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Yale Smart Lock

This is the Yale Assure SL smart lock. It’s a keyless deadbolt replacement that you can control with your phone. I’m going to go over the design, installation, and features and at the end i’ll let you know if you should buy it or not.

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Let’s quickly go over the product itself. Smart locks have been around for a few years now, but probably receive the most skepticism since it’s the lock to your home. This one specifically is completely keyless.

My thoughts are that a burglar is far more likely to be able to pick a lock than they are to hack into an electronic door lock. Additionally, Yale as a company has been around for about 150 years and has an excellent reputation within the lock industry. This isn’t some questionable startup that may or may not exist in a few years.

Yale Assure Design

So let’s go over the design; it’s a black slate with a metal finish around the edges. When idle it doesn’t show anything, only when you interact with the lock does it show the keypad. The surface is finished with an oleophobic coating so that it doesn’t show fingerprints.

As I mentioned there’s no key backup, however underneath the keypad is a 9V battery port, so in the event that the batteries die, you can power it with an external 9V and get into your home.

The internal part of the smart lock is somewhat large due to it housing electronics, but it’s not unsightly, just large. The top part is plastic and removable. It gives you access to the 4 AA batteries that power the device, as well as the Smart Home module that allows the lock to interact with either Homekit or Z-wave. From here you also have access to the screws to take it off.

My lock specifically is the Homekit version that connects to a Homekit hub like an Apple TV or iPad. The alternative versions will have a Z-wave module that connects a Z wave hub, a zigbee module for an Echo Plus or similar hub, or even comes with an August hub to connect to.

Installation is very straight forward as it replaces whatever existing deadbolt lock you have on your door. There are printed instructions as well as a link to an app that takes you step by step through the installation with video and pictures to help.

Once it is installed there is a short calibration process it goes through to make sure that it can lock and unlock all the way. After that you set up a master code that allows you access the sub-menus on the lock. This includes creating new pin codes and deleting existing ones.

Now that the lock is configured, you can set it up with Homekit and the Yale Secure app. All HomeKit devices come with a code that the Home app can scan and add the device to your home. The Yale app will automatically get the lock info and setup from the Home app (you have to allow it to share information first).

From the Home app itself you can’t do a ton more than lock or unlock the door. Of course you can have it part of your automations, such as automatically locking it after a certain hour, or locking/unlocking based on location automations; however in the Yale Secure app, you can do a bit more.

First off, you can set up to 25 open pin codes for the lock. And they can be anywhere between 4-8 digits, if you prefer simpler or more complicated codes. These can be added or deleted at any time.

And of course you can set a limit to the number of wrong entry’s on the lock; at which point you will need to type in the master code to unlock the door. Just don’t forget the master code.

Having multiple codes is convenient if you want to set up temporary codes for friends or family that are visiting you, that can just be deleted afterwards. It’s also useful to give individual codes to people that come by on a regular basis like cleaners or dog walkers.

There is a version of the lock that is “connected by August” which comes with a August Connect WiFi bridge that adds even more options. Namely it integrates with the August app, and with that, is usable with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri.

It also gives you the options of temporary and unique access schedules. So instead of having to go in and delete a Pin that you set up for a visiting friend, it will automatically delete after a certain date.

And for the people that need access to your home on a regular basis, you can limit their access to certain hours on certain days, so if your house cleaner comes every other Monday at 10am, you can set it so that their pin only works between 9:45 and noon for example.

You also see a 24/7 history of who unlocked the door, so you can keep an eye on when people are coming and going.

I do wish some of these features where integrated into the Yale Secure app, but obviously if they were, there wouldn’t be much of a reason to upgrade to the more expensive “Connected by August” lock.

Going from a traditional key lock to a keyless touchpad has a smooth transition that I can’t recommend enough. I personally hate keys and keychains, and the less I have to use them the better.

Unlocking the door is as simple as you would expect it to be. As you approach the door, you tap it once to bring up the keypad, you type in your code and hit the check mark, and the door unlocks.

Alternatively due to the connected aspect of the lock, you can ask Siri (or Google Assistant or Alexa if you have that module) to unlock the door. If you live in a multi family building you’ll probably find this convenient to just unlock the door as you’re walking up the stairs towards your home.

If you happen to have an Apple Watch, you don’t even need to take out your phone if your hands are full which I’ve found to be useful.

You can have location based locking and unlocking as well; the locking part I’m on board with, though it is of note that when you run a scene where the door locks, it will have you confirm running the automation every time for whatever reason.

Locking can be done either with a one touch system, where you tap the lock with the back of your hand, which is convenient especially if you have tricky doors that need to be pulled a certain way for the lock to go all the way.

For those of you that have normal doors, there’s an auto lock function that activates after a set amount of time that you can choose in the app.

So all of that brings us to the golden question.

Should you buy this?

At $220 it’s not a cheap device to get, but it is a high quality one. The fit and finish the excellent, and the usability is simple and straightforward. For something as important as the lock to your home, you don’t really want to cheap out in my opinion.

If you’re looking to upgrade to a smart lock for your home, I wouldn’t hesitate at all to recommend the Yale Assure lock.

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