Just wondering how other people handle this. We mostly go in/out through the garage, and keep the service door locked. Once I have a smart lock on the house<>garage door, that will be regularly locked when gone and at night to prevent house entry IF someone gets in the garage somehow.
I just installed a Yale Assure SL on the front door, got it mainly for the looks and relatively low cost. So far loving how it works. Will be nice to be able to unlock for people or give temporary codes out.
Picked up an Alfred DB1 on sale to try on the Garage door, using the auto-unlock there will be nice when coming home through the garage.
Also though, besides the convenience of getting in without a key, it would be nice to know if all doors are locked. Is this how others approach it and how many locks do you all have?
I have two more regular doors, a private office outside entrance, and a garage service door (leading only to the garage from outside). Could probably just leave those as regular locks, but they have also been left unlocked on accident at times for longer than I would like to admit. Then there is the rear patio door which has a special Yale smart lock available, but it is $400-500, AND the handle torsion spring is broken, so need to fix that first!
So yeah... I would be looking at 5 smart locks total when all said and done. Would cost more than all my other smart home stuff combined! Or is there a better (cheaper) way to determine just if a door is locked or not?
BTW adding a new deadbolt to a door is a PITA, especially chiseling out the mortis correctly. First one was a struggle, hopefully the next one I have learned a few things. Yes, none of our regular doors have dead bolts for some reason. The Anderson all glass rear patio door though has a deadbolt and two extra security latches... most secure door in the house.
Yeah, mortising is fiddly and aggravating, no doubt. 2 years ago, I spent a day really going at all the doors to shore up the alignment and put in new beefier strike plates. But worth it in the end - now all doors finally latch such that their bolts can freely lock & unlock without having to shove or yank the door. The joys of an older house!
Just 3 doors for us - house front, house side and detached garage service door. We never use the front door to come/go, so I just left my dumb Medeco on that one. The other 2 doors we use a lot, and those have Yale YRD-256 with zigbee module. Both work flawlessly. I keep a key hidden for the Medeco front door in case things ever go sideways with the side door lock.
Not ever having to carry a house key is awesome - we're big fans of the Yales!
Yeah we seem to use all the doors on occasion. Company / kids use the front door. Service door gets used a lot when working in the backyard to get tools from the garage. Wife is always worried if they are all locked at night.
The only door here that has a "smart" lock is the camping trailer. It has a Bauer Bluetooth lock on it. I can use the key, the keypad, or the app to lock and unlock the trailer. It isn't integrated with Hubitat though.
As for the house locks, we have the front door and the kitchen door. Both still have key locks. We would need the key for the storm door locks anyway. They are Larson doors, and as far as I know, no smart lock is available for them.
I have 5 Yale YRD 265 looks. 3 are Z-Wave, 1 is Yale/August Connect w/HomeKit support, and 1 has no module. The Front and Garage to House door have Z-Wave module as well as the front shed. The smaller shed the back has no module. I just set that to auto-lock after 30 seconds. The Yale/August connect enabled lock is on the tenant’s entry door.
All the connected locks are exposed to HomeKit. We auto lock the 3 Z-Wave locks when our goodnight scene runs. But when we leave, we just double-check they are locked from Apple Home if we’re not certain we locked them, and we can remotely lock them from there if needed.
I have 4 Yale YRD265. I wasn't sure spending that much would be worth it but in the end I am glad I did. Agreed getting them all setup to work smoothly even in a new house is a bit of a pain but as others have said, once it is done it is worth it. When all of the doors are locked echo speaks let's me know "all doors are locked". If the front door is unlocked I get an announcement every 30 minutes "front door is still unlocked". They can be locked/check via echo, homekit, ring and HE app. All the locks are locked and verified with my night time and bed time routines/rules (with the announcement". A lot you can do with locks. My wife will always ask if all the backdoors are locked as we are leaving, so doubled tap the porch light and all the back doors are checked/locked and get "all back doors are locked" announcement, I look at her and smile. All the back doors are locked for 1 minute all of the back lights and fans turn off, etc. I have them all keyed the same as well, so one key instead of 4 in case of an emergency but have never used the key in over 5 years.
Thanks for the reassurance I am not going wanting to go overboard, I am looking at doing about the same thing. About to pull the trigger on two more locks as soon as I see how this install goes on the full steel wrapped garage entry door. The mortis on the door is a knock out.
Two of the locks I am looking to get used will have keys, How did you get them keyed? Locksmith come to the house? Home Depot can do Schlage (they did when I worked there anyway), not sure if the cylinders are removable or if I would have to take the whole thing in there. Maybe even my local Ace can do it, the owner is super nice. I would rather not pay for a house call if possible. Or I just leave the keys alone since they will never get used... Maybe only if all the lock batteries died at the same time
If you can remove & install a lock, you can rekey a lock.
You can get parts (pins) to rekey just a couple locks at the home center for a few bucks, or you can buy a 'kit' online that will do dozens of locks for ~$100-150. Make sure you buy the parts to match the cylinder and keyway your lock uses. (And if you end up with locks with different keyways, manufacturers often sell cylinders with different keyways. Ever seen a Schlage keyway with Kwikset's SmartKey technology? It exists.)
For the knowledge, there are plenty of tutorials online.
To answer the original question, all 3 of my locks are smart, and there is no automation of the locks themselves. Just the keyless entry and ability to monitor status are enough to justify the expense for me.
Exactly what @JB_TX said. I had bought a rekey set years ago to rekey locks for myself and friends. If you do a little bit of hunting you can probably get a set for under $20. You could use a locksmith but they tend to charge a lot. They might cut you a break if you bring the locks to them vs them coming out to your house (MAYBE). But like you said, what are the odds of both locks going dead and you needing a key, especially if you are getting alerted to low batteries.
Zero.
If they want to get in, they will, unless you really get serious about it.
Do you have iron bars on your windows? They're only glass.
I'd say, don't go crazy.
We own 4 and wish I could find a good solution for a 5th. Installed on patio, deck, garage man door (all deadbolts) and the door between the house and the garage (just a handle). I bought ours all on Amazon warehouse deals, all Yale.
The front door isn't smart because it's one of those fancy deals where the whole thing is one unit. I've considered giving Level a try, but they're pricey, I *think cloud only, and I honestly just haven't really committed to researching if it would work.
It's not the "if" that adds the real convenience of having smart locks, but the assurance that they are locked when you need them to be (like when you leave the house or at night). Locks are integral part of the "smart home experience" that have maintained a high FAF here, for years - they are up there with smart lighting. We only have 2 exterior doors here, no service door for the garage, just front and back.
Yeah but a lot of people don't want to get in THAT bad. The crime we get around here is crimes of opportunity. They look for unlocked cars mostly, and garage door openers inside of them, and grab small stuff quick in the middle of the night. I think a few cars have been stolen as well (unlocked with keys inside or, found in the house via the garage door opener). They may progress to looking for unlocked house doors. Not afraid of cameras either, mostly wear hoodies with the draw strings tight so you cannot see faces.
Also most importantly, helps wife sleep at night even if there is no real danger.
Yeah contact sensors on all the first floor entry points will be the next thing to tackle, and hopefully slightly less expensive than the locks. Especially the doors so they can be confirmed as closed AND locked. Not looking forward to all the batteries though, may have to invest in some rechargeable finally.
I have smart deadbolts on every door, Total of 6. It was pretty easy to install on all the door in this house. The front door was a problem. We had the front porch and siding redone and my wife wanted a double door on the front. It has glass inlay and there is not enough room to add a keypad lock. So I went with the KwikSet conversion zigbee lock that just mounts on the inside over the existing deadbolt. I wanted to put a external keypad on the front door, but my wife was not onboard with that. So we compromised and I didn't do it. I put a small NFC tag that I can tap with my phone and it will lock or unlock the door. We don't really come in that door very often so it works pretty well.
Also your worry about locks not being locked is my main focus as well. I hold that approach on most home automations. If it comes on automatically that's great but not my main concern, my biggest concern is that takes care of turning things off or locking if we forget.
most secure door in the house.
