SCHLAGE Sense Smart Deadbolt With Century Trim (Matte Black)

Update: 7/24/19 Since Schlage updated their app a couple months ago the lock is once again working reliably. So I’ve restored my original 5 star rating. I only wish they would have acknowledged and remedied the issue quicker. Update: 5 months after purchase The lock itself is great, and it worked flawlessly with the Apple Home app for the first couple months. But the software has been pretty unreliable for the last 3 months. I most frequently get a ‘unresponsive’ or ‘updating’ message when attempting to unlock with both the Apple Home app as well as the Schlage app. I recommend checking the other reviews on the Apple App Store. As other reviewers have suggested, the onset of this problem seems to coincide with Apples iOS 12 update. I hope that Schlage will fix this soon, or stop calling it ‘Smart’. The lock itself is great and the keypad works well. I was planning to purchase a second one for my rear door, but decided against it for now due to the unreliability of the software. Original 5 star review: I’m very happy with this purchase. The lock seems very solid and well made. Installation was very straightforward, their app takes you through step by step as you’re doing the install. Works well with Apple HomeKit.

Now that I have this I can't see how I lived without it for so long. It is tremendously liberating not to have to worry about your key and I feel the house is much more secure than previously. I matched it with a simple Schlage Century passage handle (about $40). I did not have a deadbolt installed in my exterior door and decided to install it myself. This meant the door had to be drilled and chiseled, etc. I bought the Milwaukee door lock installation kit (about $35) and watched a few Youtube videos and I was able to pull off a pretty decent installation that looks very clean and functions well. You will also need a chisel to set the strike plates. This is easier than you would imagine. Thank you Youtube ! The main thing I did not expect about installation of this lock is that the most important thing is preparing your door. The motor that drives this deadbolt is lightweight and it needs the door to be perfectly aligned so that the bolt can open and close with no added pressure or drag. So if you have a door that you have to lift up or press in or pull out or otherwise wiggle to get the deadbolt closed, you are going to have to do some work on your door until it is all properly aligned so that the deadbolt can click open or closed easily with no interference or drag. Apparently Schlage customer support does have some tricks up their sleeve like differently shaped strike plates if needed. But that is the first thing you need to start with .... how your door and current deadbolt fit and work and do you need to adjust the door itself. Schlage says that with correct fit the batteries will last over a year but they recommend replacing them annually anyway. However the first time your bolt tests the installation in the door it uses a low power mode to lock the bolt. If it is unable to successfully complete its "low power" cycle due to drag somewhere in the fit, after 3 unsuccessful tries it will go into a "high power" mode permanently. This will result in shorter battery life. You can check your battery level in the app. After a few weeks of constant use the batteries are still showing at 100%. Schlage also has a nice video about installation that is available in the app or on Youtube. I was amused to see that the very first thing in the instructions is that they tell you "FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS!". For example you do not insert the batteries until a specific time and if you insert them too early you can foul up the lock's programming and self test cycle. So, READ AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS STEP BY STEP. For extra reinforcement, Schlage provides a heavy duty backer to the strike plate on the frame and super long screws to secure it through your door frame. You may really want to have an impact driver to set these long screws. We didn't and stripped it using our regular electric screwdriver but finally got them in.... only to discover the placement was slightly off and we had a slight drag on the operation of the deadbolt. And there was no way those screws were coming out without a fight. So if I was doing it all over again, I would have set the strike plate only using the small screws until I fully tested the fit of the lock. In our case we were able to adjust the lower strike plate for the door handle inward to get the deadbolt back to non-interference operation, so we were OK. Once physically installed, the HomeKit setup and lock programming was quick and easy. The first thing the lock did was update its firmware and I had not a single hiccup with the HomeKit. I have a 3rd generation Apple TV that's about 10 feet away from the front door and it is turned off in power saving mode most of the time but I have not noticed any problems with remote access when I have tried it. Works perfectly. So how do we actually use the door? Well, you can assign up to 30 codes for entrance and those codes can be set to work during all hours and days or limited hours and days. It does warn you that whatever number of digits you pick for your codes that will be permanent. So we went with 4 digit codes since that's what most people are used to for their PINs. Longer codes would obviously be slightly more secure, but if you stand at the lock and try various combinations you can only make a few attempts before it sets off a built-in internal alarm. The alarm is loudest in the house and doesn't carry outside too strongly but loud enough to make the person attempting to guess your code feel uncomfortable standing there. You only get a certain number of tries before it won't accept any more and sounds the alarm. So there are two of us in the house and we each picked a four digit code and that's what we use as our key. You can lock and unlock it using the app, but it's easier just to walk up to the door and type in your code. You can use the app to check the lock status and lock or unlock it remotely (works perfectly with our HomeKit setup) and also to view an extensive log of who has locked/unlocked the door and when. You can set the door to auto lock at the interval of your choice. On the exterior, as soon as you close the door you can press the Schlage button to lock the door immediately without waiting for it to auto lock. Once inside we are making it a habit to manually lock the door upon entry to save battery so it doesn't auto lock every time. So I always used to be stressed out about "did I have my key with me" and now ... I just don't need a key. The door is locked a lot more than before. It has a built in alarm that responds to tampering. It keeps a record of when it's been opened and closed. And I can remotely allow access to someone if needed which is a huge comfort given that my dogs are left in the house a lot and I'd always worried about how I would handle that if I was stuck somewhere and needed someone to go in and take care of them.... now I can do it easily from wherever. Documentation of HomeKit features is sparse but I expect that to improve over time. For example the one time I set off the lock's alarm by typing in the wrong code repeatedly, i would have expected it to send me a notification that the alarm had been set off. It did not and I have no way of knowing if it was supposed to or not or how to set it to do that if possible. IN SUMMARY, I LOVE THIS LOCK. For a future upgrade, I can see the value of adding an automatic door closer so I am considering adding one of those to my door to make sure it closes fully on its own so that the auto lock can be completely successful without my remembering to fully manually close the door.

This lock has it all! I just set it up, and I will say you’ll need to dedicate about an hour to get this rolling. Part of the time for this is the 20 minutes i waited for a firmware update which left my phone a slave until that completes. Anyway the physical install was fairly easy, just follow the directions which are well written. Setting up with my phone was a breeze and it just works. When i finished i had the lock setup with homekit and could lock/unlock it either with siri command or using the homekit app, or even the schlage app. Last thing, saying that you need an apple tv to control this remotely is not quite right. What you need is an ios device with newer ios on it and connected to the same icloud acct. so if you have an old iphone or ipad at home that is sitting in a drawer gathering dust, i think you can use that to access the lock remotely. The way it works is your current phone will allow you to lock/unlock anywhere if your lock is setup for homekit. Via homekit your old phone sitting around your house can receive that command and if it is within bluetooth range will pass the command onto the lock. That is how he apple tv does it and it doesn’t even have a homekit app, so if like me you have an old (not too old) phone or tablet around, put it within 30 feet or so of your door, having made sure you can already control your lock with that device, keep it plugged in and on and that should suffice without the need for an apple tv. I will say when i tested remotely it took longer to work and siri would report it could not communicate with the device, but then when i went into homekit it would update and report correctly,so siri seemed to not be waiting long enough, but it does work

I bought two of these for our vacation home, hoping to be able to monitor and open/close remotely. One of them is very near the router and AppleTV the other is downstairs away from them. The one near the router/ATV works as advertised. It reliably stays connected to the network, thus functioning as a smartlock is supposed to function. The one downstairs lock drops on and off the network and is in fact mostly off. The home is not large and there aren't a lot of walls/floors between the router and the lock. My phone has full WiFi signal standing at the lock. I called Schlage about the lock (40 minutes to get a person on the phone) and they told me it sounded like a bad communication board on the lock so they sent me another brand new and told me to keep the bad one. I installed the new lock and it's exactly the same. Sometimes I can connect via the Schlage or HomeKit apps, but usually not. Even when I can connect, it's only after several minutes, which is not what you want when you want to unlock the door from your phone. They do make a WiFi booster but evidently it doesn't work with HomeKit so I haven't added another $70 to an already expensive lock. I did use the first lock at my primary residence and it works better, but still not 100% of the time and it is very close to both the router and ATV. As a keyless deadbolt they work fantastic. As a smartlock, however, I'm batting 1 for 3 with reliability. At $200 +/- per lock I'm less than thrilled. I gave it 3* only because of their customer service, because it seems to be well built and it functions well as a keyless deadbolt. It could be non Apple HomeKit users might have a better experience. ****Update April, 2018**** I bought the Schlage Sense locks, and subsequently wrote my review above, without fully delving in to how they worked. I just knew I wanted a smart lock that worked via HomeKit so I could manage my vacation home from hundreds of miles away. The problem with connection I was having was explained by some comments, but I never returned to my review to see them until I sat down to write this update. What I did do, however, was research the problem on my own and came to the realization of why the one location was not working in my setup. Now that I know how the locks work, I am upgrading my rating to 4 stars not five because of the extra equipment and expense that may be required to get them functioning properly. THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHEN CONSIDERING THESE LOCKS The locks communicate via Bluetooth, not WiFi. As long as you understand this, you can plan accordingly. Basically it works like this Schlage Sense <——(Bluetooth)——> Bluetooth Network Device <——(WiFi/Ethernet)——> Router The Bluetooth Network Device is the key and for HomeKit users, it can be either an AppleTV (3rd gen or newer*) or an iPhone/iPad running iOS 10 or higher. If you don’t use home kit and just want to use the Schlage or 3rd party apps to manage the locks, you can also use the Schlage BR-400 WiFi adapter. The key is the bluetooth connection device must stay pretty much in the room where the lock is, which may or may not be convenient for you. In my case, my AppleTV was in the same room as my upstairs main entrance and always had a consistent connection. But my other lock was downstairs on an exterior garage door. It was too far away from the Apple TV. Since my TV was upstairs, I wasn’t going to move the Apple TV into the garage, obviously, so I had to figure out a way to get Bluetooth into the garage. If you are in my same predicament where your AppleTV is not able to be placed near enough to your lock, then you do have three options at this time. 1. Ditch HomeKit and buy the Schlage WiFi adapter. I wanted to use HomeKit so that was out and is why you buy this lock over the others. 2. Buy another Apple Bluetooth Network Device to leave in the room where the lock is. This makes an expensive lock even more so. 3. Use an old Apple Bluetooth Network Device to leave in the room where the lock is *. Since I had just upgraded my Gen. 3 ATV to the new 4K version, I happened to have a compatible device that I could use. I simply plugged it in inside the garage and now the lock communicates perfectly. You could use an old iPhone or iPad too, just remember it has to stay put and you cant walk around with it or it will not stay connected. Would I buy the lock again if I didn’t have an extra Apple device laying around at my disposal, well I doubt it. I’m not sure if there are better alternatives or not so I probably would have just abandoned the smart lock in that location. The good thing is, because Schlage sent me a replacement lock, I now have one to use at my main home. I installed it on an exterior door that is near my ATV and it works great. So now I have three functioning Sense locks for the price of two, thanks to Schlage. So hopefully this update will help potential customers understand how the locks work and you will be able to determine if it will work for you or not. Regarding the lock, well it is fantastic. The touch controls are nice and having a key backup is also good in case of electronic failure. After six months, the four AA batteries still have 90% life remaining. And the quality of the lock is excellent, which is why it is one of the best residential security locks on the market. *Update January 5, 2019 If you have a Gen. 4 Apple TV, you can't use a Generation 3 on the same network. You can supposedly use multiple Gen 3s or multiple Gen 4 or newer, but Gen. 3 loose remote function when on the same network with a Gen 4. I added another Schlage Sense lock to our main home and could not get it to work via Homekit or the Schlage App remotely initially, despite having a 3rd Generation ATV sitting less than 5 feet away. The main ATV 4K is well beyond range of the lock. Doing a bit of research, I came across an article that simply reveals that Gen 3 ATVs, if connected to a network that has ATV Gen 4 or newer (4K) also on the network, will not act as a fully functioning Bluetooth extender. Apple specifies that remote features and automation don't work with the Gen. 3's in this scenario. The remote function is what I'm looking for and as far as I can tell, nothing really works at all in this scenario anyway. So, I've ordered a Gen 4 Apple TV to act as a Bluetooth Extender with my ATV 4K and will report if this indeed fixes issue. That brings me to my vacation home where I also have a 4K and Gen. 3 Apple TV. Since the time of writing the first update where everything was working fine, the lock has begun disconnecting again. What I have come to assume is that the 4K Apple TV has a stronger blue tooth signal and was initially connecting to my previously troublesome lock rather than the Gen 3 ATV I placed near it like I thought. As the lock batteries have weakened, so has it's receiver and now it has disconnected like before. So I am in the same situation in both homes, needing to purchase two new 4th Generation or newer Apple TVs to provide coverage where I need it. Once I determine that the Gen. 4 really does fix the issue, I'll probably buy another for the vacation home but will not be happy about it. As far as I can tell, no one has released a Bluetooth Network Extension Device. There were a few shown at CES 2017, but none made it to market. Perhaps some young tech entrepreneur will design one and bring it to market for less than an ATV soon. Conclusion: Before you buy, be aware of the limited Bluetooth range if you want remote features (which is the only reason you would want this lock over the traditional keypad version). Essentially, you need a 4th gen or newer ATV in the same room as the lock. Of course if you only have 3rd gen ATVs they will work too, as long as you never upgrade any of them. There is still the iOS option, but I can't speak to their idiosyncrasies. 1/10/19 I can confirm that replacing the 3rd Gen ATV with a 4 Gen as a Bluetooth extender solved the issues above. All locks now function perfectly. So to reiterate, you can mix and match Gen 4 and 4K ATVs as extenders, but not Gen. 3. Gen 3 can only be used with other Gen. 3s if extenders are required.

I really wanted to get a smart lock because my husband, despite us living in a major city, would constantly leave the door unlocked. Even with a Tile Mate Key Finder, Phone Finder, 4-pack on his keychain, he would lose or misplace his keys and end up propping open the backdoor in lieu of having to find or carry them. I researched heavily leaning towards locks that converted your existing deadbolts like the more affordable but limited Kwikset Kevo Convert Smart Lock Conversion Kit in Satin Nickel , which I received free from Amazon Vine, and the similarly priced but also limited (works with a very limited list of existing deadbolts) August Smart Lock (2nd Gen) - Keyless home access - Control with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit or your smartphone (Dark Gray) but both had very mixed reviews and my locksmith said that everyone he had installed the August lock for had either LOVED it or hated it. No in-between. Consumer Reports gave a high rating to the Z-wave version of this lock (New Model) Schlage Connect Camelot Touchscreen Deadbolt with Z-wave Technology and Extra Key BE468-2K (Aged Bronze) , which requires a separate hub whereas the 3rd generation Apple TV can act as your hub for the Sense if you already have one. By default, Consumer Reports recommends the Sense because it is the same lock but the Z-wave Connect works with the Alexa while the Sense and Apple TV work with Siri. I have issues with my motor skills and know nothing about locks so I had my locksmith install the Schlage Sense so I can't speak to how easy or difficult it is to install this as a layperson. I can speak to how easy it was to set up on my phone. Within minutes, I could access the lock via my iPhone and Siri was locking and unlocking my front door. Meanwhile the Kwikset Kevo Convert Smart Lock Conversion Kit in Satin Nickel I had installed on my backdoor was buggy and had all sorts of issues, not to mention the cheap batteries that came with it and were practically dead on arrival. I had to install the Kevo and uninstall it several times and I still get "bolt jam" errors when I use it now and again. Not to mention that because it's bluetooth, the range is limited and at $99 for Kevo Plus for remote access, it's already at the same price-point as the Schlage Sense.. I found the Schlage app much easier to navigate and not as buggy as Kevo's. I also already had the latest generation Apple TV so I could very quickly start remote locking and unlocking my front door. This is one of my favorite features. I love that I can also make sure remotely that the door has been locked after I leave or when someone else leaves home. Of course, the auto-lock functions also helps insured my door is locked and this can be set from 15 seconds to up to 4 minutes. It was also very easy to set up access codes for my husband and my housekeeper and set up temporary access codes (you can schedule when they start working and when they stop working) for my handyman so he could come in my house to do repairs when I wasn't home. Other nice features are the 1-touch locking. You can press on the Schlage name above the touchscreen and tada, the door is locked automatically. You can also decide if the touchscreen has a "keypress beep" and as I mentioned before, how long the auto lock delay is as well as choose between disabling the built-in alarm, having the lock beep when the door is opened/closed and setting an alarm if there's forced entry and for the latter decide how sensitive you want it to be. My husband is very pleased using his iPhone or the touchscreen to open the front door. I haven't used the touchscreen once and use Siri exclusively to open my front door as I walk towards it from the car. We are both pretty pleased with our purchased. It is great having the lock come up on our Apple Homekit along with all our other smart devices, including the Philips 464503 Hue White and Color A19 LED Bulb, 3rd Generation with Richer Colors for IOS and Android and Philips 461020 Hue White Ambiance Single A19 Bulb, Works with Amazon Alexa and Elgato Eve Energy (NEW), Switch & Power Meter with Apple HomeKit Technology, Bluetooth Low Energy . I know it's too much to ask probably but I wish it worked with Alexa. We did have a funny interaction with Siri where we asked her to "open the door" and she heard "find a whore." She couldn't find any in our area. With Schlage Sense, Siri is your key and a touchscreen and regular key act as pretty good backups. We use a key now only on the Shabbos or Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath) when we can't use our phones or the electronic touchscreen to open our door. For our front door, we ended up getting the Matte Black Century Trim but I think the Antique Bronze would have been a better style for our dark brown door as the door has more of a classic look and the lighter gray touchscreen panel clashes a little. While the Matte Black and Century look exactly as pictured, the Antique Bronze looks nothing like the photo here or on any of the websites or even the packaging in comes in! The touchscreen background is actually black/brown NOT that garish "baby poop" brown (see photo). In person, the Antique Bronze actually looks exactly like the Antique Bronze version of the Connect seen here Schlage Connect Camelot Touchscreen Deadbolt with Built-In Alarm . My in-laws got the Schlage Sense in Antique Bronze after my recommendation and kept their existing handle set of a similar color. For our backdoor and back house, we got the Satin Nickel finish for our white doors. We got those severely discounted, as 1) this finish is regularly the cheapest and Build.com was selling them refurbished by the manufacturer at $144 a pop. The handle sets were also cheaper at Build.com.

This thing has utterly transformed how I manage my Airbnb property that is 2 hours away from my home. This allows me to create unique codes for guests that make check in totally seamless. It also creates a log of which user accessed it, so if there were ever any issues, I could look back at what code accessed it and even the exact time it was accessed. I still need to set it up with an Apple TV to be able to make changes and updates remotely. The fact that you need Apple TV to do this is kind of odd... I do wish that it just connected straight to the network. But I actually love it so much that I am getting an Apple TV just to have this added functionality (maybe I'm crazy, but seriously, this has made managing my vacation rental such a breeze). But other than the Apple TV requirement to manage outside of the home network, this thing is beautiful. The finish and feel is great (I paired it up with a door knob from the same series) - I found this to be the best looking, modern lock of this type. The security of the lock itself seems fantastic and is quite obviously lightyears more secure than the generic deadbolt that had been on the door previously. All black hardware is a nice touch, too - even the plate that goes on the door frame is matte black.

i changed to this smart lock about a year ago after owning an August smart lock for a couple years before that. It is a huge improvement in my opinion. + automated operation via homekit is rock solid, my wife and i use homekit to unlock the door at least once every day and it’s flawless. + having a smart lock with a keypad is HUGE and i will never go back to a keypad-less lock. the best part is being able to press a button to lock the door on my way out without fumbling with keys. yes, it’s technically possible to do with an august lock via automation, but i just don’t trust the automation with locking. i’d rather turn the key or press the button myself to be 100% sure it is locked when i leave. the keypad allows me to do that. + battery life has been amazing compared to august. i still have not changed the batteries after many months, but with august i was having to do it at least once a month. + programming in users with their own passcodes without signing up for an account (like august) is awesome. - the inside design is a bit bulky compared to the august, but not by much. it’s not rally that big of a deal and subjective. - the main drawback compared to the august is the noise when locking/unlocking. it is very loud compared to august. overall i am very happy with this lock and would buy it again in a heartbeat. I might even do that for our back door at some point!

Based on company reputation and research, I purchased this lock. It came nicely packaged, the construction seemed solid and the appearance modern and discrete. From Day 1, however, it has been a nighmare to set up. I have reset it to factory settings approximately 30 times, tried setting it up using the Schlage bluetooth app, tried setting it up with Apple's Homekit (the main reason I purchased it was to have remote status capability) and even using the Schlage app with an Android device. I have filed the striker plate and chiseled out the bolt opening to maximum. None of this has resulted in a lock that operates as advertised. Despite approximately 30 resets, it never provides an accurate status report whether accessing it remotely trhough Homekit or using bluetooth with the device positioned within 20 inches. Everytime it gives a "status unknown" reading. This is a most disconcerting message to see when not at home and checking it remotely. Furthermore, it gives a "lock jamming" message when the bolt is completely free of any obstruction. The internal mechanism sometime cycles once and sometimes twice. Most of the time after the mechanism goes through it's cycle the deadbolt remains in it's original position. There are many other shortcomings which I won't bother to mention here. I am an Amazon member since 2001 and would describe myself as very tech savvy and have much better that average DIY skills. I have never purchased anything that has been such a disappointment as this has been.

Muy buena chapa inteligente. De las chapas inteligentes compatibles con Apple Homekit, y el ecosistema inteligente de Apple, es la mejor sin duda alguna. Muy importante que consideren que su puerta tenga el orificio bien hecho y con las dimensiones que muestra el video guía del producto. Si tienen dudas mejor consulten la página oficial del producto donde vienen varias guías, videos y diagramas. Es bastante fácil de instalar, solamente necesitas un desarmador y seguir las instrucciones. Lo recomiendo ampliamente!

Great lock. Does exactly what it should. Recommend the wifi adapter. I’m able to lock and unlock my condo from the other side of the globe. And see the history of who has come and gomeo

Can not set the status of the lock remotely right out of the box. Need a 2nd device, Schlage wifi adaptor or appletv

Being Bluetooth its never affected by the dreaded Komekit 'No response' problem. You will need its companion app to set it up completely but no biggy. It only comes with a single key, so get a spare cut in case. Battery life has been terrific. One problem... During MAJOR rain event, the damp stopped the lock keypad from working and the forced entry alarm kept sounding, even though the lock did not get wet. But seeing as houses were being washed away (literally) that's nit picking. I love it!

Tenemos varios años con la chapa y funciona perfecto. La pila alkalina le ha durado mas de un año y la puerte se abre con la clave unas 15 veces diarias