What Are Smart Door Locks and Are They Worth Having?

Smart door locks are a relatively new product that’s designed for convenience, ease of use and security.

At some point it’s likely the fear of being burgled has crossed your mind. According to UK Burglary Statistics, in 72% of cases, a burglar enters through a door, and 15% of those will get in because the door has simply been left unlocked!

The solution is to go keyless with a smart lock.

Using a smart lock, you can permit access to whomever you wish, from family members to one-time access for neighbours to feed your pets. And the best thing is, you don’t need to be there. Another big advantage is that you don’t need to worry about losing your keys.

So let’s dive into the world of smart door locking!

About Smart Locks

A smart door lock is a type of electronic lock that can be controlled and managed from a mobile app or a remote device. It’s connected to the Internet so that it can be accessed from anywhere in the world. This is a huge advantage over a conventional key system, allowing you to lock and unlock your doors without physically being there. It also removes the need for physical keys, which can easily be lost or forgotten, or the door can be accidentally left unlocked.

Smart locks secure your home with a digital cryptographic key code. This technology can even unlock the door for you when it senses you’re close to home by setting up a perimeter around your property – a feature called “geofencing”.

Moreover, a smart lock is more secure and easy to access.

How Do Smart Door Locks Work?

When it comes to securing the main entrance to your home, a well-made standard front door lock has typically been the first line of defence. Tried and tested, this approach has been relatively reliable for almost two centuries.

However, the technology in smart door locks provides innovative solutions to the lock’s accessibility, practicality and security, offering advanced features over a traditional lock. Many models are Bluetooth and WiFi-enabled, using mobile apps that communicate over these networks to lock and unlock the door.

On a form-over-function note, smart door locks look great, too, which won’t harm the curb appeal of your home’s front door.

The Need for a Smart Door Lock

Suppose you’re away from home and want to keep track of who opens the door and be warned when they do – a smart lock can notify you.

How about you have your hands full with groceries or shopping bags and need to open the door without a fiddly key? The smart lock identifies your mobile phone and can automatically open it as you approach – pretty handy!

Another awesome feature of the smart lock is that it can give access to your family and visitors when you’re not around – all you have to do is send them a digital code in the message.

These practical features can really add flexibility to your life and give you much greater control over who enters your home, especially when you’re not there.

There are a lot of smart devices (also known as IoT – Internet of Things) available to enrich your home life. In my opinion, smart locks are right up there.

How Can Smart Door Locks Make You Feel Safer?

Your traditional key locks and unlocks your front door; that’s it!

But if you’re exploring something more than bare-bones fundamental functionality, then a smart lock is the advanced approach to look into.

Some points on how a smart lock makes your life safer and more relaxed include:

• Digital codes in place of keys
  If you’ve ever experienced digging through your bag to find your keys, you’ll welcome the smart door lock system that allows you to unlock your door with a simplistic code or proximity sensor.
• Eliminates the necessity of having keys
  Smart locks eliminate the to have keys cut for everyone. This is also much safer than having numerous copies of your house key floating around, shielding your home from inherent robberies.
• Notifications when doors are left unlocked
  Nowadays, many smart locks will send you alerts on your phone if you skipped locking your door, so you can quickly lock it with the tap of a button.

Reasons to Choose Smart Door Locks

1. Improved security – Security is one of the key features you will be looking for and modern front doors offer a significantly improved level of security and may help keep intruders out of your home. The most exemplary smart door lock system cannot be picked and offers better security than a traditional lock. Choose from our uPVC doors, aluminium doors, French doors, composite doors, patio doors, stable doors as well as our desirable bi-folding doors. Each of these doors provides a ten-point locking system and three opposing steel hooks to maximise strength. Two anti-lift bolts prevent the door lock from being dislodged from keeps. Our doors also include a one-centre latch for ease of day-to-day operation and a deadlock for added protection; we use Yale, which has some of the industry-leading locking systems.
2. Many options to lock and unlock – Smart deadbolts with a conventional locking mechanism allow you a different way to open and secure the lock. Suppose you have a visitor, tenant, or house cleaning who isn’t comfortable with technology. Choose a smart keypad lock that stores the passcode directly on the locking mechanism if you don’t want to rely on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Rest assured that with a million potential passcode combinations, the likelihood of someone knowing your code or even brute-forcing it is pretty remote.
3. Convenience for the aged or disabled – the automatic door lock systems for homes can benefit older people since they sometimes have trouble opening conventional locks. Others who might gain from this include:
   • People with Parkinson’s
   • Elderly
   • People with cerebral palsy
   • People who wear wrist braces for carpal tunnel syndrome
4. Presence detection – Using smart door locks may help with presence detection and prevent lockouts. Pure biometrics or RFID can open many locks, making entering and unlocking them easier. They cooperate with other home appliances and can be set to recognise people just by their presence.

Are Smart Door Locks Worth It?

Based on your lifestyle, smart door locks may or may not provide life-changing security benefits, but you can’t deny they certainly have their perks. If you’ve lost one too many keys and can afford to go digital, or you are often finding that you need to let someone in when you’re not around, they’re definitely a worthy investment.

Here at Three Counties, we have a wide range of replacement front and back doors that might transform your home.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of what a smart door lock is. It prevents you from being locked out in the rain, being caught out in your dressing gown, letting your friends in for the big game, keeping your family safe, doing away with the hidden key, helping moody teenagers, helping the dishwasher repairman, etc.

When you lock your front door at night or when you leave the house, we want you to feel safe and secure and our doors can do this.