Are you often misplacing your keys? Or do you feel uneasy about handing your keys over to your cleaner or neighbors when they’re taking care of your plants during your vacation? Then a Smart Lock might be just what you need. By installing a smart lock on your front door, your phone or smartwatch becomes your key. This means you can leave your keys behind and open your door using your phone. In this article, we’ll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of smart locks and the options available if you’re considering installing one.
Advantages
A smart lock offers several advantages. Firstly, your phone or smartwatch replaces your key, eliminating the need to worry about whether you’ve remembered your keys when leaving the house – your smartphone is all you need to enter your home. Additionally, it’s often possible to open your door with your smartwatch, allowing you to, for example, go for a run with just your smartwatch to track your run and then open your front door when you return home. Manufacturers also often sell keypads that you can attach to your front door, allowing you to unlock your door with a code or fingerprint.
The second advantage of a Smart Lock is that you no longer need to hand your keys over to others. Instead of giving a key to the cleaner who comes weekly or to the neighbors during your vacation, with a smart lock, all you need to do is send the person in question an invitation via the app of your smart lock, and they can enter during the period you’ve set. It’s also possible to receive a notification when someone opens your front door, or to review this later in a logbook. Another option that many manufacturers offer is key fobs. This is a small remote control that you can attach to your keychain, allowing you to unlock or lock your door with the push of a button. This key fob can also be lent to your neighbors, and you can set when it does and doesn’t work. Additionally, you can revoke access to your house from the key fob at any time.
Furthermore, it’s often possible to automatically unlock your door when you arrive home. This is usually based on a combination of GPS and Bluetooth. If you’ve left the GPS location of your home and then return within a radius of, for example, 100 meters of your home, the lock opens as soon as it can connect to your phone via Bluetooth and you’re thus close to your lock. This is ideal if you have your hands full of groceries; you can walk straight in without having to first get your keys or your phone. This also works well in apartment buildings because the Bluetooth connection often only establishes when you leave the stairwell or the elevator and are in your own hallway.
Disadvantages
Depending on your usage, there can also be disadvantages to using a smart lock. For instance, a battery powers your smart lock, which needs to be recharged every so often. Battery life varies greatly depending on the type of smart lock. A lock that completely opens your door usually consumes more energy than a lock that only unlocks a doorknob, after which you still have to manually open the door.
Additionally, it’s possible that you may not have your phone with you or that your phone’s battery is dead. Depending on the type of smart locks, there are solutions for this. If you have a keypad installed, you can use it; other locks allow you to log in via a website and still open your door using someone else’s phone or laptop. Most manufacturers have built-in multiple backup options so that you can still enter your home.
A final disadvantage of a Smart Lock may be that you need to replace your cylinder. With a smart lock that turns your key from the inside with a motor, it’s important to buy a cylinder that allows you to turn the lock from the outside with a key, even if there’s already a key inside the lock. Make sure to always check this before installing a smart lock, so that you can always enter with the regular physical key if something goes wrong with your smart lock.
