UPDATE: well, I’ve belatedly realised I’ve left out a key piece of information. I need to buy a pair of locks - one for a regular wooden entrance door, and one for a security screen door in front of it.
Turns out hardly anyone (reputable) makes a decent smart lock for screen doors, except the Yale Unity range, but those aren’t Z-Wave compatible.
Guess we’re sticking with keys for a while longer…
Hey folks - the time’s come for me to consider diving into smart locks.
I’ve been running HA for many years now, and have resisted the urge so far, but a few recent incidents have me thinking smart locks are the next upgrade I need to think of.
My requirements, equal in priority, are:
- Must be usable via HA (automating my locks is the primary reason I’m considering this move)
- Key lock backup (I’m petrified of flat batteries stopping me from entering)
- Ability for HA to report on battery level (see above)
- Local network only (prefer IP, but will consider Z-Wave - anything that calls home in the cloud is a hard no)
- Code and/or fingerprint entry (unique code per person, at least 6 codes)
I say “consider Z-Wave” as I don’t currently utilise any Z-Wave devices. The main reason for this is that I run HA (Home Assistant) on a (heh!) HA (high availability) Proxmox setup, and I hadn’t sat down to think through how that would work with a Z-Wave USB hub across two nodes.
But, after some cursory research, it seems there’s enough options out there that will let me control Z-Wave remotely via MQTT, so I can use one of my RasPis to host a Z-Wave hub just fine.
There’s been plenty of positive comments on other posts regarding Schlage’s locks, so I’ll probably start my research there. But I’m very keen to hear of anyone’s experiences with any smart lock brands - good or bad - to help guide my research.
While I’m at it, I’m open to recommendations on a Z-Wave hub. I have zero Z-Wave experience, but I gather it’s reasonably straightforward to use. Simple enough requirements:
- Usable on a RasPi running Rasbian
- Decent enough range - has to reach the smart locks through a couple of internal walls, from the garage to the front door (about 6m/20ft)
Cheers in advance for any advice offered!
Maybe, but I’ve read some posts that state some Schlage locks can be entirely controlled through Z-Wave without needing cloud access.
But, that may mean I don’t get battery monitoring that way.
I have Schlage locks integrated via Z-Wave. All local, can poll for battery levels, supports physical key unlocks ( and can differentiate logging events between key, code, and HA service unlocks)
I’m happy with the capabilities.
Awesome feedback. Thanks for that.
Do you happen to know if all Schlage smart locks support the same features, or only a specific model range?
I think as long as the model you are looking for supports Z-Wave, you’re good.
My battery operated Z-Wave sensors all report their battery life. You’d need to dig into the integration docs to know for sure but frankly I’d be surprised if they didn’t report it as an entity.