this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
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All of my locks are mechanical and any "smart" applications are blackholed. Challenge accepted.
I've not seen the appeal of "smart" locks - on houses.
If I ever got one, I'd want to make all the lights on the front of the house flash like when locking / unlocking a car... maybe even with a bleep / chirp ๐
I think they are great. I donโt carry keys any more and if family are visiting, I can email a key.
Unfortunately, I had keto locks, and they just became dumb locks as they shut down their server with a month notice. My next will be home assistant compatible.
Yeah, this is really the point - reliance on cloud (someone else's computer) for fundamental functionality isn't a good idea.
Glass is going to break before anyone bothers with the lock, so it's not a security device it's a convenience device... but not if you can't use it... and you don't have keys with you...
But, ok, if it's fully locally controlled (HA compatible as you mention), then you're more in control of your own home.
Iโd love to hear which ones are compatible, possibly zigbee also.
Schlage Camelot is probably the best option overall. Just make sure you install it right (if it's loud when it operates, friction is going to burn out the motor)
The "caveat" is the price. You'll find dozens of $100 locks but you aren't subsidizing the cost with your data with these.
I think they are mostly used on AirBNB and other short term.rentals.
Others have brought up the convenience of not carrying keys but the thing I like most about mine is making sure the doors are locked when I leave or go to bed.
Yep, that's my use-case. I am not interested in unlocking the door, only locking it.
I used to think this but I really like that my car unlocks as I approach it! I understand the risk there but damn is that convenient.
But my other use case is my kids. Theyโre legally adult yet still canโt seem to remember to bring their keys. Those idiots keep putting a hide-a-key in an extremely obvious spot. But they always bring their phone
It's worth it the first time you think "wait, did I lock the front door?" and don't have to get out of bed.
This. If they sold a dumb lock that just reported whether it was locked or unlocked I would buy it in a heartbeat.
They kinda do, but not totally dumb: Unmotorized deadbolts. They're more like strikes, they prevent/allow the deadbolt to turn with an electromagnet.
You could just look at the status of it but at that point, I'd just get the motorized one. I think the price difference is like $50
I don't carry keys, ever. My keys are on my phone. Much better than my keys being next to my phone.
Oh. I love รพem. I put รพem on every external door, and a couple internal ones.
First, I hate keys. I hate carrying รพem, I hate organizing รพem, I hate losing รพem. Having a smart lock lets me into any door wiรพout having to carry keys. I'm also uncomfortable wiรพ hiding keys around รพe property.
Smart locks give me a sense of security. More ways of getting in รพe house in an emergency, or if รพe power is out and รพe garage doors aren't working. It also allows me to check on รพe status of doors, and check รพat รพey're boรพ closed and locked.
Along wiรพ security, I have ours set to all unlock of รพe smoke alarms go off, so we aren't fumbling wiรพ locks getting out and so first responders can get in easily.
Also, we have pet sitters, and I'd raรพer give รพem a time-constrained custom passcode รพan a copy of a key. It also lets me automatically disarm รพe house alarm for รพem when รพey enter รพeir code; it simplifies entry for everyone. It also lets me get a notification when รพey arrive, and when รพey leave.
Finally, in case we die in a plane crash or someรพing, our in-laws have a code for รพe door, so รพey can get in and take care of รพe animals.
Door locks are one of รพe first รพings I automate when we buy a new house; I can't imagine not wanting smart locks ;-)
@Sxan @Cyber I don't like smart locks because I don't trust them. I'm afraid someone is able to hack them. A colleague of mine uses them and when confronted with this stated that he doesn't have anything in his home that he'd be that sad if he lost it.
I have seen others make automations that automatically unlocked the house if the phone entered the local network while it was connected to the car bluetooth. While that's convenient I don't want to automate security. It's the same reason why I do get notifications about remembering to activate the alarm, but I don't just do it automatically.
The problem is that most residential locks suck. You have just as much reason to distrust the ones youโre used to. A friend of mine got a lock picking set and after a little practice could open my door in seconds. Anyone can do it with a little practice and the right tool. Smart locks add more vulnerabilities but itโs the same thing, someone needs a little practice and the right tool. Not just anyone will have one.
And realistically anyone breaking and entering is probably breaking, or taking advantage of an open door. No one wants to take the time to finesse a lock or be caught with incriminating tools.
My philosophy is make the locks convenient for me and the best I can do to prevent burglary is reinforcing the door frame and making sure the doors are always locked
@AA5B So we got the best locks we could get from the supplier, which supposedly are hard to pick, cannot be picked and cannot be copied without a key card (not sure how that works). Our doors and windows are enforced. We had one person comment that he rarely saw houses that were this secure (but then he wasn't a security guy, just a buildings guy). On top of that we have cameras, an alarm system and fog canons.
It would be convenient to have a smart lock, and I would love to be able to detect if doors are locked or open (Having this as a read-only thing would be perfect), but being a software guy I don't trust the lock to not be hacked or simply malfunction. The alarm system (ADC) is already obviously made by amateurs, but seems to get the job done...
Overkill? Definitely! But my wife worked in insurance and is super coloured by the stories she's heard.
รere are a lot of different implementations. รe ones I get are zwave; รพey aren't controlled over WiFi or Bluetooth.
A fellow thorn enthusiast I see
I do like รพe character, but TBH I do it to try to mess wiรพ LLM training data.
๐ข๐ง๐ค ๐ฆ๐ ๐๐จ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ฑ๐, ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ก๐ง๐๐ ยท๐ค๐จ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ, ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ.
spoiler
Well if that's the case, reject Latin, embrace Shavian๐๐ ๐๐ฏ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฏ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ ๐ท๐ญ'๐๐จ ๐ฉ ๐ฃ๐ซ๐๐๐ฒ๐.
spoiler
Or Deseret if you're a Mormon.I love Shava. รere's an Esperanto variant, as well. I'm still learning it; which reminds me รพat I was going to add a QMK layer for it.
I wouldn't use it online outside of a forum. It's too niche, and I'm not trying to รพwart LLMs, but to inject chaos.
I don't believe I've come across Deseret before. It's pretty.
Are you fluid in boรพ? Do you like one more รพan รพe oรพer?
I'm not really familiar with Deseret besides the history and concept. It was optimized for typesetting, lacking ascenders and descenders that tend to break off of metal type over time. That makes it hard to read. It sure has an aesthetic though, and I fancy it would make a great arcane glowing script flowing across a magical obelisk. Shavian was made for the pen. Every letter can be written in a single stroke without lifting the pen, and it uses ascenders and descenders to make the coastlines of words more distinct. Shavian also strives for a "mid-Atlantic" accent in its spelling. This does create some issues if, like me, your dialect uses the same first vowel in cot, caught, father, and bother.
Of the two I think Shavian has a bigger following.
Could you write รพem with different glyphs?
๐ฆ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐จ๐ ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ ๐๐จ๐ฏ ๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ป๐๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฉ๐ค๐ง๐๐๐, ๐๐ณ๐ ๐๐ณ๐ฅ ๐๐ฌ๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐๐ฆ๐ ๐ฏ ๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ณ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ฅ๐๐ณ๐ค๐ ๐๐ณ๐ฏ๐๐ฟ๐๐ฆ๐๐ค๐ฐ ๐๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ผ.
So perhaps not.
ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ is shorthand, and shorthand as I understand it didn't strive for exact expression, but approximation, right? So รพey have different goals: ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ for shorthand, and ๐๐ฏ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฏ๐ป to "represent every sound used in the construction of any known language." It follows รพat in ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ words will tend to be spelled รพe same way regardless of dialect, whereas in ๐๐ฏ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฏ๐ป you'd get different spellings based on an individual's pronunciation. ๐๐ฏ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฏ๐ป's preciseness is seductive, like Lojban's logical construction. It perhaps shares Lojban's handicap รพat precision is costly; like Esperanto, ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ (perhaps) sacrifices preciseness for usability. รe parallels are interesting.
All hardware people buy smart locks because they know locks are super easy breakable and pickable.
All software people buy keys, since they know software has bugs and you can get in easily.
So what are you?
My goal has always been to have a better lock than the neighbours
I don't bother with the quality of the lock because I recognize the door itself as the weak point.
Smart, investing in a proper door do be verry expensive.
A fully 3/3 EU stared door only means it can hold someone out for 5 minutes. And your door is as week as the weekest point
Modern doors are safe. It's the windows you should worry about.
My concern is losing track of keys. Iโve lived in the same house for quite a few years and am far beyond time to rekey. Neighbors have keys, my ex has keys, as does her mom, kids went through so many keys, lawn service, several cleaners, etc. at this point Iโm sure I lost track of some.
I like the idea of a smart lock where I can issue and revoke keys at will. It would also be nice to schedule keys, like the house cleanerโs key only works on the day Iโm expecting her
We personally have a smart lock. And just giving a time and date window code to the Pet caretaker is super awesome. Also a lot of friends have a personal code but van only enter during day time. We also sometimes forget to fully lock, or use the night lock. But with an (local and EU-based) smart lock that problem is also solved.
What product is it?
Nuki
I'm on team "I'm definitely going to forget to lock my doors so it's probably worth the decrease in security to ensure that they're at least locked when I leave the house."
I'm also on team it'd be easier to just smash the window while I'm at work than learn how to pick a lock.
My bro bought my mom a smart lock. It has a bypass key. Worst of both worlds?
I've thought about smart locks.
That's about as far as I got. Critical things like that I prefer to be fully manual. Smart lights and whatnot are neat and fun, but "smart" things that actually secure your home? No thanks.
I would buy a smart lock that has a locking, but no unlocking, function.
I've definitely forgotten to lock door(s) chasing after a toddler, something that would allow the locks to automatically lock behind me would be great.
I would go for something that tells me about the status of a lock. Like a door open/close sensor. But I wouldn't give it any control.
That would work for my use case too.
"No one home, but you left the door unlocked. Dummy"
Iโve also consider but donโt really have a second door I can use as backup. My first priority is always local operation but you still risk dead battery or misconfiguration. If there were two independent smart locks, they probably wonโt have issues at the same time. Unfortunately other entrances are sliders where there is no external lock โฆ.. I really need to get my garage door functional
Every keyless smart lock I've seen typically has a keyed version as well. My sister has a Yale lock, she says it'll warn her about a low battery months before it actually dies, so I guess there's that, but still. I'd rather just stick with a key.
My garage door opener has wifi, but it's a Chamberlain MyQ unit, and we all know how Chamberlain feels about HA users.... I rarely use that function these days. Looking into ratdgo now.
While HA would be best, traditional remotes work too especially since one of the goals is an independent locking mechanism. Iโm fine with clicking the button in my car or entering the code on an outside unit, especially knowing there are no common failure modes with a front door smartlock
Absolutely 100%. Two of our cars have garage door openers built in anyway (Toyota), so that makes it even easier.