Door lock recommendations

[randy]

@ Randy,

To be honest just about every lock on the market can be bumped almost as quickly as using the proper key. There's really no need to yank barrels out with a slide hammer since lock bumping was discovered.

True dat! Although Yale promotes their locks as being bump proof

Also I have a 4'x5' window beside the front door and 3 more of the same sized windows on the front of the house. The back of the house has doors and windows as well.

I doubt a burglar would choose the front of the house and a large number of conspicuous cameras may deter one from even trying. If they decide they really want to get in, a bump proof front door lock would be worthless.

[cheeryfool]

True dat! Although Yale promotes their locks as being bump proof

Also I have a 4'x5' window beside the front door and 3 more of the same sized windows on the front of the house. The back of the house has doors and windows as well.

I doubt a burglar would choose the front of the house and a large number of conspicuous cameras may deter one from even trying. If they decide they really want to get in, a bump proof front door lock would be worthless.

The average house in this country you could cut a hole in the plastic siding, plywood and sheetrock in about 5 mins. Granted that's much slower than the average pilferer would want, but there's not much keeping anyone out.

[langenet]

Even slower for my house as it's all brick!

Robert

[S-F]

The average house in this country you could cut a hole in the plastic siding, plywood and sheetrock in about 5 mins.

I have actually done this. It was for work granted but I did cut a hole in the wall of a McMansion with hand tools.

[racerfern]

@rprade - Are you satisfied with your Schlage lock now that some time has passed?

We finally installed a door to pass from the garage to the laundry room and I want to put a z-wave lock or deadbolt depending on the spousal request.

For me it is only 10' on the same wall but I'm concerned that something as important as a lock can be so troublesome.

[randy]

@rprade - Are you satisfied with your Schlage lock now that some time has passed?

We finally installed a door to pass from the garage to the laundry room and I want to put a z-wave lock or deadbolt depending on the spousal request.

For me it is only 10' on the same wall but I'm concerned that something as important as a lock can be so troublesome.

They are working well. One of them had the keypad stop working, but I removed the battery for 30 seconds and it started working. This just happened this weekend. If I was to do it over again, I would consider the Yale YRD246ZW2619 or YRD216ZW2619. I think the Yale does more detailed access reporting and this model is Z-Wave plus.

[Searider]

I have two Schlage lever locks. One was the first z-wave device I bought, even before HomeSeer and now must be at least 5 years old now. Still works (to allow users to unlock the door from the keypad).

EXCEPT

Both locks have the same problem. When I first add them to the network they work fine for some period of time, Months maybe years, then eventually they quick talking to Homeseer. They still unlock with the codes that have been installed and once I removed and re-added one of the locks and it started communicating again. I have debated trying a different brand but not sure if that will solve the issue. Just today I did order a new Z-Net interface that I will try to install a few feet from one of the door locks. My current (and only) z-net interface is on a different floor and half a house away. If this works then I will be a happy camper.

While I was typing this I kicked off a re-scan of one of the locks and it took several minutes but did complete. When I go into "setting" I get an error and it does not list the fields to allow me to change a passcode. So some strange combination of communicating but not well. in Doing this it did update the Lock/unlock status but not the battery level status. It will not let me remotely lock/unlock. Anyway I am looking forward to seeing if locating a z-net interface next to the door will fix this.

[dannieboiz]

I have two Schlage lever locks. One was the first z-wave device I bought, even before HomeSeer and now must be at least 5 years old now. Still works (to allow users to unlock the door from the keypad).

EXCEPT

Both locks have the same problem. When I first add them to the network they work fine for some period of time, Months maybe years, then eventually they quick talking to Homeseer. They still unlock with the codes that have been installed and once I removed and re-added one of the locks and it started communicating again. I have debated trying a different brand but not sure if that will solve the issue. Just today I did order a new Z-Net interface that I will try to install a few feet from one of the door locks. My current (and only) z-net interface is on a different floor and half a house away. If this works then I will be a happy camper.

While I was typing this I kicked off a re-scan of one of the locks and it took several minutes but did complete. When I go into "setting" I get an error and it does not list the fields to allow me to change a passcode. So some strange combination of communicating but not well. in Doing this it did update the Lock/unlock status but not the battery level status. It will not let me remotely lock/unlock. Anyway I am looking forward to seeing if locating a z-net interface next to the door will fix this.

I too had issues with the schlage locks at the beginning. Used to use it with Vera but had nothing but trouble. Since moving to homeseer and a couple pair/repair it's been running good for a few months now. Maybe that's what you need to do?

[Searider]

d a couple pair/repair it's been running good for a few months now. Maybe that's what you need to do?

I will remove and re-add to the 2nd Z-Net when it arrives hopefully this will be the last time I really do like the locks. The keyless entry is just super convenient.

[dmcentire]

Pinging an old thread here -- anyone have advice on non-zwave deadbolts for use with HomeSeer?

I was hoping there'd be a zigbee or wifi option by now but I haven't found anything. My three z-wave deadbolts (Schlage and Yale) are all terribly unreliable and I've tried just about everything to make them work well.

It's at the point now where I don't depend on the midnight auto locking of the locks via z-wave, I just be sure to lock them myself. Logging shows that it still tries to contact the locks and often I get failures:

Z-Wave Error: Failed sending Z-Wave command to device:

I recently upgraded to the Nortek USB zw/zb stick and HS4 hoping it would help (removed devices from HS3+smartstick, reset; re-add into HS4+Nortek) but it didn't help.

[TC1]

Pinging an old thread here -- anyone have advice on non-zwave deadbolts for use with HomeSeer?

I was hoping there'd be a zigbee or wifi option by now but I haven't found anything. My three z-wave deadbolts (Schlage and Yale) are all terribly unreliable and I've tried just about everything to make them work well.

It's at the point now where I don't depend on the midnight auto locking of the locks via z-wave, I just be sure to lock them myself. Logging shows that it still tries to contact the locks and often I get failures:

Z-Wave Error: Failed sending Z-Wave command to device:

I recently upgraded to the Nortek USB zw/zb stick and HS4 hoping it would help (removed devices from HS3+smartstick, reset; re-add into HS4+Nortek) but it didn't help.

If you're having problems with two different brand of Z-wave locks, changed your Z-wave controller, then in my opinion you have a fundamental problem with your Z-wave network that should be resolved. I have multiple Schlage Z-wave locks that are several years old in my house and never had a problem with communication reliability, even on two different automation platforms (Vera3 and now HS4).

Replacing all your locks is $$$, I'd be hesitant to do that without first fully troubleshooting your network.
When you look at the Z-wave routes for your network, how do they look?
Do any of your locks have a direct route to the controller? If not, then the neighbor nodes located nearest your locks need to support Z-wave beaming, this guarantees the locks get their commands.

Hope this helps,
-TC1

[dmcentire]

<rant>

IMHO I think it's rare for someone to have a "reliable z-wave network" -- just my two cents. I have multiple friends that have played with home automation, as well as a bunch of people at work, and the general consensus is that z-wave just isn't reliable, or when it does work it's often laggy (takes a few seconds to a minute sometimes to turn on a light). I started decades ago with X-10, then a few years ago tried SmartThings -- first gen, cloud based, returned that stuff, and finally Vera with z-wave. Around 2013 I moved to HS3 and just recently to HS4 on a brand new system. I decided, reluctantly, to use Windows 10 again since it's a native windows app and I don't fully trust the support of the mono linux ports (I'm a linux guy and have dug into some core issues with the trial versions of the s/w).

A couple years ago I moved all my lighting to Hue (from z-wave bulbs) and almost all of my dimmer, on/off, wall plate switches to Insteon (sold the z-wave stuff on ebay) and my HS4 setup is extremely reliable and fast. I use both the Philips Hue remotes and a bunch of Insteon 8-button remotes controlling Hue lights, and that's a very reliable setup. Previously I had those z-wave minimotes and they were super unreliable.

Unfortunately, the Insteon products do not dim LED lamps, so I have 2 Homeseer HS200+ wall plate dimmers in that case. Those are fairly reliable but I do often have delays in them as well. I used to use the RGB leds on those dimmer switches (the unit lets you address each individual LED separately) but that's been so unreliable I don't depend on them any more.

I agree I'd like the z-wave devices to be more reliable, but there must be some *magic* I'm missing. Here's a sampling of things I've tried over the years:

1) optimize local devices and even and the full system
2) change the smartstick+ controller
3) add repeaters
4) move the smartstick+ to different areas
5) test a mini z-wave setup with a raspberry pi + z-wave controller, using the hs3 pie version, completely independent system
6) buy the homeseer z-wave toolkit to try and troubleshoot paths

Things I haven't tried:

1) purchase the network z-wave interface from homeseer and locate it centrally in the house (single story 1200sf house).
2) buy some expensive z-wave troubleshooting equipment
3) wanted to play with homeassistant.io using a completely isolated environment, again, in hopes of isolating a troublesome device or something else.


I was hoping the move to HS4 would help. Here's what I did initially:

1) removed 2 wall switches and 2 Yale deadbolts from the old system
2) factory reset the wall switches and added them as the first 2 devices on HS4 + Nortek
3) added each deadbolt using a long USB cable to get the Nortek as close (within 10 inches) of each deadbolt and added them into the system.

Those are the only z-wave devices I've moved over so far and it's unreliable. I have NOT done any optimizing of the new setup yet even though I only have 4 devices.

</rant>


I'm glad your setup is working reliably. Maybe you can share common tasks you do and how often (optimizing, checking routes, etc)?

[TC1]

I'm not doing anything special.... i only optimizeand troubleshoot when things go wrong. And my house is similar to yours... 1450sqf, basically a dormered bungalow, so two floors. I have a HS Z-Stick+ in an old laptop running Win7 (since it's on an isolated subnet and I don't surf the net with it, minimal exploitation possibilities). And I agree 100% about not running it on Linux since it's a native Win application, I don;t want to spend effort troubleshooting incompatibilities that get introduced.

But back to your problem... you never answered my original questions. I understand you're frustrated, but there is a scientific reason for everything, even if it proves that Z-wave is crappy as you say.

What does the routing information for each lock look like? I get that you only have 4 devices setup right now, but what really matters is what the network controller sees. Maybe the locks are too far away? Maybe the wall switches are routing for the locks and they don't support beaming? For example, here's what some of my locks look like:



The lock that is not responding properly, have you run a connectivity test on it?


Let us know, hopefully it's something simple.

[George]

AWell, I lucked out. Amazon warehouse had my $349 Schage Z=Wave lock set in almost brand new condition (original box, items, instructions, someone just returned it). So I just snapped it up, I may not install it right away but I can put in the batteries and add it to the network and just use it in my hand to see if the deadbolt throws by HS command and unlocks via the keypad!

[dmcentire]

Thanks for the info. I took a look at the node info and it had a route and neighbors. I went ahead and did the test connectivity on both locks, as well as optimize and got some interesting results. Both connectivity tests failed the first time. I waited a few seconds and tried again and each time it worked on the second ping.

Same behavior on the optimize function.

But now I lost "last working route" for each of them, which was populated before. I'm sure I could get this filled in via more optimizing, but maybe I need to specify the route manually? Reminds me of my work where I manage large lab networking and define routes & bgp paths all the time :-)

I'll keep playing with it though. I did change my events that lock doors at night to do it 3 times, with 30 seconds between each command. We'll see if that's what it takes to lock the doors automatically in the evening.

Thanks!



I had routes before the optimization was done on each: