And I’m here thinking the purpose of this smart lock thing is you don’t have to carry your key anymore…
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Yale Launches Apple Home Key-Enabled Assure Lock 2 Plus
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indeed. One more way for the lock to be picked.
Yes, I wasn't clear. I LOVE my Encore Plus. I just meant I prefer the kind with the backup key. THANKS!
And then you're there thinking how the hell to open that door.
I don't carry it either, but I keep one in my car. Also the maintenance manager has a copy.
We've had the Assure Touch 1 for ~5 years now on our two entry doors. The batteries have never died before I had a chance to replace them, it's enabled us to leave the house with zero keys. The only issues we've had is that sometimes the deadbolt gets a little misaligned and fails to completely set. It's still locked, but the status of the lock gets misreported, so some automation fails to happen. But a few sideways bangs with a shoe once a year fixes that, and it seems to be an issue with our door being so tight, or trying to open it before the deadbolt is unlocked so it puts lateral pressure on it. If someone came up and smashed it with a hammer, we'd have the other door. If they smashed both, we have the garage door. If all that happens and the power lines get cut, we'd have to drill it out I guess. Since we use occupancy and proximity rules for locking and unlocking, I don't see the NEED for home key, but maybe for granting access to guests? Which... could still be done with a code? I dunno, no need for me to upgrade until it has a Thread radio.
I forgot to mention how much I despise our Eufy outdoor security cameras. They suck too! Slow, laggy, always going out. Even my WIRED Logitech doorbell camera is laggy and doesn't always work. All of this tech sucks sucks sucks. It's such a sham!
No backup key option? I hope they’ve prepped customer service for the plethora of calls about the inability to get into your house.
My biggest gripe with keyless locks is when a door swells and co tracts with the weather and the lock just grinds back and forth trying to lock or unlock.
My biggest gripe with keyless locks is when a door swells and co tracts with the weather and the lock just grinds back and forth trying to lock or unlock.
I have both the Yale Assure and the Schlage Encode Plus locks installed in my house, and the Schlage Encode Plus is so much better. The Yale lock loses connectivity regularly and is not reliable. The Schlage is rock solid. I’ll be replacing the remaining Yale with the Schlage soon.
I love my Schlage Encore Plus as well. Backup Key and all! It just works!
I disagree. I’d rather have the lock communicate over Thread, than Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
I don’t see how lack of support for a low-power mesh technology that was designed for devices like locks is better.
I wish I could add Home Key to my Assure 2 lock with a module, but I’m sure they’d rather force me to buy a new lock.
Absolutely agree. If people only understood how damn easy 95% of most locks are to pick or defeat. With a $5 bump key and a tiny hammer, you could defeat most locks in 15 seconds. No key smartlock absolutely is the way to go.
Don’t get me started on combination locks. The absolute worst. Padlocks with dimple keys, people.
Yeah, dimple keys are usually good enough (assuming they've got security pins, some of them are rakeable) just because most of the threat won't have the tools or experience, same goes for disc detainer. I've got the tools for both, but not the experience with either.
Folks, chances are your locks are crap. Take a good look at your threat model, make sure you've got adequate security. Most of you wouldn't put a Windoze XP computer online without a firewall, but your door lock is probably less secure than that.
And remember, friends don't let friends use Master Lock.
I can’t believe that literally almost everyone here is missing the fact that you can order this lock in EITHER a keyed or keyless version. Do your research before making these assumptions.
You’re missing the fact that you can order this lock in EITHER a keyed or keyless version - as it clearly shows on Yale’s website.
You’re missing the fact that you can order this lock in EITHER a keyed or keyless version - as it clearly shows on Yale’s website.
You’re missing the fact that you can order this lock in EITHER a keyed or keyless version - as it clearly shows on Yale’s website.
You're right I was missing that fact. But I was responding to someone who, I assume was talking about the keyless version. Either way — the keyless option seems odd to me, for reasons I stated.
I just installed one of these in my condo. My previous lock unfortunately had a key break clean off inside it, so I was looking to upgrade to something new rather than just replace the tumbler. It's been great so far and works excellent with the iPhone 15 Pros and Apple Watch SE Nike (lol don't hate on my lack of update on the watch, we barely use them) that my wife and I have. I unfortunately had to also replace my existing lock handle because the design was too tall and just slightly overlapped with the edge of the bottom of this lock. This would have prevented me from using the emergency terminals with a 9v battery if the AA batteries randomly died before I could attend to a replacement.
I had used a similarly operated 4 x AA battery powered Kwikset keypad / z-wave lock before and never ever ran into an issue where I needed to use my key for a backup, so I figured I was ready for the brave new world. It's funny to me I broke the lock by using my Darth Vader key I made at Ace. Stupid cheap key...
It's quite fast compared with my previous Kwikset z-wave lock and home assistant. I ended up using the keypad more often than not on my previous z-wave lock due to home assistant being laggy, perhaps because I was running it on an underpowered Raspberry pi (doesn't seem to affect me opening the garage door with home kit / home assistant however).
Like other posters have said, I just keep 9v batteries as a backup in my previous backup hidden lockbox now that I have no need for a physical key, and in my garage, and in my car (my car actually can be "jumped" with a 9v battery for some emergency purposes related to 12v battery failures, Tesla model 3 21 SR+). There's a 24 hour CVS down the street if it gets REALLY bad lol, or I know one of my neighbors is good for one 9v I'm sure. Homekit works more smoothly and reliably than z-wave does in my experience thus far.
The only thing that I have noticed is that the darn thing can get quite hot on the surface during the middle of the day and lose Wi-Fi temporarily. That doesn't affect using the lock because you can still use it with Bluetooth, but it does have me a tad worried about the longevity of the module / electronics inside since I live in a hot climate.
I think the most interesting thing is that with this product it's not stressed almost anywhere in the setup guide or paper manual that comes in the eco friendly box ordered from Amazon.com that the "Yale" logo is the actual lock button on the keypad 🤣... apparently, it's obvious if you're used to the Yale ecosystem, but it's not obvious without a casual internet search or downloading the .pdf extensive programming manual from their support website.
Of course, the idea is you're supposed to automate the locking of the door too since it comes with a magnetic sensor that attaches to your door frame with a pair of screws / 3M dual sided adhesive foam pad, or it can be placed into a bored-out hole in the door frame (if your frame is very curved). I haven't quite gotten to that point yet, but I think I will since it does have the keypad with a code on it as a backup for if I didn't have my watch or phone on me.
I had used a similarly operated 4 x AA battery powered Kwikset keypad / z-wave lock before and never ever ran into an issue where I needed to use my key for a backup, so I figured I was ready for the brave new world. It's funny to me I broke the lock by using my Darth Vader key I made at Ace. Stupid cheap key...
It's quite fast compared with my previous Kwikset z-wave lock and home assistant. I ended up using the keypad more often than not on my previous z-wave lock due to home assistant being laggy, perhaps because I was running it on an underpowered Raspberry pi (doesn't seem to affect me opening the garage door with home kit / home assistant however).
Like other posters have said, I just keep 9v batteries as a backup in my previous backup hidden lockbox now that I have no need for a physical key, and in my garage, and in my car (my car actually can be "jumped" with a 9v battery for some emergency purposes related to 12v battery failures, Tesla model 3 21 SR+). There's a 24 hour CVS down the street if it gets REALLY bad lol, or I know one of my neighbors is good for one 9v I'm sure. Homekit works more smoothly and reliably than z-wave does in my experience thus far.
The only thing that I have noticed is that the darn thing can get quite hot on the surface during the middle of the day and lose Wi-Fi temporarily. That doesn't affect using the lock because you can still use it with Bluetooth, but it does have me a tad worried about the longevity of the module / electronics inside since I live in a hot climate.
I think the most interesting thing is that with this product it's not stressed almost anywhere in the setup guide or paper manual that comes in the eco friendly box ordered from Amazon.com that the "Yale" logo is the actual lock button on the keypad 🤣... apparently, it's obvious if you're used to the Yale ecosystem, but it's not obvious without a casual internet search or downloading the .pdf extensive programming manual from their support website.
Of course, the idea is you're supposed to automate the locking of the door too since it comes with a magnetic sensor that attaches to your door frame with a pair of screws / 3M dual sided adhesive foam pad, or it can be placed into a bored-out hole in the door frame (if your frame is very curved). I haven't quite gotten to that point yet, but I think I will since it does have the keypad with a code on it as a backup for if I didn't have my watch or phone on me.
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Does manually locking and unlocking the Schlage encode plus update HomeKit status? I want a notification from HomeKit like I was getting on the Yale assure 2
On mine it does. It also asks me if I want to run the automation when I am away from home to lock it.
The notification from my Schlage is instantaneous compared to the Yale Assure 2 Plus (non-Wi-Fi) I had.
I just returned the Yale after a 2-week trial. Yale‘s HomeKit notification took several seconds, sometimes longer and often never arrived. HomeKit often showed the door as unlocked when it was physically locked and vice-versa. That was even after I placed a spare HomePod mini 6 feet from the Yale to act as a Bluetooth receiver (I already had half a dozen HomeKit hubs spread around)
Unlocking by phone/Watch on the Yale was unpredictable too. It failed on the very first attempt and randomly thereafter (maybe 5% of the time). Yale’s own app’s connectivity to the lock was slow and unpredictable. HomeKit connectivity was no better.
Schlage has been perfect from day 1 on all counts. You can install the Schlage entirely using Apple’s Home app and you can even set up visitor keycodes in Home too. Yale only lets you set keycodes up in it’s dedicated app which - like I said - is unpredictable.
Bottom line: Schlage is $100 more and totally worth it.
I replaced my Yale with the Schlage encode plus… couldn’t be happier.