Smart locks are one of the most popular types of homecot accessories and Yel’s assurance lock SL Deadbolts announced last October is one of the most interesting options in the market today. It is found in polished brass, oil rubbing bronze and satin nickel and I have been using bronze for the past few months.
With assurance lock SL, Yale has followed an interesting strategy of supplying a $ 169 basic keyless entry Deadbolt, which can adjust one of several AL Chhisik $ 50 hardware modules that add support for homekit, Z-Wave, or GGB smart home integration.
Locking overviews and designs
Although most smart Deadbolts allow users to lock and unlock the outside with both a keypad code and a standard key, assurance lock SL completely supports a standard key. As a result, it simply allows many cleaner appearance from the outside with a small keypad visible and it obviously prevents the lock from picking manually.
It sounds like a dangerous design decision that can easily lock you when your batteries are finished but there is a solution of Yel’s dilemma – a standard 9V battery of a pair of terminal under the lock will provide you enough energy to allow your code to enter and unlock the door. Other manufacturers, such as Shelage and Quickset, are hopeful as a solution to completely removing keys in this bandwag, so it is likely to become more popular in the future.
Now, I don’t know anyone who carries a 9V battery wherever I go, so if your lock loses energy when you leave, you have to run in the store, borrow from a neighbor, or even hide out of your door. This is obviously more work than unlocking with a key, but one part of the appeal of smart locks is that you don’t need to carry keys with. There is some risk of hiding a key outside your door because anyone who finds it can unlock your door, a hidden 9V battery is uncle unless the person knows your unlock code for the keypad.
Although the decision to exclude support for a traditional taunted key creates a very clear appearance from the outside, unfortunately the same is true of the interior. Like most smart locks, the internal ingredient is relatively heavy, the unit requires manual deadbolts control, electronics and 4 AA batteries. Also, there is a need for a network module to add support for homekit, Z-Wave or Gigby.
Hardware installation
Installation will be straight and generally known to any traditional dedbolt installed. After removing your old deadbolts, you insert the latch with the edge of the door, then the external touchscreen assembly on the one hand and sandwich on the other with an internal mount plate, you just repeat the opposite process, but be careful that the posts on the mounting plate are kept with the fades properly with the external fed.
Yel provides three pairs of bolts in different lengths to protect both sides together depending on your door thickness. Simply make sure that you have lined and level all of you before you tighten them. A rubber gasket around the edge of the exterior iscuchion helps to provide a hard layer of weather protection.
From there it is simply connected to the internal assembly, feeding the cable next to the cable to protect it so that it does not become the pinch when everything is combined and it uses three short screws to connect the interior eschion to the mounting plate. If you want to install the matching strike plate in the door frame against the latch and prepare for a manual operation to ensure that your lock is correctly aligned.
Once everything is good, you will install four AA batteries and screw the battery buggy and the programming process will use the strength with the oral signal to help you move on. Oral signals are a great addition to the ordinary beeps that provide reactions to most other locks.
Programming
Programming is fairly easy, the lock itself creates a master pin code and provides the voice guide that allows to change the settings and then up to 25 user code can provide access to the door. From there, if you are happy to the factory settings, you are good to go, but you can also customize a fair number of alternatives to the lock after 30 seconds after 30 seconds you can customize a fair number of options, whether any internal index lights should come to confirm the lockd status, one-tattch locking so that you can enter more user code.
There is also a privacy option that lets you use a button inside the lock to enter the “Done Done” mode that temporarily all user codes are unable to prevent even from entering authorized users.
I found that the traditional setup process was the easiest to complete the traditional programming before adding homecut consistency, so when the initial programming was finished, I unscreded the battery buggy cover, removed the battery and inserted the IM1 network module into the slot. The battery and the battery cover reinstall the system starts back up and you use the Master Pin code to list the module.
Once this is done, you can use the Yale Secure iOS app to get the lock online via Bluetooth and sync up with your homekit data. Installing a network module also increases the number of user codes you can save for the lock from 25 to 250.
General operation
Although the smart features operated by an application or homekit are great, a smart lock needs well to do well in manual operations, and Yale assure Lock SLT manages it well. It provides a soft, objectionable appearance from the outside and with a touchscreen interface, it is completely empty until it is activated without the Yale Logo. Once you touch the screen, it brightens it to make it easy to see in the dark, and the backlit numbers do not turn off like any other keypad locks.
Compare with other locks that can only contact ordinary beeps, assure Lock SL includes a small speaker that does not allow only a few different tunes to help tell information, but also supplies voice guidance during setup in three languages: English, Spanish and French. Voice Guidance can also provide information during the general operation, as it has taken a lot of time to warn someone who is trying to enter the privacy mode or have taken a lot of time in the entrance to the PIN code and their time is over.
The overall operation is smooth, the keypad or even the gloves on the gloves register the press properly. After unlocking the door, after entering a PIN code, you need to press the checkmark key to confirm your entry, which looks like an unnecessary extra keyprint, but it is a small quibble.
Yale Secure App
The Yale Secure app is a common application to manage the lock function from your phone, but it provides a clear appearance based on a black, yellow and white scheme. It supports multiple houses and shows all your compatible yol locks online, it makes it easy to lock and unlock with a tap.
It allows you to manage the scheduled user codes, monitor the battery level and otherwise adjust all settings that need to be directly handled directly from the touchscreen of the lock. The user codes can be easily added and deleted as needed, if the codes can be set automatically after time or allow only access to the specified time, it will be great.
Finally, the app is monitored for the firmware update for your lock and apply them when they are available. This is not a full homekit application, so you will not be able to use the Ele Secure to view the status of other homekit devices or set up automation with multiple devices.
Homecut operation
Like other homecut-capable smart locks, Yale assurance can be controlled through Siri or Apple’s home app for SL IOS, and it can be activated with triggers or triggers where an event on a homekit device can be activated through automation routines through automation routine to create another device.
During my entire exam, the lock was responsive to the homecot commands, its status will appear quickly on the home app and whether I am at home or away, faster lock or unlocked from a serial command or home app. With a range of homecot devices around the house, a “goodnight” scene is made easy to ensure that all the lights are closed, the door is locked, and the garage door is closed before going to bed.
Battery backup
As I described above, there is no physical cylinder to unlock assurance lock SL with a key above, so if the lock battery dies, the backup solution of the Yel is touched on a 9V battery in the terminals under the lock so that to give it enough energy to open it. If you can easily get your hand on a 9V battery, it’s pretty a beautiful solution and hope you will never use it if you concentrate on low-battery warnings and your lock batteries are not finished.
I have tested the 9V battery backup method several times and gets a good connection to the terminals and hold the battery steadily, once you get the lock energy in the right place and let you lock and unlock generally.
After three months of use, the Yale Secure app is still reporting 83 percent battery life on the set of AA batteries that are still brought in the lock. If this is truly correct and the battery life is relatively linar measure, the battery changes are very low and it should be in between, further limited the possible need to use the 9V battery backup solution.
Up to wrap
Yale assurance lock SL is a very beautiful smart lock. It performs well on all three aspects of the operation: direct interaction with lock, app management and homecut integration. This is proven to be reliable with solid battery life, and the 9V battery backup system is an innovative method to eliminate the requirements of complete keys.
$ 169 for the homekit module and additional $ 50, assure lock SL is fairly expensive, but not far from the complete range than competitive products. On the one hand, it makes it easy to add support for a smart home system after purchase of separate network modules, and if you want it, you just need to pay for it, but on the other hand, it feels a little over 50 and it allows you to work with the choice of a single smart home protocol.
IM11 Homecut Modules include IM1 Hometime Module with Yale Assurance Lock SL, and for bronze bronze for bronze bronze (satin nickel/polish bras) and Amazon (Satin Nickel/Poly BRAS). Amazon has a lock/module package in the oil rubbing bronze but for some reason $ 249.99 is charged.
Note: Yale/Asa Abeloy provided the macrumars’ assurance lock for free for this review. No other compensation was found. An authorized partner with Macrumors Best Bay and Amazon and may obtain commissions by links through links in this article.
