Smart Door Locks - The Ultimate Solution For Home Security

Among all of life’s day-to-day mishaps, few things produce as much anxiety as losing your house keys. When you are locked out of your home, you feel utterly cut off from the comforts and necessities you usually take for granted. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to wait in your car until the locksmith arrives, however long that takes. If you're locked out of your vehicle as well—hopefully, you have lawn chairs, and it's not raining. Some people even smash out a window to break and enter their own homes.

Once you do make it inside, the anxiety continues. You may have a spare key somewhere, but you’ll still have to worry about who might have the original key and whether they know where you live. At this point, the safest option is probably new door locks.

An easy way to avoid this mess is to install a smart door lock on at least one of your doors. These handy devices provide keyless entry to your home using easy-to-remember numerical codes that you set yourself. You can also change your keycode any time you wish. And even if you aren't home, a mobile app allows you to lock and unlock your doors remotely.

Let’s look at how smart code door locks work and how they can make your life a little easier … and a lot more secure.

The primary benefit of installing a smart door lock is that it frees you from the hassles and security risks that come with using keys. Being unable to get into your house because you've misplaced your keys, left them at work, or locked them in your car is inconvenient enough on a nice day. On an unusually cold or hot one, it could threaten your health. Children who lose their keys and can’t get inside after school could also be in danger.

Of course, there are ways to guard against such lockouts. One old-fashioned method is to hide a key somewhere outside the house. Familiar hiding places include under the doormat or on top of a door or window frame. Usually, keys are hidden somewhere not too far from the door in a place that can be easily reached by anyone outside. But guess what?

Thieves know all about this tactic, and experienced criminals can probably think of more potential hiding places than you can. That means a smart intruder can most likely find your key, no matter where it’s hidden. After that, he’ll have free reign inside your home.

Some homeowners lend keys to service providers like plumbers or repair technicians. This seems convenient and relatively secure. It’s unlikely that they will steal items or damage your home when they are there in an official capacity. Nonetheless, it’s not unheard of at all for such workers to pilfer small valuables like jewelry or to simply snoop through your belongings. It’s also very easy to make a copy of your key. An individual or someone they know could return days or weeks later, when suspicion is less likely to fall on them.

Keys are not smart—on several levels. They will let absolutely anyone into your house.

Key locks have been around for about 6,000 years now. While they still do their job well in many instances, it’s time for a technological upgrade when it comes to protecting your home and loved ones. Smart door locks, like those provided by Frontpoint, offer better protection because they lock and unlock with a numerical code (or a key fob or smartphone command). Only the individuals with whom you share the code or another form of system access can open your door.

In fact, Frontpoint Smart Locks let you use up to 50 different entry codes—you can give a unique code to each individual you allow access to the house. Your Frontpoint Smart Home Hub, App, and online Customer Portal can then help you keep track of exactly who is entering your home and when. The Smart Lock and Hub communicate using Z-Wave Plus technology, a wireless communication protocol with extremely strong encryption.

This wireless connection allows you to integrate your Smart Lock with a more extensive smart home network. You can link a wide assortment of smart devices to your system. These include security components like Frontpoint surveillance cameras and Door/Window Sensors. You can also protect your household from environmental threats with Smoke and Heat Sensors and Carbon Monoxide Sensors. Finally, smart home automation can add comfort and convenience to your life with devices like Wireless Light Controls, as well as virtually any third-party device that uses Z-Wave to communicate.

The best smart door locks do a lot more than simply substitute a numerical code for a key. Again, by linking the lock to your smart home network, you can also track entries by individual code. And you can delete or change codes at will. This makes it easy to issue a temporary code to service providers and then delete it as soon as the job is done, ending their access to your residence.

Want even tighter security when it comes to service providers and other visitors? Instead of issuing a temporary code, you can use Frontpoint’s remote app to unlock the door from anywhere. If a repairman needs access while you’re at work, you can let him in using your smartphone or another digital device. And if you want to take a look at who you're admitting to your home, other devices can let you know what’s going on.

A Frontpoint Doorbell Camera will allow you to see and speak with the visitor via the remote app before you allow them in. You can ask to see identification and obtain whatever information you need to feel secure. And Indoor Cameras and Premium Indoor Cameras let you check on what they are doing once they are inside, as well as give you the option to communicate through the 2-way audio feature.

As noted, the best smart door locks keep track of who enters your home by logging the time each entry code is used. They can also do a lot more, like send you a mobile notification whenever the door is opened, or if the door is opened at an unusual time. Smart locks can also let you know that the kids are home safe from school and whether the door is left unlocked, allowing you to remedy the situation. You can even set a “no show” alert that notifies you if someone doesn’t arrive at a specific time.

As long as there have been locks, there have been people who know how to defeat them. Lock picking, of course, is one of the oldest tricks in the book. A more recent development is lock bumping. This technique uses a specially made blank key combined with a sharp impact on the lock itself. Neither of these tactics is effective with a Frontpoint Smart Lock, which has no key or keyhole. While the intruder may still be able to kick your door in using brute force, many burglars prefer the quieter, stealthier method of working open the lock.

In addition to having no keyhole, Frontpoint Smart Door Locks are constructed with maximum security in mind. If someone tries to tamper with or remove the lock housing, a tamper-alert alarm will sound. Frontpoint has even made the keypad fingerprint-resistant. That means thieves can't guess the code by looking for fingerprints on the keys.

Smart Door Locks also work directly with a Frontpoint Home Security System to keep you safer. You can set one to lock or unlock when you arm or disarm your security system. Or set the security system to arm or disarm when the door is locked or unlocked. You also have the option of programming the smart lock to automatically relock itself 30 seconds after unlocking.

Do you have Google Home or Amazon Echo smart speakers? Frontpoint Smart Door Locks will easily integrate with these devices to give you voice control over your door lock. If you use Apple devices, you can lock or unlock your door using Siri.

As a wireless device, your Frontpoint Smart Door Lock will be powered by 4 AA batteries. Besides being readily available at numerous retail locations, these batteries are familiar, inexpensive, and easy to change. And one set of 4 batteries will usually last about a year. When the batteries do need replacing, the lock will display a warning indicator and send you mobile notifications.

Finally, if you procrastinate and forget to change the batteries, you still won’t get locked out. You can power up the lock temporarily by applying a standard 9-volt battery to a set of terminals on the bottom of the housing. Then enter the code, and you're in.

It’s difficult to imagine a world without key locks. They’ve been around for millennia and are a fairly effective way to control access to doors, drawers, cabinets, and other access points. But when it comes to the security of your home, “fairly effective” doesn’t cut it.

Smart code door locks provide significantly more security than a standard key lock. They can be operated remotely via a digital app or from within the home through a voice command or the tap of a touchscreen. They also track entries and keep you notified of who is entering or leaving, and when. Smart door locks are harder to tamper with than key locks and are often easier to use.

Plus, you will never have to worry about losing your house key again.

Want to protect your home from top to bottom? Here’s some more information on Frontpoint's DIY Home Security Systems. You can also boost the effectiveness of a smart door lock by combining it with a doorbell camera. Read about what these cameras can do.

Frontpoint keeps homes safe whether families are there or not. We've been revolutionizing the home security industry for over a decade. And we're just getting started. To shop DIY home security systems, check out our Security Packages. If you have questions or would like to discuss a quote, contact us at 1-877-602-5276.