Residential Door Locks

[Bobonli]

It's time to replace my 60+ year old front door. Hollow, drafty, it's a wreck. I want to step into the 20th century and go key-less, either with a combo lock or RFID/Bluetooth model. My only experience is through some Air BnB rentals and the range of quality has been crappy to magnificent, so I'd appreciate some feedback from salon members who've gone key-less.

There's 4 members in the household. 2 adults 2 kids. Solution has to be allow password/combo changes in case a kid's friend looks over the shoulder, or we need to let a neighbor have access to care for our pet while on vacation. Preferably something that can't be hacked by a tech savvy burglar.

Thanks in advance.

[Too Tall]

I have had the first gen of Schlage keyless deadbolt since forever and do not regret a thing. They are as solid as anything and only need a battery ever few yrs.

Looking at the new itteration(s) is opening my eyes and will be on board this winter for the WiFi version.

https://www.schlage.com/en/home/smart-locks.html

[thollandpe]

My best decision with our new doors was to go with 3-point latching mechanisms. Not for security, which is what the very sharp-toothed and hyper-alert canine is handling, but for air sealing.

I don’t care what your door is made from, those corners are going to relax over time. The three-point mechanism draws that whole door edge against the weather seal, tight as a duck’s ass.

[spopepro]

I have used, and like the Yale assure locks. When it’s time (soon... waiting for materials to come back down to earth) it’s what I’ll put on our entry way. The locks have different options for wireless protocol, or can be run without one. I think that’s great, as I can manage it over my homebrew zigbee network and manage the security a little better. I don’t want my lock to have an IP address, and *never* want it connecting directly to the internet. I’d avoid services that “help” you manage the entry personally.

[davids]

I'm curious to know what the attraction of a keyless lock might be.

It strikes me as a solution looking for a problem but I am ready to be edumacated!

[Peter Polack]

I'm curious to know what the attraction of a keyless lock might be.

It strikes me as a solution looking for a problem but I am ready to be edumacated!

Because, as the Dead Kennedys said, "Give me convenience or give me death!"

Gotta maintain our status in surburbia, dontcha know...

[spopepro]

I'm curious to know what the attraction of a keyless lock might be.

It strikes me as a solution looking for a problem but I am ready to be edumacated!

The advantage is not needing to grab keys when heading out for a run or ride, setting an auto-lock time out (or, if you're comfortable with the security exchange by enabling WAN functions you can use your phone) means never having to worry about "did I remember to lock the door?" ever again, having time-of-day limited and expiring codes for things like cleaners and pet sitters, having increased resistance to physical picking techniques (but really, the only one here that should be of concern is "bumping"... everything more advanced is just for fun, and beyond this folks will just break something instead of picking it).

If you have a controlled entryway, and you're deep in home automation, you can do things like have a code that will only open the outer door, but not the inner for deliveries, and set your code to unlock both doors automatically (and turn on the lights, put the heat up, or whatever other connected actions you want). But that's getting a little off the deep end.

[Bob Ross]

I have had the first gen of Schlage keyless deadbolt since forever and do not regret a thing. They are as solid as anything and only need a battery ever few yrs.

When we bought our apartment in Tucson a year-and-a-half ago it came with a Schlage FE595 electronic deadbolt; this one was both keyed and keyless. Sadly, the previous owners had scrapped off the master programming passcode, so we couldn't really use it for its intended purposes...but reading about its capabilities I realized that was precisely what we wanted, so we bought a brand new one of the exact same model.

I'm curious to know what the attraction of a keyless lock might be.

It strikes me as a solution looking for a problem but I am ready to be edumacated!

The primary advantage over a keyed lock is that you can give temporary guests their own temporary combination to get in, and then easily delete that combination when those folks are no longer staying with you. Or no longer welcome :)

Plus you can always get in even if you forget your keys (so long as you remember your own personal combination).