And this was the main point I needed to overcome in what I wanted out of a “smart” lock. Fundamentally, we want to reduce the number of keys in circulation, that’s part of the point of having keyless access, but this was not really going to solve it. Thinking of the model that the Danalock or August represent - an app centric approach, we’d either be having to “onboard” a lot of people of varying technical skills or handing out keys. The primary users of the house are myself and my wife (the kids don’t need to be able to let themselves in yet, they’re a bit young for that still), but then we have secondary users, such as our cleaner, our parents, when we’re away either a house sitter or friend who will look after the pets, and now the useability is becoming more complex.
Now that I had some product options in mind, it was time to start thinking about just how we’d use the lock. So there’s a variety of options out there, so let’s start thinking about the usability of them. But their biggest win was that they didn’t change the look of your door, there was no visibility that you had a “smart” lock installed, which seemed like a good idea for reducing potential attack vectors.Īnother even more enticing option is the Level Bolt, as it is completely hidden inside the doorframe, which seems really neat! But it looks like it’s mostly designed for the Apple ecosystem, which I’m not invested in, so I dropped it (it might be exposed via HomeKit to Home Assistant, but it’d still require more hoops than I’d like). These both satisfied a lot of the criteria, they retrofit to an existing deadbolt by replacing the back, meaning that the front is still a standard lock (so keys can be used), they integrate into Home Assistant (through an additional hub admittedly but still) and they can be controlled via a phone. I started doing research around and a few of the early contenders were the Danalock v3 and the August Smart Lock. I don’t feel like I’m entering an office building.
It integrates with our existing deadbolt.While there are a lot of options on the market it was important for me to get the right one, and everyone has opinions on what constitutes right, so here are the things that I looked at (initially - I changed some stances over time and I’ll explain why later): Calling it a “connected lock” is probably more accurate, but semantics. I’m going to refer to the locks as “smart” in quotes as generally speaking the locks themselves aren’t smart, it’s the systems around them that you build that are. I really like the idea of having a smart door lock on our front door, something about the peace of mind that I can know if they door is locked or not, control access and all those things, so getting a “smart” lock was something I started researching long before we moved into our new house (even before we had doors installed! 🤣).
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