3.0 de 5 estrellas
Very nice locks, with room for improvement
Reseñado en los Estados Unidos el 14 de marzo de 2022
I have three of these locks, all of which are installed on interior doors (garage entry door to house and two other interior doors) that are not exposed directly to the elements, so I can’t speak to weather resistance or how they might operate in extreme temperatures. I also did not purchase the Wi-Fi bridge, as I do not care about or want my locks connected to the internet. I only care about local use and control.
All three were installed on doors that already had locks and all doors had just one hole for a knob/handle (no deadbolt), so I did not need to drill any holes.
Before installing these, we had Kwikset Smartcode 911 keypad entry locks, which we really loved, but they aren’t made anymore. The newer version of those locks is not as easy to use as it has more buttons that are smaller and closer together, so we started looking for something better and found these.
I choose this particular lock because I really liked the fingerprint idea, as I figured that would be even faster to unlock than punching in a code. Having mechanical keys in case of a failure was an absolute must-have. Having the ability to enter a code if the fingerprint doesn’t work for some reason is also an added benefit, although I wouldn’t want to rely on doing it often as entering codes on these locks is even harder than the Smartcode lock.
Overall, I really like these locks now that I’ve had them installed for a while and had a chance to use them. There are a number of things that could be better, however, given how well they work, the features, and form factor, I haven’t seen anything better at this time.
The good:
The lock feels heavy and solid. It appears to be well made.
Once you get everything set up and installed, they work very well. They recognize fingerprints and unlock very fast < 1 second (much faster than a keypad). They almost always read without error and if they do, I’m pretty sure it’s how I placed my finger on the sensor that caused it. If needed, you can also enter a pass code to unlock (you have to enter the digits, followed by #.) You can unlock it via the app if you’re near the lock (or from anywhere if you purchase the bridge.) And if all else fails, you can unlock with keys.
The form factor is amazing! They put all this tech into the handle, so there’s no huge, clunky thing above the handle like most smart locks. They look so nice and sleek!
They use standard AAA batteries, so you don’t have to try to charge the locks with a power bank, etc. Just swap out the batteries and you’re good to go. They also have a micro-USB (why not type-C?) port on the outside handle, so you could power it up from a power bank in the event the batteries die.
They have lots of customization settings, such of auto lock with customizable time, passage mode (where it stays unlocked during certain times, or always.), turn sound off or on, etc. It can also hold 150 unique passcodes and 120 fingerprints, so you have plenty of memory. I registered both left and right thumbs, just in case one does work, or I got a cut on one, etc.
Lock comes in satin nickel, which was nice as it matches our other door hardware.
It can be installed on left or right-handed doors.
Things that could be improved:
The instructions! I seriously almost returned the first two locks because I thought they didn’t work. I could not get either to register fingerprints. The app tells you to ‘follow the prompts’ on the next screen and that you’ll be required to place and remove your finger from the sensor during registration. Ok, simple enough, so I click START and it says, ‘Place finger on sensor’, I do that and hear a beep and the app is still saying ‘place figure on sensor’, so I keep holding, waiting for some type of confirmation or instruction to remove it and kept getting ‘operation failed’. I was so frustrated after an hour of trying on both locks. Finally, watched the app demo video again and noticed that I heard repeated beeps and could see more of the fingerprint filling in on the screen. So, I decided to try removing my finger after hearing the beep, then placing it back again and sure enough that worked! Once I figured out the mechanics of doing it the process was extremely simple. Bottom line (and maybe it’s just me) the instructions for setup and operation could be much better, while the instructions for installing were pretty good and included a nice template for drilling holes if your door is not already prepped for locks. They also provide links to an installation video and an app demo, which I found helpful. The included quick start guide provides a lot of information about using the app, but very little about operation of the lock itself. For example, nothing about how to get the keypad to activate if you need to enter a pass code. I’ve figured out by trial and error that (sometimes) you can touch and hold near the end of the handle and it will light up, or touch the fingerprint reader with an unregistered finger also works.)
The numeric keypad looks nothing like the pictures; for the digits 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 0, and # the LED backlights shine straight through, with no diffuser at all, so the lights are very harsh points of light in the middle of each digit. Strangely, on the 1, 2, 3, and 7 they are diffused better. This is not just a one-off, as all three of my locks have this same issue. (See attached photos.)
The plastic battery cover for the inside handle was bowed outward in the middle on all three locks, so it did not sit flush with the handle and did not look good. I warmed it up with my heat gun and carefully bent it slightly in the opposite direction, holding in place until it cooled. That solved the problem, but I shouldn’t have had to do that.
Communication between the app and locks is hit and miss. I get ‘operation failed’ a lot. Usually works eventually, but may take several attempts to complete one operation. On the up side, once setup I don’t need to use the app for day-to-day operation, so not a huge problem.
The ‘Import from lock’ feature does not import all data. Since I have three locks, I set the first one up completely, and then installed the other two. Tried to import lock 1 data into lock 2 and it only brought in the users with pass codes but did not import any of the fingerprint users. I tried again for lock 3 with the same result, so this time-saving feature does not work.
Enabling ‘passage mode’ on a lock does not appear to have any effect, unless you manually unlock or lock it after making the setting change. For example, door is currently locked and I set passage mode to a schedule from 9AM-5PM. The lock does not unlock at 9AM. If I manually unlock it, then it will stay unlocked but then doesn’t re-lock itself at 5PM.
Of the three locks, one is much louder when locking/unlocking. Two are very quiet and one makes a very loud buzz when the mechanism is operating. They all seem to work fine though, so I hope this isn’t a sign of something bad to come.
For the satin nickel lock, the black plastic insert around the base of the handles does not look the best. Matching color would have looked better, but I can live with it.
The latch is square corner vs. rounded and doesn’t not come with interchangeable covers, so I had to chisel the corners on all three doors since they were prepped for rounded corner latches.
The included strike plates are a non-standard size (larger and different screw hole alignment), so I did not use them and just kept the ones that were already installed.
Conclusion:
I am happy with these locks and would recommend them. They are the closest to perfect I could find, especially in this form factor. Hopefully they will make some improvements to these over time.
UPDATE 3/24/2022
We have been using these locks for a couple weeks. Two of the three locks have randomly stopped responding to fingerprints and numeric passcodes. Placing any registered finger on the reader results in a red light and three fast beeps and the lock will not accept entry of a passcode; all numbers light up and pressing any digit causes all lights to blink off and back on with no beep. Strangely, I can unlock the lock via the app and immediately after doing so the lock returns to normal and everything works perfectly again.
I have reached out to the company via e-mail regarding this issue and thus far have not received a response. Since this has happened on two different locks, it seems like more than just a 'glitch' or isolated problem with a particular piece of hardware. The problem itself and the lack of contact and/or resolution by the company has me questioning whether or not I should keep these or return them before my 30-day window expires. After all, this is around $450 invested and it's very inconvenient when you suddenly can't unlock your door, especially when both the fingerprint AND passcodes don't work (that was the reason I got a lock with both features.) Bottom line for me is that I want convenience AND reliability. Our last set of keypad entry locks lasted over eight years. I'm questioning the reliability of these two weeks in.
I have revised my overall rating from four stars to three. I will provide an update if anything changes.
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