Smart Door Lock: A Smart Approach to Security at Your Home
By Mamnun Ahmed Nihal
Other aspects of making a smart home can be labeled as fancy addition for your house, but smart lock systems for the doors seem to be a little more necessary of an add-on. When it comes to front door elegance, this system will undeniably make sure of your expediency, security, and efficacy. From this article you will learn a whole lot about smart home-door lock including some door lock system you can buy for your house.
But first here are some things you will need to know before acquiring any system:
What Is a Smart Door Lock
A smart door lock is a smart approach for your door security which not only works as a traditional door lock but also has some smart features such as monitoring who enters and leaves your home while you’re away, voice command, gives access to others according to your wish, all that can be controlled using a smart device like smartphone and can be accessed far away from the house. It uses your house WIFI and Bluetooth system for making this connection.
Geofencing
Geofencing creates a parameter around your house and it can sense when you leave out of the range or enter the range. So, when you leave out of the parameter the door locks automatically, also this system will auto-lock the door after a period. Hence, if you forget to lock the door you do not have to worry anymore.
Why You Might Need It
In short, convenience and security. Think about the times you had too many items in your hand which made it difficult to open a traditional door lock; this inconvenience is common. Now imagine knowing who has just arrived at your house from your bedroom, or maybe you want to give access to your house for a friend, or a family member or a Airbnb customer, from a distance, you can just send a code to their smart phone to open the door lock. Also, you want to monitor when and who comes and goes from your house and monitoring your children from your work. You get the complete picture.
How to Install
There are two kinds of lock systems you might buy (according to installation system). The complex ones come with both an interior escutcheon (inside house door-mounter) and an exterior component. In that case, removing the old lock is better and it might get a little complicated.
On the other hand, those smartest locks come with the standard pre-drilled holes so that you don’t need to drill new ones. Moreover, there are smart locks available that attach to the inside of your door and are designed to use your existing keyed cylinder and deadbolt hardware, which means you only need to remove the escutcheon.
Tons of DIY videos can be found of this topic on the internet.
Complementing It with Virtual Assistant
Most door locks can be paired with smart home assistant systems such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa so that we can use voice command for locking or unlocking the door. Also for fire emergencies, it can automatically integrate with smoke alarm. Likewise, it can be integrated with smart lights when the door unlocks the light will spontaneously turn on with it.
Some Drawbacks
With so many good sides, there are some drawbacks to smart locks as this technology is comparatively new. The setbacks are:
- A sudden power outage can cause trouble
- People who are less familiar with technology will face difficulties using it
- More expensive than regular locks
- Low Battery Issues
- Potential hacking possibilities.
Now, let’s see 5 of the best door locks available in the market now.
August Wi-Fi Smart Lock
| Positives | Negatives | Price (in BDT) |
| • Easy to install • Works with Virtual assistants • Sleek and compact • Built in WIFI | • Expensive • Poor battery life | 20,000 |
The XIAOMI Aqara
| Positives | Negatives | Price (in BDT) |
| • Mi Home and HomeKit integration • Reliable Fingerprint • Multiple unlocking methods • Built-in tamper alarm. | • Expensive • Better integrated for only Xiaomi devices | 25,000 – 35,000 |
Schlage Sense
| Positives | Negatives | Price (in BDT) |
| • Strong Build Quality • Perfect operation System • Works with Virtual assistants | • No android support • Expensive • Requires additional devices | 20,000 |
Wyze Lock
| Positives | Negatives | Price (in BDT) |
| • Inexpensive • Discreet design • Easy to install • No additional hardware needed • Auto-Lock and Auto-Unlock options | • Cannot be integrated with other third-party smart devices • No voice control | 10,000 |
Kwikset Premis
| Positives | Negatives | Price (in BDT) |
| • Great for apple users, compatible with Apple HomeKit. • Easy to use • Comes with a full deadbolt assembly | • Expensive • Not compatible with android and android assistants. | 17,000 |
ZKTECO is another brand that is widely available in Bangladesh, but the quality is so low that we can not recommend that product to you.
Where to Buy
Buying a smart door lock can be tricky in the perspective of our country, as our e-commerce sites do not import the widely recognized locks. Xiaomi Aqara can be found in many facebook gadget shops. But for the other ones, the best option is, buying from the intermediaries who import products from Amazon, Gearbest and other reputed global e-commerce sites. Some gadget shops also import door locks on request, you can use that option too.
Since smart door lock technology is relatively new and yet to be widely popular, we cannot say that this system is for everyone, at least for now. But we firmly believe that smart door lock will certainly be the next norm of creating a smart home. So be a pioneer user of this technology in our country and set an example to other smart home enthusiasts.
