To the untrained eye, they can look similar: a mesh screen in a frame, fitted over a window or door. So it’s a fair question – and one we hear regularly at our Kunda Park showroom – what makes Crimsafe different from the flyscreens my house already has?
The short answer: they’re not even in the same category. One keeps out mosquitoes. The other is an engineered security barrier that happens to keep out mosquitoes too. As a licensed Crimsafe manufacturer here on the Sunshine Coast since 1997, we have been building these screens locally every day. So, let’s break down exactly where the differences lie, and why they matter for your home.
What a standard flyscreen is designed to do
A conventional flyscreen has one job: insect protection. The mesh is typically lightweight fibreglass or thin aluminium, held into the frame with a rubber spline – a flexible cord pressed into a channel. That construction is perfectly adequate for its purpose. It’s also cost effective and easy to replace, which is why it’s the default fitting on most Australian homes.
But that same construction is the flyscreen’s fundamental limitation. The mesh tears with a fingernail, sags in the sun, and pops out of its spline under the smallest amount of pressure. A flyscreen offers zero resistance to:
- An intruder, who can cut or push through it in seconds
- A determined pet
- A child leaning against it – which is why safety authorities are explicit that flyscreens must never be relied on to prevent a child falling from a window
If you can push a finger through it, it’s not protecting anything bigger than a fly.
What Crimsafe is designed to do
Crimsafe starts from a completely different engineering brief: build a screen that can withstand deliberate, sustained attack and still look like a screen, not a cage.
The mesh. Crimsafe uses Tensile-Tuff® mesh, woven from high-tensile 304-grade stainless steel wire that’s 26% thicker than the standard alternatives. It’s a structural material, not insect netting.
The fixing system. This is the part most people never see, and it’s where Crimsafe genuinely stands apart. Instead of a rubber spline, Crimsafe’s patented Screw-Clamp™ system mechanically clamps the mesh into the frame with screws. Under attack, most security screens fail at the edges – the mesh separates from the frame. The Screw-Clamp™ system means the mesh and frame behave as one unit, distributing force across the whole screen.
The proof. Australian Standards set the benchmark: a compliant security screen must withstand a 100-joule impact under AS5041 testing. Crimsafe Regular withstands 550 joules – more than five times the requirement and Crimsafe Ultimate reaches 750 joules.
The side-by-side reality
Security. Flyscreen: none. Crimsafe: independently tested against impact, knife shear, jemmy attack, and pull force. This is the entire reason the category exists.
Insect protection. Both do the job, but Crimsafe does it with mesh that won’t tear, sag, or need re-splining every few summers.
Child safety. A flyscreen will not stop a child falling from a window. Crimsafe screens, properly installed, can satisfy the National Construction Code’s fall prevention requirements – withstanding well over the mandated 250-newton force. One screen, and the window can open fully without risk. (We covered this in detail in our recent post on childproofing windows without losing airflow.)
Airflow and views. Both allow ventilation, and Crimsafe’s fine stainless mesh keeps sightlines clear, with no bars or grilles interrupting your outlook.
Durability. Fibreglass flyscreen mesh degrades in Queensland UV and coastal air within a few years. Marine-grade stainless steel is built for exactly those conditions, a meaningful difference anywhere on the Sunshine Coast, and especially in beachside suburbs.
Storm resistance. In a region that cops summer storms and cyclone warnings, there’s real value in a screen engineered to resist wind-borne debris rather than one that shreds in the first serious blow.
“But my windows already have flyscreens, do I replace them all?”
Not necessarily, and this is where honest local advice matters. Many of our clients take a staged approach: Crimsafe on entry doors and accessible ground-floor windows first – the points an intruder would actually target, with other openings upgraded over time. Upper-floor bedroom windows with fall risks for young children are another common priority. During a free measure and quote, we’ll walk your home with you and recommend where Crimsafe delivers genuine value and where it doesn’t need to be first in line.
The cost question, answered honestly
Yes, Crimsafe costs more than a flyscreen, because it’s a fundamentally different product, the same way a security door costs more than a flyscreen door. What you’re paying for is engineered stainless steel mesh, a patented clamping system, independent certification, and custom fabrication. And because every screen we supply is manufactured in our own Kunda Park facility and made to measure for your openings, you’re not paying for freight from interstate or a one-size-fits-most compromise.
Flyscreens are replaced every few years. A Crimsafe screen is a long-term fixture that adds security, safety, and value to your home for decades.
See the difference for yourself
The best way to understand the gap between a flyscreen and Crimsafe is to put your hands on both – feel the mesh, test the frame. Visit our Kunda Park showroom or call North Coast Blinds & Security on (07) 5456 2199 to book your free measure and quote.