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I love my encode plus but homekey is way too finicky and takes too long to unlock, with either my Apple Watch or my iPhone. More often I am just telling Siri to unlock the door as I walk up.
It’s instantaneous for me. There’s no way Siri should be faster. Home key requires no network communication.
 
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I love how we have an energy crisis and a climate crisis and with inflation and people’s money not going as far and people having to spend more for heating and gas and food that we are just converting our entire lives to tech and things that require energy and being connected and also expensive to replace when a battery dies or it becomes obsolete or a company decides to stop supporting something. We’ve gone from convenience to burden. We are replacing things that used to last 30 years with things they last 5. Im tired of it.
So go to sleep.
 
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There's a lot of talk about convenience here, but having a digital lock is helpful when you lose your keys, or somehow lock them inside. Level has a few products, starting at $199, this $329 is a higher end model. $199 isn't terrible if you're getting locked out often enough when compared to locksmiths. $329 isn't terrible if you're constantly losing your keys either, but I'm more worried about your ability to hold a job and earn enough to begin with 😂
Honestly my most-used feature is being able to ask Siri if I remembered to lock the door after I’m already away from the house, and then having her lock it if I forgot. Second most useful feature is being able to let someone in to the house when I’m away, either by unlocking it with the App or granting them their own access.
 
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August locks use two CR123 batteries, talk about expensive and they die every 3 months, if you are lucky.
 
It’s instantaneous for me. There’s no way Siri should be faster. Home key requires no network communication.
For me it usually is just me fumbling around and waving the phone around in multiple orientations trying to see if it will work better if I hold the top of the phone near the lock, or the side of the phone, or the middle, or if I angle it this way, or that way, etc… before I know it, a minute has gone by and I’m still standing in front of the door.

It was like this on my 11 Pro Max, and I was curious if it would improve at all when I got my 14 Pro Max but it’s pretty much the same. My Apple Watch Series 7 also. I think Siri would be faster even if I didn’t get a head start asking her to unlock as I walked up to the door.


Not to say that I don’t love the lock, it’s still really nice to not deal with keys anymore. But the performance of the NFC/UWB or whatever Home Key uses leaves some to be desired.
 
I have really hard time understanding the lousy state of US front door locking. When living in Europe (Finland):
  • The door always automatically and securely locks when you close it (no need to "remember to lock the door")
  • Locks are secure (next to impossible to pick Assa Abloy locks are used almost everywhere)
  • Doors must open from inside to out due to fire safety. As an additional benefit, doors are impossible to "kick in" and there is no way of sliding a credit card (etc) between the latch.
Seems like locking the front door is such a basic and simple problem that there should have been a secure solution 100+ years ago. What might be the reasons for the lacking state of home security in US?

Is there a building code or something else preventing from importing locks from Europe?
 
Does anyone have experience with this company and their products? I used Lockitron way back in the day and I would say our results were mixed at best. I was hoping to pick up the Schlage lock since the new one is HomeKit/Key compatible but stock has been an issue for a while. It is also much larger than this one and utilizes a keypad on the outside which I don't need. I will likely just wait for the Schlage unless there are a lot of good experiences with this company?
Yes! Level locks are horribly unreliable. Just look at reviews for them on Reddit.com/r/homekit
 
Satin Nickel only or riot, I built my house with only the best color handles. Says that one will be out on 21st.
 
You know, I'd have considered this for my parents as a gift...then I saw the $329.95 tag in the second photo.

A Schlage deadbolt is like $30.

Are enough people really gonna spend $330 on a door lock in this economy to make stocking this worth it?
If 0.1% of iPhone users in America bought one, that still would be over 100,000 units sold.
 
Can soneone clue me in please.

Thats great for the deadbolt, but what about the lockable handle? Phone for the top & key for the handle?? Makes absolutely no sense. 🤦‍♂️
 
I wish that both August and Yale would both support home key. They are both made by the same company and are in most ways the same lock. But that would give home key a major brand of locks.
 
I wish that both August and Yale would both support home key. They are both made by the same company and are in most ways the same lock. But that would give home key a major brand of locks.
Even if they did, I’m sure they’d require new hardware. Of all the 40+ HomeKit devices I’ve purchased, the August hardware is probably the most disappointing when it comes to ongoing support. As soon as they launch a new model with little to no improvements, all firmware updates stop.

As a door lock, I expect better. I don’t even necessarily need new features, but security patches shouldn’t be held back as soon as they have new hardware to peddle.
 
Level products don't work with my door. Found out when I bought the Bolt after moving into my new house last year. I returned it and was using the Vocolinc lock until I found the Encode Plus at Lowe's at the end of September. I love it and Home Key makes my life so much easier. (I'm disabled and lack dexterity for a key while maneuvering my wheelchair, phone is easier in my case)
 
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Why do all these companies think people don’t lock the handle? If they don’t have both covered with a keyed alike version it’s useless. Then pricing in the stratosphere for half the job.
 
It is important to note that this Lock+ has NOT launched at all Apple Stores yet. My local Apple Store confirmed via phone call that they only have the Level Touch at this time. It is also not yet sold directly from Level, nor is it available at Best Buy, etc.

It's been a weird soft launch roll-out following that misdirection regarding HomeKey support. At some point they're going to need to publish a press release and announce Lock+ as something that exists and is available.
 
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Yeah, no. If the hotel industry can't keep their locks patched and current, i'm not trusting my house lock to an electronic lock - far too many of them have hacks/bugs/etc and patches are infrequent at best (and third-party pen testing is usually absent). Just use a key.
I have a Schlage lock on both my front doors and I do not even bother locking them 90% of the time. Maybe instead of worrying about the quality of your lock, you should move to a neighborhood where you are not constantly worried about break-ins. I am looking forward to this lock, as it has the biggest advantage of not looking like an electronic lock. I like my Schlage, but it is ugly and I am not a fan of having door codes as they always leak (one needs to give one’s code to someone for something and then they need to give it to someone, etc.). :cool:
 
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