Smart Home setups

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

Briansol

Admins
Admin
VIP
Anyone set up a smart home or key-less entry with apps or digital locks? The wife and I almost locked ourselves out when the wind slammed our deck door shut the other night. Luckily, i randomly had my keys on me so it was a non-issue. But it brought up the conversation around maybe converting one or more of our outdoor locks to a keypad or digital entry system. Then we thought what about alexa? can't she control stuff? can we yell loud enough through a window if the house is shut and we don't have phones on us to unlock the house? lol

We have a ring doorbell that I've yet to install. Perhaps there's a better way to integrate the security system into all this too. The house is pre-wired with a keypad and sensors but i've yet to find the brain... might not have one. for now, we're using the old kit the wife had from the old house.

Thoughts on setups? Anyone else research into this?
 
do you have a garage door with a keypad?

you can initiate alexa easily, i do it on calls with others sometimes and make them play through the fire and flames lol

what is the old security system? is it ADT? our brain is in the laundry room... it shouldn't be too far from the electrical panel.
 
yeah, there's a keypad, but we keep the house door in the garage locked most times, so that doesn't get us very far. of course, we can hide a spare key in there as well... but it's not the ideal situation.

another consideration is power outages. it's happened twice here already due to the stupid power company catching the woods on fire in a non-storm day. no power = no garage

no idea what the system is. it has no logo or anything. I haven't take it apart yet to look inside. no brain anywhere i can find. I'm thinking the builder pre-wired the house to be alarm-ready but never fully installed it. Our central vac is the same way - we have plumbing and wiring but no actual vacuum unit.
 
Just going to point out that no power = no wifi = no apps that will unlock a door for you.
Nothing quite like the old fashioned hidden key.
You also might want to look into the battery backup garage door openers, especially if you have to replace an existing one when it goes bad. Exterior number keypad for the opener with a battery backup will at least get you in the garage, even without power.

I have used the door locks with keypads and found it to be very easy to operate, and convenient.
I don't personally have one at my house. I think the model was sentry and it was a deadbolt keypad model.
 
yeah, i'm leaning towards something with bluetooth + proximity app on the phone that is battery powered, or just a plain old 9v in a keypad type solution instead of a full connected app.

I'm curious if i could hot-spot the phone to connect the alexa to it in an emergency though...
 
I have a lot of alexa switches and plugs. I actually refuse to do locks because I really don't want someone yelling from outside to unlock a door.

You can do one and use it through the alexa app on your phone though. My brother did the lock and it works flawlessly as long as your door is aligned properly.
 
You also might want to look into the battery backup garage door openers, especially if you have to replace an existing one when it goes bad. Exterior number keypad for the opener with a battery backup will at least get you in the garage, even without power.

I have used the door locks with keypads and found it to be very easy to operate, and convenient.
I don't personally have one at my house. I think the model was sentry and it was a deadbolt keypad model.

im going to go with what he said. our garage has a nice keypad to open it and you can use the remote keypad inside the house or the button on the remote. no battery backup though...

as for keypad locks, my server room has one! its fantastic until the battery dies and you don't have an actual key to open it lol. in 14 years it has died once.
 
We just do the garage door method you described above. If the power is out and we can't get in, we have family about 15 minutes away that could bring a key and we'd just go to a neighbors house to wait or something. Also thought about giving one of my trusted neighbors a key, but we haven't done that yet.

Regarding smart house. No locks here. Wife doesn't want it and I agree on not having it. I have some TPlink smart light switches and plugs, smart camera, sprinkler system, logitech hub, samsung vac, ecobee, alarm system, etc. We use it quite a bit and like the music throughout the house. Wife took a bit getting used to but now uses more often than I do for turning the TV on, changing channel, playing music, etc.
 
You want to connect locks to the internet? Sounds like a bad idea.

Don't get me wrong, we have like 10 Google homes, and I have two in the garage... But connecting my home's primary physical security measure to the internet? Nah.
 
My front door is a keypad. Garage and lights are run through my smarthub and controlled by Alexa. I agree with others, I do not want Alexa unlocking my door. lol
 
Back
Top