I had preordered a Lockitron smart lock from Kickstarter about 7 years ago or so. It took them a year to come out with a beta and then another year before my product finally shipped. It was buggy but it sorta worked. Eventually the company folded and surprisingly refunded everyone’s money. A few months ago, a couple of people told me that they liked their August Smart Lock, so I went ahead and got one from Amazon for about $130.
Installation was pretty easy as long as you have a “modern” deadbolt system (you can see the pictures on Amazon which one would work.) It was a bit more complicated for me because I had to remove the old Lockitron system, but I did get it up and running.
So what’s great about it? Well I haven’t had to carry around my keys for a while. The lock will unlock itself when I’m in Bluetooth range. I think maybe 1 in 20 times it hasn’t unlocked itself by the time I get to the door, but then when I’m fumbling for my phone, I hear it unlock. I think only ONE time in the past 3 months that I’ve had to manually pull up the app to force it to unlock. Of course you can set users as well and so my wife has the app and it does the same thing.
The lock will also auto-lock itself after a set time. This is great if you forget to unlock the door at nights. I set this to override the proximity sensor since I want it to auto-lock no matter where I am. The only downside of this is if you were to go for a long walk and didn’t bring your phone, then you could lock yourself out. However, you can also link this to Alexa and I guess you could shout, “Alexa, open the front door” if you were close. Of course just bring your phone or have a secondary option to get into your house. So far, I definitely like it and would recommend it.
so can i come near your house and shout ‘ Alexa open the door’ ? Will it open ?
Alexa doesnt authenticate based on your voice .
Also what if you forgot your phone and no Wifi ?
In theory yes. I don’t think Alexa authenticates by voice. If you forget your phone, then you’ll need to break into your house, just like IF YOU FORGOT YOUR KEYS.
Not trying to argue , but without key we cant lock the house in first place .
These things are convenient for sure , but its dangerous for houses with kids , who can lock it by mistake …when we are talking outside with friends….if it is set in auto lock or in short time.
You can turn off auto-lock. Not everything works for everyone; maybe a smart lock with a pin pad would work better for you.
Good luck getting into your house when internet goes down.
Won’t be an issue since it a) uses batteries and b) unlocks via BT, not WIFI