I'm wanting to put a smart lock on my front door, but I have a problem. I have side lights on each side of the door. For those who don't know, those are the decorative windows on each side of the door. The problem is, the existing deadbolt doesn't quite push out all the way when locked, because the hole is drilled all the way to the edge of the side light. So, if I try to drill the hole deeper, it would drill out a space on the side light wood. So I'd end up with a hole to the outside.
That means that if I put in a smart lock, it won't be able to push the bolt all the way out. Would that be an issue or do they normally have some way to adjust for that?
I have a Kwikset 914 Zigbee lock on our french doors that has what sounds like a similarly shallow hole for the deadbolt. I haven’t had any issues with it working properly. The deadbolt isn’t able to fully extend, but It’s apparently far enough for it to know it’s locked. The biggest thing to be mindful of is that the manual deadbolt needs to operate nice and smooth when you lock/unlock it. Any binding that occurs could cause a failure to lock/unlock or dramatically reduce the battery life with a smart lock installed. You can even keep your current deadbolt and install a Kwikset Convert Zigbee lock in place of the inside locking lever if you don’t need the exterior keypad.
