I love smart tech and I guess if you’re here reading this so do you. I have a lot of smart tech in my house, thermostat, cctv, door bell, lights, assistants, etc.etc. My mate asked me do you trust smart locks? I’m just not 100% sure if I’d go down that route, what happens if the lecky goes? what if I lose my phone, can they be hacked? Lets look a bit deeper and put our smart tech minds at rest!
Do you trust Smart Locks? And what are they?
A smart lock is a replacement lock usually for your main access door they usually doesn’t require a key to gain entry to your house. They use the lock manufactures app and will use your phone’s N.F.C (near field communication) software to open the lock or you can type in a code.
This all sounds great, you know the deal, it’s pouring with rain, you have your hands full of shopping and you can’t find or grab your keys, just wave your phone in front of your door and you’re in! (or tap in a code!!) I’m sure you have questions , so let’s look at the main points.
Are They Safe Enough?
In short, yes, they can’t be ‘hacked’ as you might think, the only way of accessing your house is with the app, password or most locks have a manual, physical over-ride key. You can create different access codes for different people so you can see who’s coming or going, for example, you might give a access code to your neighbour whilst you’re on holiday to come in and water your plants.
Surely They Can Be Hacked
Not the locks themself. The only other way would be if someone would be able to gain access to your Wifi password but the chances of your average bally’ed up house robbed will not have the skill to crack a hexidecimal wpa2 wifi password I can imagine is pretty thin.
One thing that you do have think about is, if you buy one with a physical keypad, make sure you clean the button every week because the grease off your finger will make it obvious what numbers are used in your code.
There has been issues over certain bluetooth devices having a certain vulnerability, check that here But for extra peace of mind I’d follow these tips:
- Only buy a good quality lock from a well know manufacturer, like Yale, Schlang or August.
- Keep the firmware upto date and do any app updates as soon as they come out. for tips on securing your smart home tech check my post here
- Pick a monster password.
Ok, whats the good points. ❤️
- You don’t need to carry ( or worry about losing) you key when you leave the house.
- You can connect your lock to a smart hub or digital assistant so it can announcement. some one at your door or if they have a code Alexa can tell you who’s just walked in your house.
- Give out access codes to people you trust like dog walkers or family members, you can get notified when you they come in or out and you can pull access rights at any time and set times for certain people to come in.
And The Bad Points 🤬
- If you don’t have one with a over ride key and the power goes.. you’re screwed. If you lose your phone or the battery dies…you’re screwed. Internet down?…you’re screwed.
- You have to change the batterys.
- Looks, they’re not the nicest looking locks, they tend to make your door look like it’s off star trek.
- Might take some getting used to if some of your family aren’t as tech savy as yourself, you might here them say ‘It’s witchcraft” or ‘Whats wrong with a yale key’
How Much Are They?
Here could be the deal breaker, if you buy cheap are they more likely to let you down, I’d say so, cheap tech can ruin your whole day so beware. I wouldn’t buy a cheap one just to say i had one. So expect to pay anything from £90 for a simple one to well over £300 for a biometric one with key over-ride. Which is a considerable amount more that an insurance backed 5 level deadlock for about £50, but this is a gadget blog isn’t it and no-one said this obsession we share was gonna be cheap!
So Do We Run Out and Get One?
I’d consider everything we’ve said above and see if that fits, don’t not get one because you thing any 14 year geek with a laptop if gonna wonder in and out of your house, chances of that happening are pretty thin.
What I would say is, what are you gonna do if your internet or power go down? if that s the case make sure you get one with a key override, but then are you defeated one of the advantages of the thing in the first place…not carrying a door key. Maybe hide a lockable key box for that emergency.
Do you like the look of it? does it make your front door look like an office block?
Or at the end of the day so obsessed with tech that this is the last piece in your smart home jigsaw? And who carries keys about apart from a jailer right?
