Slim Smart Lock

I've had this door lock fitted for a few months now. I decided to wait to review the lock until we had a good use of its features.Firstly, the fitting of the unit can be really simple or really awkward depending on the type of door you have, and the handle you're swapping out. We have a Coldseal uPVC door with multipoint locks and reinforced steel panelling. This lock is similar in design to the original door handle but not similar enough to avoid considerable effort and time to fit.Due to the nature of our specific door, there was some drilling of new holes required to feed the cable for connection to the battery side and and retaining bolts through to the outside unit. Given there is a steel plate for reinforcement of our door that is not designed to be easily drilled, this took some time to ensure the door was not totally ruined whilst penetrating the steel shielding.The manufacturers state in their instruction material that it is not compatible with multipoint locking mechanisms. Well, as it happens I was able to make this work without swapping out the original catch and locking parts. The power cable was a little fiddly to feed through the door and connect but with some patience and perseverance I successfully managed to get everything connected up and working. We have a fully functional multipoint locking door using this lock but you may not be so lucky.As this was not a perfect fit from the original handle, I was left with a 1 inch semicircular hole underneath the handle which needed to be filled. You can get uPVC panel repair kits that are like a putty to use and harden to a solid plastic state. After receiving delivery of the repair kit I was able to sort this out and the door is now gap-free and as secure as it was before fitting.I go through this little story to demonstrate that the replacement process might not be as straight forward as you might think. It all depends on the age and style of your existing door. The best scenario is to fit to a brand new door that has not been cut to suit a previous fitting, but most people I'm sure will be wanting to retrofit. Before you order, be prepared to either undertake some serious DIY or pay a qualified tradesman.The lock itself is great. I have invested in a remote gateway and have full access to lock and unlock the door wherever I am. The internal storage of the unit deals with the registration of up to 200 users (there's only 3 of us) and you can access by either RFID card, fingerprint, numeric code or phone app. No personal biometrics are shared outside of the individual locks internal storage.The phone app is pretty basic but easy enough to use. Generic RFID cards work with this lock so you can produce new "Keys" for around 20p each if you shop around for the correct frequency of card (13.56MHZ cards required). The fingerprint reader is a pain if you have wet hands so it's best to have a card as a backup just in case.I installed Duracell Optimum batteries into the lock and we are currently at 65% battery power after 7 months of general use. You do get 2 rather specific manual keys should the batteries die and there is a micro-USB socket behind the protective plate to power the lock temporarily to gain access (you cannot use this for full-time powering the lock).I'm happy with the lock and it has provided a new level of convenience for us. It is secure and operates similar to hotel room locking mechanisms by mechanically separating the handle from the catch and mortice locking mechanisms. The unit is good quality with solid metal components and has survived recent bad weather. Just make considerations to the installation effort or costs required to avoid disappointment.

UPDATE:This lock has failed. When using fingerprint, code, and even the key, it simply doesn't unlock. The lock wasn't even being used that much as it is a side-door and not a main entrance/exit. I have to alter the 5 star rating, though it is difficult to decide what rating I should give it. I will have to reduce the star rating to 1 I feel, because a door lock failure is something that should never happen at all let alone this quick, however on closer inspection as in having a closer look inside, it does seem to be poor material choices for the internals, and possibly less than optimal engineering. Outside it looks a million dollars though, and this is where we all often go wrong. Now the dilemma of finding a lock that I can trust, I fear it is time to just go back to good old mechanical locks from established brands such as Yale.----------------------------------------------------------First of all, the lock talks to you! A nice modern touch.Secondly, the build quality is solid, very heavy duty and no shaky flaky parts. This is the kind of workmanship one expects from a top quality chinese manufacturer, they who do not cut corners, whence the high price.Sync'd the lock with the phone via the app from the appstore, which communicates with the lock across bluetooth, we registered fingerprints, codes, rfid-tags. The lock uses 4 AAA batteries behind a thick metal cover screwed on with a small black screw.The fingerprint sensor is as good as the ones you have on laptops, fast, accurate and even works fine with slightly wet fingers we found.Now the difficult part is the fitting. As these locks require a fair amount of enthusiastic wood-work, definitely would be far easier on PVC or composite doors. In our case we fitted it on an old-fashioned solid wooden door, took a while but we got there in the end and mighty impressed, as professional as professional comes (even though I say so myself).The lock also has a dead-lock bolt, so if you swing up the handle, it engages the dead-bolt. The handle on the outside can't do anything, until the right code/fingerprint/rfid-tag comes along, and then the lock can be opened and if the dead-bolt is engaged that can also be disengaged.Please note that this lock requires either a very good enthusiastic DIY'er who is not afraid of custom-work to facilitate the installation or a time-proven professional locksmith (beware of the many cowboys out there who blame everything else but themselves for poor workmanship!).Lovely lock, and if the price is dropped a little more then we shall buy a couple more of these without hesitation!PS. Absolutely adore the finish on this lock, well done to the designers!!! This is a great product and proves that Amazon does have real diamonds among a crowd of zirconias, the most difficult task is finding those diamonds, and this is where good honest reviews help.I hope this helps convince you.PSS. I also really do believe this lock is highly efficient with batteries, we took them out after a week, tested them in the charger and the charger came up with 95%!!!!! And that is after a great deal of locking unlocking (new toy and all).