YALE Keyless Connected Smart Lock - CHROME PLATED

This review is after the first 24 hours so the opinion may change - but I doubt it.This was purchased not so much to allow us to open the door but to release the door for visitors as we live in a town house with three flights of stairs to negotiate to tell salesmen to 'go away'.First ImpressionsThe lock was purchased together with a Smartthings adapter. The lock seems a solid piece of kit, as I would expect from Yale. The adapter is a tiny lump of plastic that plugs into the lock battery box.InstallationInstalling the lock was pretty straightforward. The only problem is it needs an existing or new lock with 60 mm between the edge of the door and the key. I did not realise that there were different locks and found ours was 40 mm. That would have worked still but the wide Yale unit would have interfered with the door frame. The easiest answer was to buy a 60mm lock and install it near the existing lock, which now adds security when we are away from home.Installation was a simple matter of the usual carpentry jobs of drilling holes and chiselling that are required for any lock. If it is replacing an existing Yale type key cylinder on a 60mm lock it is just one extra 20mm hole in the door.Once installed, without the Smartthings adapter, it is just a case of following the clear instructions of setting unlock codes..In UseTo release the lock one can either place one of the supplied cards and tags on the lock or enter a personal code and it releases. To be honest it is just as easy to use a key so there is little advantage other than being able to give others a code so they can get access without having to hand out keys. It is possible to set codes that die after 24 hours or delete a code which is no longer required so this could be good when tradesmen need access. 20 codes are possible. The lock becomes a different animal once the Smartthings option is added.SmartthingsThis needs a small dongle to be plugged in to the battery box and the lock 'twinned' with Smartthings. Having read critical reviews on this option I was a little concerned but did not need to be. Having entered the code shown on the instructions into the lock I asked my SmartThings app to look for items. It took about 0.5 seconds for Smartthings to connect to the lock. I did this with the lock on my desk before installing and was a little concerned that the front door is a long way from my router in a steel framed house that is not good at sending wi-fi around. Our Ring doorbell needed a wi-fi extension near the door to work reliably but I need not have worried as the Yale works perfectly when twinned to the main router in our living room.Once twinned the lock can be opened by a one button press on a Smartthings app and it's also possible to set up actions so that when the lock is opened any SmartThings lights, etc. are turned on.. The lock is now really useful. I can release it if required from anywhere in the world I have internet access, let people in without needing to go down three flights of stairs and release the front door as I get out of my car in pouring rain. Love it. I can also check, if required, which user opened the door at which time by looking at Smartthings log.Amazon Alexa.Once the lock is twinned with SMARTTHINGS It can also be twinned with Alexa but before reporting why this is useless a note on using the lock. When the lock is unlocked it is possible to set a time delay before it automatically relocks - which makes sense. The auto relock function can be cancelled so then a separate signal is needed to relock. Not sure why you would want to do this though. Having spent some time linking the lock to Alexa I found that any command to unlock is blocked and only relock commands are possible. Thinking about it this makes sense. If it was possible to say "Alexa unlock front door" it would be possible for any thief to shout through the letterbox !!ConclusionSo far I am impressed. The kit was easy to install with little or no reference to instructions and it seems to work well. Using a code to enter is, I think, the last resort if you close the door and don't have a card or mobile phone to unlock with as it’s no quicker than using a key. With the Smartthings option (at extra cost) it fits in well to a modern connected household. If, like me, it's a long trek down stairs to the front door to let visitors in it is a useful energy saving option as well.One small snag.If I have a visitor who rings the Ring doorbell my phone opens the Ring app. I tell the visitor to come in but in order for him/her to do so I need to close the Ring app, open the Smarthings app and press the door release. By the time I have done all that the visitor has pushed the door and found it would not open as I am still changing apps. Not insurmountable but it would be great if I could release the door from within the Ring app. Makes sense and I now see this is possible with many remote operation locks but not Yale. come on Yale. Get together with Ring and get your locks integrated as well.UPDATEAfter a month of faultless use with code and SmartThings it has failed. In normal use the handle spins freely when the door is locked and after inputting code etc a sound is heard which must be some sort of internal bolt which connects the lock to the handle. Electronically it still works and the bolt can be heard to move. The snag is it no longer connects with the handle properly so although it unlocks the door when turned one way it now spins free the other way. The good news is having phoned Amazon on Saturday evening a new kit was delivered by Sunday lunchtime and is now fitted and working. I love the system so hope I just had a faulty product.

I bought this to add easy entry and due to family members loosing their keys, and to allow visitors access without giving them a physical key.It looks great and does everything I'd hoped for, but I also added the WiFi option later (see below).It was simple to install (with DIY skills) with a new night latch at the same time (it would be even easier if fitting to an existing one), although the instructions for this and the night latch from Yale could be much clearer! And you only get one chance to cut the connecting bar to the right length - unless you cut it too long if course!Pairing the fobs and cards, or setting the PIN manually is a little tedious, but relatively straitforward, and the instructions for doing this are very clear (I set them before fitting to the door so I could test it out before cutting holes in my door but also so I didn't have to stand outside doing it)The batteries seem to have a reasonable life span, and warn you when they need changing (so far I've not had to replace mine in 2 months, I expect they'll last quite a while as it goes to a low power state when not being used), and if you don't change them and they drain there's an emergency power via a 9V PP3 underneath (obviously you'd need a PP3 battery to hand - I'm going to put one in a weatherproof box outside, just in case!).After a week of use I also bought the wireless module WiFi bridge (https://amzn.eu/d/1FRYbKB) so I could control it remotely and manage users. Adding this appeared to reset my fobs so I had to go back round that task (which was much quicker the second time around, although I had to stand outside this time as it was fitted to the door), and in fact it's become our default to each use our PINs than the fobs.The app isn't great, but functional, allowing additional users (guests) to be invited either as a permanent user or with limited access. Guests have to download the app before you can give them a PIN which is a bit rubbish so I've set up a dummy user on my work mobile so I can give people (builder, etc) the PIN without them needing to install the app, I can then just go in and change the PIN afterwards. The app shows who accessed the door and when. And of course remotely being able to unlock the door from the app (the main feature I bought this for).The wireless module also has a magnetic sensor so it knows if the door is open, closed, or ajar (isn't closed properly) which I think is useful, it requires a small magnet (included) to be stuck to the door frame near the lock - I don't recall seeing this in the details for the module - but is actually a great feature.