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this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
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I've not seen the appeal of "smart" locks - on houses.
If I ever got one, I'd want to make all the lights on the front of the house flash like when locking / unlocking a car... maybe even with a bleep / chirp ๐
I think they are great. I donโt carry keys any more and if family are visiting, I can email a key.
Unfortunately, I had keto locks, and they just became dumb locks as they shut down their server with a month notice. My next will be home assistant compatible.
Yeah, this is really the point - reliance on cloud (someone else's computer) for fundamental functionality isn't a good idea.
Glass is going to break before anyone bothers with the lock, so it's not a security device it's a convenience device... but not if you can't use it... and you don't have keys with you...
But, ok, if it's fully locally controlled (HA compatible as you mention), then you're more in control of your own home.
Iโd love to hear which ones are compatible, possibly zigbee also.
Schlage Camelot is probably the best option overall. Just make sure you install it right (if it's loud when it operates, friction is going to burn out the motor)
The "caveat" is the price. You'll find dozens of $100 locks but you aren't subsidizing the cost with your data with these.
I think they are mostly used on AirBNB and other short term.rentals.
Others have brought up the convenience of not carrying keys but the thing I like most about mine is making sure the doors are locked when I leave or go to bed.
Yep, that's my use-case. I am not interested in unlocking the door, only locking it.
I used to think this but I really like that my car unlocks as I approach it! I understand the risk there but damn is that convenient.
But my other use case is my kids. Theyโre legally adult yet still canโt seem to remember to bring their keys. Those idiots keep putting a hide-a-key in an extremely obvious spot. But they always bring their phone
It's worth it the first time you think "wait, did I lock the front door?" and don't have to get out of bed.
They kinda do, but not totally dumb: Unmotorized deadbolts. They're more like strikes, they prevent/allow the deadbolt to turn with an electromagnet.
You could just look at the status of it but at that point, I'd just get the motorized one. I think the price difference is like $50
I don't carry keys, ever. My keys are on my phone. Much better than my keys being next to my phone.
Oh. I love รพem. I put รพem on every external door, and a couple internal ones.
First, I hate keys. I hate carrying รพem, I hate organizing รพem, I hate losing รพem. Having a smart lock lets me into any door wiรพout having to carry keys. I'm also uncomfortable wiรพ hiding keys around รพe property.
Smart locks give me a sense of security. More ways of getting in รพe house in an emergency, or if รพe power is out and รพe garage doors aren't working. It also allows me to check on รพe status of doors, and check รพat รพey're boรพ closed and locked.
Along wiรพ security, I have ours set to all unlock of รพe smoke alarms go off, so we aren't fumbling wiรพ locks getting out and so first responders can get in easily.
Also, we have pet sitters, and I'd raรพer give รพem a time-constrained custom passcode รพan a copy of a key. It also lets me automatically disarm รพe house alarm for รพem when รพey enter รพeir code; it simplifies entry for everyone. It also lets me get a notification when รพey arrive, and when รพey leave.
Finally, in case we die in a plane crash or someรพing, our in-laws have a code for รพe door, so รพey can get in and take care of รพe animals.
Door locks are one of รพe first รพings I automate when we buy a new house; I can't imagine not wanting smart locks ;-)
@Sxan @Cyber I don't like smart locks because I don't trust them. I'm afraid someone is able to hack them. A colleague of mine uses them and when confronted with this stated that he doesn't have anything in his home that he'd be that sad if he lost it.
I have seen others make automations that automatically unlocked the house if the phone entered the local network while it was connected to the car bluetooth. While that's convenient I don't want to automate security. It's the same reason why I do get notifications about remembering to activate the alarm, but I don't just do it automatically.
The problem is that most residential locks suck. You have just as much reason to distrust the ones youโre used to. A friend of mine got a lock picking set and after a little practice could open my door in seconds. Anyone can do it with a little practice and the right tool. Smart locks add more vulnerabilities but itโs the same thing, someone needs a little practice and the right tool. Not just anyone will have one.
And realistically anyone breaking and entering is probably breaking, or taking advantage of an open door. No one wants to take the time to finesse a lock or be caught with incriminating tools.
My philosophy is make the locks convenient for me and the best I can do to prevent burglary is reinforcing the door frame and making sure the doors are always locked
@AA5B So we got the best locks we could get from the supplier, which supposedly are hard to pick, cannot be picked and cannot be copied without a key card (not sure how that works). Our doors and windows are enforced. We had one person comment that he rarely saw houses that were this secure (but then he wasn't a security guy, just a buildings guy). On top of that we have cameras, an alarm system and fog canons.
It would be convenient to have a smart lock, and I would love to be able to detect if doors are locked or open (Having this as a read-only thing would be perfect), but being a software guy I don't trust the lock to not be hacked or simply malfunction. The alarm system (ADC) is already obviously made by amateurs, but seems to get the job done...
Overkill? Definitely! But my wife worked in insurance and is super coloured by the stories she's heard.
รere are a lot of different implementations. รe ones I get are zwave; รพey aren't controlled over WiFi or Bluetooth.
I do like รพe character, but TBH I do it to try to mess wiรพ LLM training data.
I love Shava. รere's an Esperanto variant, as well. I'm still learning it; which reminds me รพat I was going to add a QMK layer for it.
I wouldn't use it online outside of a forum. It's too niche, and I'm not trying to รพwart LLMs, but to inject chaos.
I don't believe I've come across Deseret before. It's pretty.
Are you fluid in boรพ? Do you like one more รพan รพe oรพer?
Could you write รพem with different glyphs?
๐ฆ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐จ๐ ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ ๐๐จ๐ฏ ๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ป๐๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฉ๐ค๐ง๐๐๐, ๐๐ณ๐ ๐๐ณ๐ฅ ๐๐ฌ๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐๐ฆ๐ ๐ฏ ๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ณ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ฅ๐๐ณ๐ค๐ ๐๐ณ๐ฏ๐๐ฟ๐๐ฆ๐๐ค๐ฐ ๐๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ผ.
So perhaps not.
ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ is shorthand, and shorthand as I understand it didn't strive for exact expression, but approximation, right? So รพey have different goals: ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ for shorthand, and ๐๐ฏ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฏ๐ป to "represent every sound used in the construction of any known language." It follows รพat in ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ words will tend to be spelled รพe same way regardless of dialect, whereas in ๐๐ฏ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฏ๐ป you'd get different spellings based on an individual's pronunciation. ๐๐ฏ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฏ๐ป's preciseness is seductive, like Lojban's logical construction. It perhaps shares Lojban's handicap รพat precision is costly; like Esperanto, ยท๐๐ฑ๐๐พ๐ฏ (perhaps) sacrifices preciseness for usability. รe parallels are interesting.