Before I ever heard of Lockly, we had reviewed a number of door locks, and even had a video doorbell shootout a couple of years ago. A neighbor installed one of the other Lockly door lock models. I was impressed with its fingerprint scanning capability. We had never reviewed a lock with this feature. I don’t know if Lockly was first, as today a couple of the big name brands have a model or two with fingerprint. But, I believe it is Lockly that has pushed that capability to us end users, as a better solution.
like the idea of integrating everything into a single product. Of course, there’s likely to be a feature or two that you can’t find on a combination unit like this Lockly model, that might show up on individual video doorbells or door locks, but, not having “every” feature, is typical for multi-function devices.
This Video DoorBell Review – Background: I just replaced a very small I replaced my front door lock every year or two, to do my next review. In this case so I can review the Lockly Vision Elite – their flagship device. It was time. My last lock was the Kwikset Obsidian, which only had a keypad to open it – no backup key, etc.
My problem with that older lock, is “old tech”. I switched almost two years ago to the Eero 6 Pro Wi-Fi router system – reviewed here, they do mesh Wi-Fi between the 3 Eeros, to cover larger areas.
Like virtually all smart locks, until just a few years ago, my Kwikset relied on Z-wave technology, which was the dominant communications solution for security. But more and more locks and other security devices are going to Wi-Fi and or Bluetooth. In other words, without router Z-Wave compatibility (think SmartThings – Samsung), my old Smart Lock wasn’t very smart at all. It was basically reduced to being a Keypad lock where you could have multiple codes for different people. It was complemented by a Ring Doorbell. This Lockly easily replaces both!
I’ve personally installed, counting this Lockley, 6 different locks in the last decade. Lockly provides templates and everything needed. In this case, I enlisted the help of my neighbor Steve, who already owned a Lockly lock (but not one with video), which he got before the Vision Elite was on the market. We managed to remove my last smart lock, the Kwikset Obsidian keyless lock, which is proably the smallest and most elegant smart lock out there, (just a black 3×3 inch square, until you touch it). This Lockly Vision Elite, by comparison, is typical in size inside and out (it is just slightly larger on the inside, compared to the Kwikset.
With Steve’s help, it took us all of 15 minutes to remove the old lock and install the new one. We had to do just minor jerry rigging, to the door jam, enlarging it slightly but continuing to use the old door jam plate.
Quicktip: The Lockly comes with a bigger plate for the door jam (taller) that would require a significantly larger opening (almost 1 inch taller) than I already had. I skipped that when doing the initial install. Since the initial installation, our handyman lengthened the cut out and the larger plate was installed.
The only downside, by not using their door jam components, is that the Lockly doesn’t know if the door is closed or not. The first month, the Vision Elite worked just fine without it, but with one limitation: The door knows and can tell you whether the lock is locked or unlocked, but it can’t tell if the door is open or closed. Since installing the “matching” door jam plate, the lock, and the app can now tell if the door is closed or not. This allows the timer you can set to automatically lock the door be based on when the door was last closed, rather than the last time the door was unlocked. From a user friendly standpoint, auto locking is more intuitive with the door jam piece installed.
Once the Lockly was installed, including rechargeable battery, things were looking good. Next was to input my index finger’s fingerprint, and my wife’s as well. It reminded me of setting up the fingerprint sensor on my Macbook. The process has you touching the sensor a half dozen plus times. So that it can deal with you placing your finger slightly differently from one unlocking to the next.
Update: Almost 4 months since installation, still running on the first rechargeable battery of the two provided!
After practicing half a dozen times, I now unlock the door on the first try, probably 19 out of 20 tries. About the same for my wife.
Here’s the best part: From the time I touch the fingerprint sensor until the lock is fully unlocked is just over 1 second. Compare that to spending 2-3-4-5 seconds putting in your 4 to 6 digit code on most other locks and then waiting for the lock to turn.
Of course, this Lockly lock also has a traditional key lock, but, I haven’t used it once since the first couple of days the lock was installed. (I just wanted to make sure the two provided keys worked).
The Lockly comes with keys also. Hiding at the front bottom of the lock is a sort of semi-circular piece (that is the solar panel) which rotates out of the way to reveal the keyhole. There are also two battery leads for a 9 volt battery, on the bottom of the lock, so you can power/unlock the lock if the rechargeable battery dies. If I didn’t mention it previously, the lock comes with two rechargeable batteries (USB charging of course), which take just a minute to swap out.
If you are going to use the keypad (touch keypad), at least as a backup, or for guests… the keypad appears when you touch the screen, whenever the door is locked. (if you touch the screen when the door’s unlocked, that will immediately lock the door.
As you can see in the photos it uses four positions, each with 3 numbers. This is for extra security. Then, each time you go to bring up the touchpad the numbers are in different groupings. That really is a great security feature, unfortunately, having to find each of the numbers (especially if using a 6 digit code) would eventually start driving me a bit nuts. Fortunately, I love the fingerprint sensor.
I put in individual keypad codes for my wife and I, and also a few extra codes, for a few nearby friends, our condo association, our complex’es handyman, etc. Two of them I programmed to only specific time and date ranges. No problem!
Airbnb Hosting Anyone?
The Lockly software is sufficient to use to control up to three locks I believe, changing codes or giving out temporary codes, in the fashion that an Airbnb host would want, so that the codes are changed with each new renter, and the host doesn’t have to show up to do it. Note, that there are more serious Mattise locks where the software can control a great many locks, ie, every door on a 10 story apartment. Lockly isn’t designed for managing a complex, but will allow an Airbnb host to handle 2-3 units, easily.
Free Videos
It’s great to look at your app to see who’s at the door, but for many, including myself, I want to be able to save that info so I can see who dropped off a package a week ago while we were away… With my Ring doorbell, I subscribe to them, and they store the videos. With Lockly you simply use a 32G TF (micro-SD) card, which slides into the Wi-Fi controller hooked into my router. At regular (low) resolution hit will hold about 90 hours of recordings. It works. I will set it for 1080p, which I assume will reduce the max recording time by 50 to 75% but that’s still at least 20+ hours. When we return from our current vacation, I will check out the results, and then, no doubt, delete the old videos to make room. I imagine we can probably go away for a month, and record all the activity around our door, with just one memory card, without deleting files to make more room.
