for the straight latch and SA-19 for the L-type.