Add a Smart Door Lock to Your Front Door

Are you looking for an easy way to get inside your home? Consider adding a smart door lock to your front door!

To add to the rejuvenation of our front entryway, we decided that the front door hardware had to be replaced. It no longer looked like gold or brass and was not making a good impression. In fact, not sure it was nice to even put your hand on to open the door.

The next thing we decided to do was look into replacing the deadbolt with a smart door lock keyless entry deadbolt. If your door handle hardware is still in good shape, you can choose to only replace the deadbolt.

Most companies carry many different finishes for door hardware including bronze, brass, gold, and black. We opted to select a shiny brass finish.

Why a smart door lock?

We have a lot of people in our family and had a lot of trouble trying to get everyone a key. We would have to hide a key or get a key to each person we had checking on the house or pets when going on vacation. A keyless entry provides a much easier solution.

• Most products allow you to program multiple codes into the pad. We decided each child could have his code and make the code something easy for them to remember. An idea would be to use the same code or similar code they use to unlock their cellphones.
• Most products also allow you to program temporary codes and give those to persons taking care of your house or pets while you are out of town. Later upon returning home, you then erase that temporary code.
• Some more advanced products also allow tracking of the codes used for entry.

Many smart door locks also provide audible signals for when the door is opened and alarms that go off for forced entry or attempted forced entry. The intruder alarms are often loud enough to alert neighbors so would be a nice feature when you are away.

There were several brands we looked at but the one that seemed to have the best reviews and features was made by Schlage. It was the Schlage Connect – Touchscreen Deadbolt with Alarm.

Installation

Schlage also has an extremely thorough manual and step-by-step instructions.

Please read the manual about installation and better yet watch and follow the Schlage installation video below.

The Schlage videos are great and I used them to install mine. They were so good I thought it would be a waste of time to try and recreate a video tutorial just like it.

The number one thing was to carefully read about adjusting the new bolt length based on your door deadbolt opening once you removed your old hardware.

If you order the new door handle with the deadbolt compare the old location and holes to the new door handle. The only difficulty I had was that the old door handle appeared to be non-standard and required for me to drill another hole through the door. The Schlage door handle had an adjustable mount but even with that the hole for my old door handle was just out of reach. Fortunately, the new handle’s hardware covered both holes on the outside. I had to tape off and repaint a small area around the new handle.

Besides adjusting the door handle fit, the installation went smoothly and right along with the video and instruction booklet.

Secure The Connections

The keyless entry pad runs on four AA batteries so I would use quality batteries so they last awhile. I also took the black electrical tape and put some around the battery pack to hold the batteries and a strip over the top of the plug connection. This guards against the connection loosening from door vibration when it is open and shut. I found it came loose a time or two and the pad was disconnected. Not everyone in our household shuts the door gently.

The Schlage set deadbolt does provide keyed entry to the lock as a backup and they provide one key. I suggest hiding it somewhere accessible but very hard to find a way to still get into the house should the batteries die or the connection shake loose. Do not hide under a plastic rabbit statue, flower pot, etc on your front porch. That is not going to fool an intruder.

Programming Entry Codes

Follow the instructions in the booklet or this Schlage video to easily program your codes. Codes can be as short as 4 digits but I suggest 6 or 8 digits making it hard for anyone to guess.

Testing the New Door Lock

Shutting the door, locking it, and entering a code always starts with pressing the Schlage logo at the top of the keypad.  Shutting the door and pressing the logo locks the door. You will hear the bolt mechanism sliding the bolt into place. You can test this with the door open to see the mechanism extend and retract to test codes without getting locked out.

Entering your code begins with first hitting the Schlage logo and then entering the digits of your code one at a time. As each digit is entered, you should see a green checkmark in the lower left corner of the pad. If the code is incorrect you will see a red X in the lower right. Once a successful code is entered you will hear the bolt mechanism activate and retract the bolt.

Forced Entry Alarms

Entry alarms and forced entry alarms can also be programmed into the keypad. See how this is done here in another easy-to-follow Schlage video.

I chose not to use the entry notification and only set the forced entry alarm because my dogs are terrified of the sound the entry tone makes. They bark each time the mechanism activates to open the door anyway so why torture them with the regular entry beep or tone?

So spruce up your front door and add convenience and security with a keyless deadbolt. I have also noticed that Schlage is integrating these locks with the Ring doorbell for even more security. This will probably be the subject of a new post, so look out for that in the next couple of months.

We hope this has inspired you to add a smart door lock to your front door!

Blessings, Rich and Donna

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