That time we talked about smart locks

This is episode number 25 of The Homeowners Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowners Show. We are so glad you could join us today. We have an episode Yes. And Kevin picked on me last time for saying special, so I'm not gonna do it. But we have an episode. Kevin, you wanna add any adjectives to this episode?

We have a, this episode.

Yeah, it's not so easy, is it, jerk? So we have an episode for you today. We are excited about it. We are thankful that you joined us today. If you hadn't yet, go ahead and hit the subscribe button there in iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, some other funky thing that Kevin uses. I don't know, he says it's like Pocket Casts. God, I don't know what he—

Pocket Cast.

Pocket Cast. Yeah, he's looking for payment. That's what's going on. He wants some money from the Pocket Cast.

It's, it's a good app, y'all. Try it out.

Got any, like, constructive criticism for the folks at Pocket Cast?

Yeah, thanks for creating it.

Yeah, see, he's in the tank. Anyway, if you could go ahead and leave us a review there, uh, we would love to hear from you. We've been getting some messages from folks out there in the interwebs, and we are happy to hear from you.

Yeah, thanks a lot. More people send stuff.

Come on. Kevin is full of sincerity today.

No, thank you, Paul, for sending us an email.

Yeah, Paul sent us a message with a really good suggestion for an episode, and we are currently in research mode because he sent us a toughie.

Yeah, it's a good one.

So we'll hopefully, we'll be, uh, getting that one out to you guys in April. Um, but we've got people excited out there. They're using the, uh, the DIY Yeah. People are starting to use that. If you haven't yet, jump on there and see how much it would cost to do your project. And in really big— what, you got any big news, Kev?

Not really. Should I have some big news?

I'll carry on then.

I know we have some news. I don't know if it's my news.

Oh, well, who knows? Um, well, as, as people who have been with us for a while know, love, and appreciate is, uh, I make up words from time to time.

Yes.

And in, in this case, I thought I made up a word, but what I was really doing was describing a tool that you would use to install flooring.

Which those things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. You making up a word and it also describing a tool.

You're describing causality. It doesn't matter.

Okay.

The Schnoozen Bowser is real.

Oh, here we go.

And I've been on the phone with, not been on the phone. I've contacted some manufacturers. We weren't on the phone because we don't speak the same language. And it wouldn't be a fruitful conversation. It'd be funny, but it wouldn't be fruitful. So anyway, we're in talks of bringing the Schnoozen Bowser to you beautiful people of the internet.

This is a real tool.

This is an actual real tool that you would use to install flooring.

Wow.

So, yeah.

This could be interesting, y'all.

It's awesome. I've got my order in already.

How many have you already ordered?

Well, I need one.

Oh.

So you just need one? I need one. I don't know how many you guys need, but like, I mean, like, you know, I, I'm— I need one. Okay. I mean, if I had like a flooring crew— so if you, any guys out there with flooring companies, and I mean, like, you know, you can, you can order these. I'll give you a discount if you order them in bulk.

See, that's what I was gonna say. I was wondering if you were actually like a reseller at this point.

No, no, no, I'm the distributor. Oh. Yeah, it's— what's my word?

Uh, yes, yes, it's your word.

So hashtag Schnuzenbauser.

Nobody is trying to take that word away from you, Craig.

It's good because it's mine. Oh man. So yeah, be looking for that on the website. We'll probably put some stuff up on social media. Team Schnuzenbauser. Um, not teams. I don't know.

That's— yeah, that's—

that sounds good.

Go with team.

Team Schnuzenbauser.

Team Schnuzenbauser.

It's not just a breed of dog.

Man, I don't even know how to respond to that. This is good stuff, y'all. I'm glad you downloaded today's episode.

Yeah, you're getting edumacated.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm interested to see what this thing looks like.

Yeah. It's, well, I mean, it's, it's pretty simple. Okay. So we'll have instructional videos as well.

Yes. We will do a review of the Snooze and Bouncer someday. Uh, we'll, we'll even show Craig using it in the studio.

Yes.

We, we still need to install the floor in here.

That's why I need the Schnoozen Bowser, because I gotta put the floor in here.

Yeah, well, you really do only need one then.

Hopefully the— well, hopefully the Schnoozen Bowser will speed things up. I mean, that's, that's the whole point of it. Yeah, I mean, that's why you have a tool, in order to, you know, increase the efficiency of the job.

That's true.

So, but today we're actually not talking about tools.

No.

We're gonna be talking about what we got, Kev.

Well, uh, we're gonna be talking about door locks today. So, um, lock your doors. Yeah, so we, we like talking gadgets, and, and, and you guys that have been listening to the episode know that I'm a techie type of person. I like things that, uh, make my life a little bit easier, automate my life, those sorts of things, much to the chagrin of our good friend Micah, who was on the, on, on the show way back at the beginning, telling us to not do that so much. I still like doing it. So, uh, we're gonna be talking about door locks, and, uh, I, I've, I've got a specific door lock on my house that we use, and we're gonna

review it today and just maybe talk a little bit about, um, more sophisticated door locks than just a typical turn-of-the-handle, you know, deadbolt-type system, uh, that'll make your life a little bit easier.

Yeah, and part of the reason— excuse me— part of the reason we're even talking about this is some progeny of mine who shall remain unnamed, uh, lost my house keys recently.

Oh man.

And, and so Really, what my choices were to get the thing rekeyed.

Yeah.

Replace it, or, you know, have some keys made, or I could just, you know, upgrade like I'd been planning on doing anyway. And so you and I were talking like, hey, what, what kind of locks do you have on your house and why'd you go that direction? And because I've been looking at a lot of different options and I'm lazy and don't want to do all the research.

And I've already done that. And Kevin's already done it.

So it, you know, You know, look, folks, here's the thing. In school, it was called cheating.

Yes.

Looking at someone else's paper.

Right.

For those of us that know, it's called adulting.

Yeah. And if you're good at it, then you find the right person to copy, right?

Right.

Yeah, and for the most part, whenever I—

Or you find the right person to not do what they do.

Well, okay, so there's both ends of the spectrum.

I'll let you know where I land at the end of the show.

Please do. But one of the things that I do often before I buy anything is I put a lot of research into it. And so, um, you know, I'm not going to tell you that everything that I purchase is going to be right for you, right? It's right for me, and I know that because I put in the amount of time and effort that I need to, to do the proper research to make sure that I buy the thing that I need, right? Yeah, so the specific door lock that we're going to talk about this evening is the Schlage Sense. So just first of all, I always thought it was Schlage.

Schlage? Yeah. You sound to be like all fancy with the pronunciation.

I don't know why I thought that.

And to this day— I don't say this right, eventually I'm going to offend a European person.

Maybe, but to this day, I probably would still say it that way, except this thing has such Good reviews on it. And not just that, it's got really good installation information. Uh, they've created videos that take you step by step by step through the process of how to install this thing, right? So you don't have to get it professionally installed.

Okay.

You can do it yourself. It, it, you know, takes a little bit of time, but it's not that bad at all.

And I've noticed this with a lot of new products is a lot of them are coming out with apps. that you can download that specifically for the installation.

Sure.

So that they'll have like a video series that you can just go ahead and pull up on your phone, your device, your iPad, whatever, whatever. And just have that information ready. I forget what it was I was installing recently where I had to download an app and it was the only way you could get the installation information.

That's interesting. It's not quite that proprietary with this. You can find the installation videos on YouTube, which is nice because you can go look at it and see, okay, is this, something I want to get myself into before you ever actually get into it. Uh, but in the video it says Schlage, and it's a, you know, it's an endorsed video. So, so that's also—

you, you learn pronunciation. Yeah, via the video, which is, which is helpful. Yeah.

So, um, just to, to talk about this a little bit further, uh, in generic terms, there are all kinds of, of door locks out there available these days. And—

And then Just real quick, Schlage makes regular deadbolts too, right? Oh yeah.

I mean, I mean, like, been in the industry forever.

So like, when you're talking about like, just, you know, strength of the product, whether or not they know what, you know, like, this is not like a new tech company that's just come on the scene. They've just, they recognize like, look, this is where the industry is going. We've been making a great deadbolt for a long time. We need to keep up with our customers.

That's exactly right. And you know, you've got other name brands like Kwikset.

Right.

And, and some others, uh, that no use in going too far down the rabbit hole. But they are, you know, they're developing these things. You've got other companies out there like, uh, August is, is a brand that's doing smart locks. Also Yale is doing smart locks. And there are plenty of others that are not, you know, they haven't been around forever and ever, um, but they are tech companies that are in this same industry and they're doing really good things. Don't get me wrong, they're doing really good things. Uh, but what you get with a product like Schlage is you get a product that, you know, they know how to construct locks.

Hmm.

They know what they're doing. In fact, uh, if you do any research on this, uh, lock yourself, you'll find out that it is industrial-grade type stuff and that they have almost overbuilt the— these smart locks that that I've got on my doors, which to me is peace of mind in a lot of ways. I'd rather have something overbuilt and know it's going to last, especially when I'm spending the money that I'm spending on these things. Um, I want to make sure that it's going to last.

Right.

Um, so yeah, I mean, let's just talk just a minute. So I mentioned August. August is a, um, is a smart lock brand that does something really kind of interesting. You don't actually have to replace your deadbolt to use the August smart lock. It just fits over your deadbolt.

Oh, okay.

It is electronic, and, you know, it'll automatically lock and unlock your door for you, uh, with, with the use of its app. Okay, another one, Yale, is a very, very popular— has incredible reviews on it. They are doing really good things with their stuff. Um, I, I would definitely not shy away from looking further down in into something like Yale. Uh, but a lot of these, uh, you'll notice some different types. So you'll have some that have physical buttons on them, and so you've got a code, a unique code, uh, that you can press in the buttons and it'll unlock your door. And same thing, whenever you leave, you type the code and it locks.

Yeah.

Okay, so that's kind of how it works. It's very simple. The code is what unlocks and locks. For many of those, they are not what I would call smart locks. Those are nice because they're just coded, and anybody you can give a code, you can make a unique code for them, and, you know, they can get into your house and lock it if you give that code, you know, access. The difference between something like that and what we're talking about today is the ability to use something like an app to lock and unlock it. Okay, so it's using Wi-Fi connectivity to do something to your door. That's what makes it smart. Um, another one that's out there that some of you may have seen is a

fingerprint-type biometric entry, um, system. So basically you can record your thumbprint and only your thumbprint can lock and unlock that door.

Um, or any other recorded thumbprint.

Sure.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you, you, you can put in a certain number of thumbs. Yeah, so to speak. Uh, and that's what you can put in there for, for people to get into your house. Um, you know, I will say there are pros and cons to, to all of these systems, um, but In a lot of ways, there's pros and cons to just your regular mechanical deadbolt.

Right.

I mean, the pro is it works. The con is not anybody can get into it. You have to have a physical key to actually get into that.

And there are some of these smart locks, if I'm remembering right, that don't have keys, right?

Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.

But a lot of them you can still use a physical key on.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, and that is interesting to bring up in this specific instance is the Schlage Sense does have a key, so you can use a key to get in it, especially if the batteries die or something happens to where, you know, you know, some weird fluke has happened and it's lost the code.

Right.

You can still use a key to get in, um, but you don't have to have a key. The other thing is it actually has a thumb turn on the inside for you to lock and unlock. You do not have to type in a code every time to actually just lock it, right? Just turn the, turn the knob and it'll lock. You're good to go. Uh, same thing if you want to exit, you can turn the knob and, and walk out. Uh, some of these do not have an actual physical turn knob.

Oh really?

Not all of them do. Uh, some of them you have to, um, type in a code or, you know, type, you know, you punch your app and it'll you know, it'll unlock or whatever, which can be a little bit annoying, I would think.

Yeah.

So anyway, um, just a, just a couple of quick things, uh, that I think we should, we should talk about with, with the Schlage Sense. Um, they come in a diff— couple of different, uh, colors. I think they have 3 different colors, and they also have a couple of different styles. Okay, so depending on the, uh, the style of, of lock that you want to look on your front door. Um, you can, you know, go with a more modern style, a more traditional style, and they have a couple of options there for that.

Now, is, is this just the deadbolt, or are you talking about like the full door hardware setup?

So you can buy either or. Okay, you can buy just the deadbolt and that comes by itself, or you can buy it with a matching handle.

Okay.

And you can buy those separate if you want to as well. For instance, if you want a knob, you can buy a knob. If you want an actual, you know, handle turn, you can buy that as well. So, uh, the thing to know is that the only thing that is actually, um, coded is the deadbolt. Deadbolt.

Okay.

The handle is not coded at all. So, so what you would have to have is you'd have to have just a regular pass-through doorknob Or, or handle turn, uh, to work with this system because it's the deadbolt that actually is the smart device.

Okay. And you could probably, if you had like a doorknob, you could probably get it keyed to match the—

Yeah, you could. You could if you, if you want to do that.

Right.

Um, again, the, the idea behind this is that the deadbolt is enough security.

Yeah.

Um, You know, if you want the other, then you're gonna have to take— go again. The idea is to not have to have a key.

Sure.

So if you're having to have a key for your knob, it's kind of pointless.

Yeah. So, and I have, I have seen some all-in-one units, and, and we don't have any of those to talk about tonight, but just so everyone knows that they are available, but they're more like commercial-style doorknobs where it's like an all-in-one unit with the side turn handle that has the keypad and even the biometrics on that. So it's like a— for like commercial doors, it's like an all-in-one, right-in-the-hole unit that you can just have that all set up. So it's doorknob, lock, everything right there.

Yeah, those are available for sure. And what I would say is, whenever you say what you mentioned, commercial, that, that's, that's exactly what they're designed for, right? But that doesn't mean they're not useful for your home.

And/or studio.

Yeah, right. They can be, uh, they're likely overkill.

Sure.

Um, but again, uh, this, this one specifically, the Schlegg Sense, is, is built a little heavier duty than a lot of them are.

Sure.

So you kind of get what you pay for in a lot of ways. Um, but you also want to make sure before you buy any smart device that it is built well. I mean, that's going to be important no matter what.

Oh yeah.

So the other thing to talk about is, um, Schlage has come out with a new device since I've bought this one called the Encode. So the Schlage Encode is similar, it looks almost identical to the Schlage Sense, and there's another one called the Schlage Connect. And I know this is getting confusing, but here's what you need to understand. Each of these work a little bit differently with your home. So, uh, I have the Schlage Sense specifically because I use Apple products. And so because I use Apple products, I have an Apple TV at my house, right? The Schlage Sense does not work directly with your Wi-Fi.

Okay.

Okay, so, so here's kind of how I would identify that. At your home, you've got a modem that accepts the internet. And then you've got a router that actually sends that signal out, and then you've got an end-user device that you're using the Wi-Fi on. Okay, so imagine the deadbolt here we're talking about is that end-user thing. You have to have something in the middle that tells it to talk to the actual internet in order for this to be a smart device. So, um, Schlage has a separate device that is a wireless bridge that connects it to the internet.

Right.

So you have to have that with either the Schlage Sense or the Schlage Connect, unless you have some sort of a hub that will do that for you. Apple TV is that hub for the Schlage Sense. If you want, uh, if you don't use Apple products, uh, the, the Schlage Connect works on Z-Wave technology, which is compatible with Alexa, right? So you need to purchase whichever one of those you need based on what system you're going to use this with, and we're going to kind of get into that a little bit more here in just a minute. But then, uh, this, this Encode, the Schlage Encode, is a Wi-Fi device, right? So you don't have to have a

hub with that one in order for it to work. So it's just a little bit newer technology and you don't have to have the hub in order for it to do its thing.

Right. And so like, like in our house, even though we use Apple products, most of our home automation is done through Amazon stuff.

Sure.

And that's just because we find it easier. We like the voice technology on Alexa and Yeah. And so, but, and Apple products integrate really well with Amazon stuff.

Yeah. So yeah. And again, it just depends on what hub you want to use.

Yeah.

We have an Apple TV. I will tell you it needs to be a Series 4 or later. Because of the HomeKit. Because you have to have HomeKit in order for this to work. So a couple of things that are really interesting about this lock. Uh, it is a touchpad, and when I exit, I don't have to type in a code for it to lock. There's, there's just a word, the word Schlage, up at the top of the deadbolt. I can touch that and it automatically locks. Uh, that's a little bit of a security thing as well, because, um, in order to, um, to type in a code, you have to light up the, the, the touchpad.

Okay.

You do that by touching the word. And if it's unlocked and someone comes to type in a code, they need to touch that word, it'll automatically lock. So it's a little bit of a safety feature. Um, but this thing is Bluetooth enabled. So what you need to do once you have this thing installed is you have to download the app. So in the app, you can very easily just tap the lock and it'll either lock or unlock. It'll tell you Uh, how, you know, at what time it was locked, at what time it was opened. Uh, you can figure out which code unlocked it at what time, and you can set up to 30 unique codes. And these can either be 4 or 8-digit codes.

So, uh, you know, if I want you to be able to come into my house, all I got to do is create a unique code for you. send it to you through a text, which you can actually do through the app. Um, and boom, you've got it. The other thing that's really nice about these is you can limit the time of day that code works.

Okay.

And you can limit the day that that works. So if you want someone to be able to come at 9 to 11 o'clock on a Monday, you can set that code for just that time. That's the only time that code works.

That's awesome.

Yeah. And, and again, also, maybe you've got a babysitter that, uh, at some point something went wrong, you got to fire. Um, all you got to do is delete her code. And I said her, it could have been him.

Could have been.

Yeah. I'm sorry for all you guys out there that are babysitters. Um, delete the code and then you're good to go. So this is a pretty intuitive system. And the reason it's Bluetooth is it gives you a certain range that, that app will work with the device itself. Where this becomes really important as far as being a smart device is the Wi-Fi range.

Okay.

Because once you connect it to Wi-Fi, then you can be anywhere that you have a signal on your device and lock or unlock your door. Um, so I can be sitting in my office. In fact, this happened the other day. My wife called me And she said, Kevin, I don't know what's going on, but I'm, I'm not able to get in the house. I said, okay, what's, what's going on? She told me a couple of things she tried. For whatever reason, it wasn't working. So I opened my app, I told it to unlock, and boom, it automatically unlocked. So I don't know what was happening on her end, but I was able to remotely from, you know, quite a few miles away—

Sure.

To be able to unlock my, my door.

So does she not have the same app on her phone as you do?

She does. What's interesting is at some point it had gotten deleted and it never got reinstalled. And whenever she reinstalled it, she had to have my credentials in order to sign in, basically. And that was too much trouble for her at the moment. She just wanted in. So we got it taken care of whenever I got home. It was a pretty simple thing. to fix.

Uh, but yes, I mean, you, you can have it, you can have that app on multiple devices.

Yes. Okay.

Yeah. And, you know, they limit that?

I don't believe so.

Okay.

I mean, in my household it hasn't become a problem, but there's only 2 of us that need it. Sure. You know, once my kids get older, uh, you know, they'll need it as well. But, uh, again, that's one of the things that's nice is you can give your children unique codes And then if they're coming in at whatever time, you know what code was used and you know what time it was used.

So some of the automation I use for like my own personal stuff is I have spreadsheets that created based off things that I interact with.

Okay.

Is so in this one, you could do that as well, right? I mean, you could, you know, because it'll interact with other apps like IFTTT and different things like that. So like, I'll give you a, for instance, with my thermostat, because I have it set up with a geofence, when I enter that geofence, I have certain settings that my thermostat goes to when I enter that area. The other thing that it does is whenever I enter or leave that perimeter of the house, I have a spreadsheet that clocks me in and out of the property. Um, and I'm not paranoid, but like, I just want to have an actual record of where I was when I

was there at my house. If for some reason I ever have to show that, um, I've got, I've got an automated document that tracks me every single day. Um, And I can, I can see how it would be interesting to have a spreadsheet when everyone has their own unique code so I know when people came and left and went and used the lock.

Yeah, absolutely. So, um, uh, you mentioned a couple of things there that we should talk about. The first thing you mentioned, um, was it interacting with other apps. So that's where HomeKit really it becomes beautiful. Um, and, and the other thing you mentioned was geofence. So this has a geofenced area as well, and you can set that to a certain parameter, a certain diameter away from your home, so that, for instance, when I leave my home, a, a notification will pop up on my phone saying, do you want to run the automation? And whatever automation I've got set up, I can press yes and it'll do it. And that includes locking my door.

Okay.

Um, same is true when I arrive within a certain, uh, diameter of my home. It'll ask me, do you want to arrive home? Do you want to, you know, run that automation? I can click yes and it'll unlock my door before I ever get out of my vehicle.

Sure.

and do whatever else is set up in that automation. So with HomeKit, I can set up for my thermostat to change and I can set for lights to come on and I can set whatever else I want to. So with the, when I arrive home, what I have set is for both of my thermostats to go to a certain degree to change.

Yeah.

And for a certain light in my house to come on. And then the same is true when I leave and I press, um, you know, leave my property. Um, then it will recognize that I was the last person to leave. It'll know what other devices are there. I was the last person to leave, and it'll lock my door, change my thermostats, turn the light off. So it'll do all of those things based on whatever it is I have set up. So There is some setup with HomeKit that you might have to do in order to make all of those things work.

Yeah.

But you don't have to have any of those things work just to unlock and lock your door. Um, so, so the other apps that interacts with, you know, or whatever you have set up, if you've got the Connect instead of the Sense, then it's gonna be the Z-Wave products. If it's gonna be the, the Sense, then it's gonna be whatever you have set up through, through HomeKit.

Okay.

Yeah.

So did I understand that right? There's 2 of them that are sort of keyed in for HomeKit and one for Z-Wave? Is that—

No, there— what? No, there's the, the Schlage Sense, which is what I've got, and the one that I'm talking specifically about today is the one that is— that works with HomeKit.

Okay.

The one that's called the Schlage Connect is the Z-Wave one that works more closely with Alexa. It's a different product. And then there's the third one that is Wi-Fi only. It does not have to have a hub of any kind.

Okay. Is that the newest one?

That's the newest one.

Okay.

The Encode, E-N-C-O-D-E.

And that one has the touchpad as well.

It looks almost identical.

Does it? And it doesn't need the bridge?

No, it does not, which is the— The nice thing about it is you don't have to have the bridge with that one. That's going to be for people that simply want to unlock and lock their door. They don't want to try to do any other home automation. They don't want to try to worry about whether or not I get into a certain area. Uh, it will still allow for geofencing, uh, but you do all that within the app rather than using something like HomeKit or Alexa or something.

Okay. And so I also assume that these things are battery powered.

Yes, they are.

And so I imagine there's also Part of the reason some of these things still have keys is in case something happens with the battery.

Yeah. Um, I, I will tell you that I have had to replace the batteries in mine, and it knows when those batteries are going dead.

About how long are these batteries lasting?

I, I've had— I probably had them— so it takes 4 AA batteries.

Okay.

And I think I had it for somewhere around 14 months, 12 to 14 months before I had to replace them.

Okay.

And that's my front door. That's the one that we go in and out of all the time. We are locking and unlocking that thing a lot. Um, I also have this on the other 2 doors in my house, my garage and my back door, and I've never had to replace the batteries on those.

Okay.

Um, and everything still works great on them. Um, so it let me know in plenty of time. I was able to change them out and never had an issue. Um, the one thing that is nice about that is I have multiple entry points.

Sure.

If one of them does go down, I've got another entry point. But I, I would tell you that I— it's not going to be an issue. It's going to alert you. And, and what I mean by alerting you It, it plays a, a sound, a beeping noise. It's annoying that if you don't change the batteries, you're going to be constantly annoyed.

Sure.

Um, and so that this is not something that I, I understand at some point you may go, man, this thing is battery powered, what if I'm gone? I just don't think that's going to be an issue.

Sure.

If you're going to be gone for a long enough period of time, you know, maybe you're out for 3 months, take the key with you just in case.

Sure.

Right? The other thing, speaking of sounds that it makes, you can set this thing to do a couple of cool things. One is you can get it to play a sound every time it's opened or closed.

Right.

So just so you hear it. It's not super quiet whenever it unlocks and locks itself, but It, you know, if you're in another area of the house, you may not hear that, but you might hear the beep. The other thing is it can sense if someone is trying to put in a code that doesn't work, and it maybe happens 2 or 3 times, uh, it will sound an alarm.

Oh.

That you can set to either sound or not sound depending on how you have it set. But if you have it set, I mean, that's a deterrent. I mean, if you've got a burglar trying to come to your house and they're like, oh, I'm just going to type in this code, 1111. Surely that's the code this person put in their door. Tried it 3 times and all of a sudden an alarm starts going off, much like a security system would. It also has a feature called auto lock. So you can set this. There's about 5 different time settings that you can put on it. And so if you unlock it, and it has not been locked back within a certain amount of time, it will automatically lock itself.

Uh, I tried that at one point. I didn't love it personally because a lot of times I'm just running out to get the mail or, uh, and wound up talking to a neighbor or something and come back, my door's locked. Um, which kind of stinks because I'm right there. I'm not worried about someone burglarizing my house while I'm standing in the driveway. But all I had to do was type in my code again and boom, I got back in.

Yeah.

I will tell you another thing that has just been beautiful that has brought a lot of peace of mind is I was able to set up an automation to where at a certain time of night, if the door is unlocked, it locks itself.

Nice.

At a certain time. So for me, we set up a time so that I know if somehow I forgot to lock my door, I'm in bed, boom, that time hits and it's gonna automatically lock itself. So for my wife, that's a lot of peace of mind too. She wakes up at 2 o'clock in the morning wondering, oh man, I hope we remembered to lock the door. She doesn't have to worry about it because at that time it's going to lock if it's unlocked. Yeah.

So you mentioned a little bit ago that you have 3 of these, right?

Yeah.

And so they work well together, or is there ever any confusion with the software? I mean, is it like, well, I unlocked this one, so I might as well unlock all 3 of them, or?

Yeah, no, that's not the way that works. First of all, you have, you name them.

Okay.

So I've got my front door, my back door, and my garage door.

Billy, Bob, and Chester.

Exactly.

Got it.

It knows which one's which. One thing I will tell you, one thing that I really wanted it to do, and I think it can do this, I've still just been working through the logistics of making it happen, is, so I've got a front door and a garage door. So I've got to walk out my front door in order to get to my garage door.

Right.

So what I wanted is I wanted if I unlocked my front door, then it would automatically unlock my garage door.

Right.

That is done through HomeKit. That is not done through the Schlage app itself.

Okay.

That's just an automation that you can set. And then if you, you know, vice versa, if I unlocked the garage door, it would unlock my front door. Same thing on if I locked it, that it would lock the other one. Um, it got confused and sometimes it would lock itself and then immediately unlock itself. So, um, I— they're— they constantly come out with updates, uh, for stuff whenever they need firmware updates.

Mm-hmm.

And it'll pop up on your phone, hey, you've got a firmware update for the front door, the back door, the garage door, and you go through an update. So it's very possible that some of these things will kind of work themselves out. That's the only thing that I've been kind of like, I wish that would work and it doesn't.

Right.

That's the only thing. But I've never had an issue. I mean, if you type in a code on one door, you're gonna have to set up an automation for it to then also unlock something else.

Right.

It's not just going to unlock something else by itself.

Well, I mentioned the reverse is true too, right? I mean, so you'd have to set up the automation where if you lock the front door, you want it to automatically lock all other unlocked doors.

Yeah, you can, you can do that.

Okay.

You can do that if you want to. Um, again, it depends on how deep you into the algorithm of your HomeKit device that you want to, to get into. And some of it's— I mean, it's pretty simple.

Sure.

I mean, for me to be able to set up an automation at whatever time at night to automatically lock my door, super simple to do.

Right.

Uh, but the peace of mind that I get from that is just huge. I will tell you, it's kind of funny every once in a while, um, that just happened— the time that we've set just happens to be about the time I go to bed every night, right? For the front door. For the other 2 doors, it's earlier than that. Um, and so sometimes we, we keep our door locked most of the time, but I'll take my dog out, kind of last thing I do before I go to bed, right?

Right.

So I'll unlock the door, tends to be the same time every night. I walk out, let the dog out, and all of a sudden I'm locked out because the automation runs while I'm outside. I've just unlocked the door. And it's just kind of funny because every once in a while I'll try to go back in my, my house and it's already locked. And I'll think, ah, yeah, I have that automation set. But it also reassures me that, hey, it's working. This thing is working. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

So, you know, these things are, They're very, very handy. Uh, they are not difficult to install. Uh, it probably took me, um, maybe 20 minutes to install one.

That's not bad.

Not bad at all. That is if you have an existing lock already in place, uh, a deadbolt already in place.

Sure.

Um, there's a few things. I mean, some people put deadbolts in incorrectly, and if they're too close to each other You may have to modify something. But for most modern doors, if it's got a deadbolt and another knob of some sort—

Which it should.

It should. If you don't, please put deadbolts on your doors.

Yeah.

That's very smart. Then it's a pretty simple setup. I did have on my garage door, I did not have a deadbolt. So I had to go and I had to you know, cut out a hole and mortise in everything and, uh, wasn't that big of a deal. Uh, I will tell you one of the things that, uh, when I was doing a review on this, um, the motor on these, on these Schlages are very strong.

Hmm.

So some of these devices, you have to line up the hole for the deadbolt so perfectly that it slides in like butter and it slides out. So if you, if you have a door that you ever turn the, the deadbolt on and it's kind of tough to turn, or maybe you have to like push the door in and then turn the knob, right, in order for it to close, then you're gonna have an issue with some of these because it's an automatic thing. I mean, right, you can't just push your door—

It's not gonna muscle its way in there.

Exactly. But, um, my— so my garage door, when I did it, um, I put it in there tight. I did it on purpose so that I knew it would, would work well. Um, but I, I've never had this thing hang up.

Mm-hmm.

It, it does a really, really good job. And, um, I mean, they're, they're well constructed. They're made from a, from a company that, that you can trust. Their customer support is very good. I had to get on there one time and, um, talk about a couple of things, and the guy walked me through every single thing that I needed walked through. Really, really helpful. Uh, the app is very well done. You know, sometimes you get into some of these apps and it's like, we offer a free app and it's a piece of junk.

Yeah.

You know, um, this one's not.

It's really— I can see why the price was what it was.

Exactly. Um, and so, you know, I, I, I really like this thing. And, and I— my recommendation is if you're thinking about doing some sort of automated lock Go with something that is well constructed, that you can trust, uh, that has really good reviews, and make sure that it's something that you're going to actually be thankful that you did, right? Because one of these days, I mean, if you walk up to your house and you're like, I'm gonna put in a freaking code again, you're just gonna be mad.

Yeah.

You're gonna take the thing out. You spent all that money. Um, the thing— that's one of the things that's nice about this is For me, as soon as I get into my driveway, it asks me if I want to run the automation. I press yes. I actually do it on my watch.

I was going to ask that if you have a— Yeah.

Well, it works with HomeKit. And so, I mean, you can use just the regular app on your watch, but for me, I use HomeKit. It asks me if I want to run the automation on my watch. I press run. And I mean, within moments, it's unlocked. I don't have to wait. Uh, to get all the stuff out of my vehicle. My kids, you know, I've got backpacks and nap mats and all kinds of things I'm trying to carry into the—

And that's just you.

Exactly. Then I got my kids' stuff on top of that. And so, yes, I still take naps. Nothing wrong with that.

They're healthy.

That's right. And trying to, you know, wrangle all that stuff, the kids are already out, you know, the car, trying to get in. I don't have to wait. They're They just walk right in because the door's already unlocked.

Well, let me ask you this, because I mean, you, you have it set up with automation where when, you know, you, you get within the— that perimeter of the home, it's going to ask you, hey, you want me to run the automation? Say I don't set up the automation. All I'm really interested in is do I have a code? So I pull in the driveway, I flip the wrist on my Apple Watch. I don't have one, but I'm just guessing here. Is there an app on my watch I can just pull up and say, unlock the door?

Yes.

And it's right there?

Yes.

Now, is that because it's Bluetooth or because I'm in Wi-Fi range?

It depends on how you have it set up.

Okay.

If you don't have it set up through a Wi-Fi-enabled device, then it will be via Bluetooth. So you'll have to be within a 30-foot range in order for that to work. Um, but I'll tell you, if, if you're having to pull up an app every time, it's probably just as easy to type in a code.

Sure. Um, not as cool, but yes.

Exactly. But the nice— so the nice thing about having a hub of some— a bridge of some sort, uh, is that that automatically shows up on your device and you press run the automation, boom. You're in.

That's awesome. And I'll say this about some home automation stuff, because we have some in our house. My recommendation is that if you're going to get into some of this home automation stuff, I wouldn't like get it and just get the lock. You know, I might get a couple of things, you know, that I can test and try out over the next 30 days and really see if this is for me. Because, you know, the locks, maybe that doesn't impress you, but like, Philips Hue might, or a thermostat might, or, you know, Z-Wave light switches, or, you know, there's all sorts of things that you can sample and play with either via an Apple Hub or, you know, through the TV or an Alexa device. And honestly, like, an

Alexa device might be your, you know, your cheaper inroad because I think you can pick up those Dots for like $29 now. Yeah, they're cheap. And they're ready to go with home automation, some, some home automation stuff. Um, and, and so you can kind of, you know, get your feet wet with, with those things. Um, so that, that, that's my recommendation on that is to like, you know, get a couple of things. Um, and, you know, the Philips Hue, that, that's an expensive investment.

Sure.

Um, I will tell you, we, we enjoy that in our house. And, uh, I think I was telling you the other day, we have one of the light bulbs that's like lasted like 4 years now, uh, and still going strong. Um, so like when you look at that from like, that's a $13 light bulb. Well, yeah, but it's hanging in there. I mean, it's, yeah, it's doing all this stuff that it's supposed to do still. Um, so I would just try some stuff because you, I mean, most, most stores are fine. Like, like, look, I'm just not happy with this device. I want to send it back. I want to bring it back. That's okay. Yeah. You know, if it didn't, you know, live

up to your expectations, I would also add to that, go into it with low expectations, you know, so that it kind of give it the opportunity to impress you.

Yeah. And, and on top of all of those things, I would say, know what you're trying to get out of this device. I mean, I, I'll just tell you this. It's not worth the money if you just want to look cool.

Sure.

If you just want to have a, a home that's connected, it's not worth the money.

Um, what is that— what is the price tag right now on one of these?

That's a good question. I think whenever I was originally looking at them, they were in the $250 range.

$250.

And I, and I, I believe that included the lock and the knob. Um, I will also tell you that I did not purchase mine on the regular outlet. I didn't buy it at a box store. I didn't buy it on Amazon. I bought it through eBay. And by doing that, man, I think I spent like $120 on each one of them.

Wow.

So I spent a whole lot less money buying it brand new, unopened in a box from somewhere else. That's what I did. I wouldn't recommend that for everybody because, uh, again, if something does go wrong with it, being able to just take it back to the store, send it back to Amazon saying, hey, this thing was broken or it didn't work or whatever.

Yeah.

Uh, you know, you have a lot more risk doing that. Um, but, you know, if you're wanting to know who comes in and out of your house, if you're wanting to not carry an extra key around, if you're wanting the ability to allow someone in remotely, or maybe you you need that, maybe you've got a housekeeper, maybe you've got a babysitter, maybe you've got a regular, uh, person, lawn care, I don't know, someone that needs to do something, then check that out. Uh, another thing is, uh, that this, this new Schlage, uh, Encode, um, it is actually set up to work with the new Amazon service. So, uh—

Oh, the delivery service.

Exactly. So I just wanna mention that for just a minute. Amazon's got kind of an interesting thing where, where they've recognized that a lot of people, especially during the holidays, are getting their packages stolen, right? People are, are coming in and literally— we talked about that whenever we, uh, discussed the Ring, uh, video doorbell.

Which, just real quick, if you need some fun entertainment, do a quick search for NASA guy gets the Amazon Bandit or whatever. I forget. Yes, you can find it.

It's hysterical.

It's hilarious.

Yeah, it's worth your 5, 8 minutes. I don't remember how long it is. It's very, very good.

Yeah.

So they recognized that this was happening. So they decided, hey, what if we partnered with smart locks and smart cameras and we gave our delivery drivers the ability to leave your package inside your door rather than outside your door? And so if you enable that service and have a device that will allow them access, then you have to have a camera and a certain kind of lock.

Yeah.

And there's a number of them. There's not just one. It's not proprietary. But it, you know, the camera is really important there too.

Yeah.

So you know that they have video proof that they were actually dropping it off and not coming in and like stealing your stuff.

And that they left.

And that they, exactly, and that they're no longer there. Um, the, the Schlage Encode is enabled through that service.

Nice.

The other 2 that we talked about tonight are not.

Okay.

So, uh, just something to know there that if you want that service to be able to have Amazon deliver inside your house, then you can purchase the other one and it'll work with that.

Nice. I just, quick tip for everybody, if you live in kind of a larger populated area and you have experienced an issue with stolen packages from Amazon, you do have the option usually of having the package shipped to an Amazon locker facility, which are pretty convenient. They're usually at convenience stores.

Sure.

We actually have several in our area now. But you can actually have that package delivered to that locker and they'll just send you a code on your phone. You go up to the locker, you get your package out, and you're good to go. It's not as convenient as having it delivered to your home, but it's better than having it stolen off your doorstep.

Yeah, you know you're gonna get it at that point.

Yeah.

And it doesn't cost extra to use a locker.

Sure. So yeah, and like, I mean, like, just from our perspective, we've had an experience where like an animal destroyed a package and we had to like, like Oddly enough, that's listed as a reason on Amazon's website, like damage from an animal. Like, you know, it just came and chewed it up. Wow. And just left it in bits and pieces all over the yard. It was hilarious.

I could still tell it's hilarious.

Uh, but yeah, I think we covered it, man.

Yeah, I hope so. And, you know, again, if There's a lot of this stuff that, that I probably have an answer for. Maybe we didn't cover absolutely everything. If you've got questions, send us an email at info@homeownersshow.com, and we'll get back to you about any of that. And again, do your research. The Schlage Sense may, may not be exactly the right one for you, but it is one of the more extensive ones out there.

Sure.

Know that this kind of goes all the way, and you can pare it back if you want something a little bit less extensive, and there are some of those things out there as well. So, but if you have any questions about it, you know, let us know. And, uh, we, we hope this episode has been helpful. We will be back every Tuesday with you with a new episode, and you can find out more information on our website. at www.homeshow.com. And until then, we'll see you next time.

See ya!