Haven - a new type of smart lock

I could see using it without any additional locks. I like the solid sound it makes at least. What do other people think?

Besides the fact that there’s no way my wife is going to be ok with me drilling that contraption into our floor tiles. How is a someone like a young child or anyone else without an authorized smart device (or a dead battery) going to get inside the home? One of these and a bump proof, grade 1 smartlock that can still accept a regular key like the Schlage Camelot is the approach I took.

Ditto what @sgonsalves said. Just yesterday my son had trouble with my kwikset not accepting his code. But he had his key as backup to get in.

Also would add that I’m not sure my doors are high enough to clear that.

I do think it’s an interesting idea and I’m gonna follow up on KS to see if they address the concerns that Sean raised.

If someone wants to get into a house that bad, can’t they just come in via a window?

This needs to be combined with RFID reader. They’re cheap and RDID tags are less than a buck. If a child loses a key, you’ll have to change the lock. If the RFID tag is lost you just delete it from memory.

Well, that’s the other side of the discussion too. Locks… any locks are really only a detrrent. Unless you’ve barred your windows and reinforced your walls there will always be vulnerable spots for a determined criminal. You want to make it hard enough for someone to get in that it isn’t worth the trouble or the danger of getting caught, while still making access easy enough that you aren’t seriously inconvenienced.

Honestly, Haven does a great job with that. (Kickstarter Link) It’s very secure, and very simple to use. But it has it’s issues. Like loss of power or loss of (high tech) key. Specifically loss of power would be an issue that traditional or even most smart locks can handle easily enough. And even though Haven would make your door VERY secure, it does nothing for other doors or windows.

Interesting idea, love to see outside of the box stuff like this. like @geko said, give me a non smart device way to open it and it’d be something I’d consider.

My door sweep weather stripping would get in the way. I think this would be a problem in many northern climates. I like the creativity though.

I would like something along these lines for a sliding door. Something pops up in the track.

Seems to be an over-engineered solution. Creates more problems for me than it would solve. And it is UGLY.

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I’m curious as to how easy this is to disable from inside the house - say, if your house is full of smoke and you don’t have your RFID/wristband/phone with you as you try to escape. With a deadbolt, you turn the knob…what’s the easy override for this thing?

Wow good point there. That could indeed be a problem

Any Firemen/women first responders care to comment? I can’t imagine this would go over well.

There’s a spot on the device that you step on that will “unlock” it.

Living in Florida, where there are power brownouts and power outages every summer, I have come to treat essential systems based entirely on electronics with care; either the devices or equipment fails due to burnout, loss of power or “resetting”, OR, in worse cases, the WiMax, LTE and cellular networks fail when the backup batteries become exhausted in hours or days. In 2005, we went for 14 DAYS without power and cell phones failed during the worst of it.

If there is any lock that is “connected” I would want:

  1. A backup mechanical failsafe operation bypass that is SIMPLE
  2. Any connected devices that are essential HAVE TO HAVE A MAINS POWER in order to remain part of a network grid; if your lock is only battery operated, the device cannot act as a grid relay and is thus less reliable.

In addition, I agree that as long as the other openings in the house (windows, garage and other doors) are not at least as secure as our main door, it is not worthwhile investing in a single expensive device; however, I see this as very useful in a condominium or any space where there is only one or two entries (single room, storage room)

There is actually a place where you can press with your foot to physically unlock the device in case of power outage. I will be following this and possibly buying one for my solid wood front door.

[quote=“seansquared, post:14, topic:5270”]In addition, I agree that as long as the other openings in the house (windows, garage and other doors) are not at least as secure as our main door, it is not worthwhile investing in a single expensive device; however, I see this as very useful in a condominium or any space where there is only one or two entries (single room, storage room)
[/quote]

I agree with everything you said, expect not 100% with this one. I do agree that it’s somewhat silly to have super heavy protection on one door is you have a second or third with much less protection. However, I do think there are some instances were it might make some sense.

For example, let’s say you have two door to your house. The first faces is the street and is highly visible and there is reasonably high foot traffic or neighbor presence. This would make the front door an unlikely point of attack from an intruder as s/he would be easily spotted by others attempting to break down your door.

But your back door is facing your backyard. You have high fences and or bushes/trees making it completely obscured from neighbors or passersby. Obviously the “hidden” nature of this door makes it a much higher target for an intruder. In this case high physical security on the back door with not necessarily needing it on the front makes sense.

I realize this is an extremely old post, but I wanted to answer the question. I am certainly not a firefighter, but I did just go down to the local fire department to talk to them about Nightlock (“dumb” solution, but same concept as Haven). I showed them a picture and asked if they would be able to get past that. Their response was, we will tear things up, but we WILL get in.

He also suggested calling the city dispatcher and let them know about my security measures so that a note will pop up if there is ever a dispatch to my house.

Hope the info helps someone…

They have risers if the space from floor to door is more than 2 cm (0.8 inches).

“If your threshold height is over 0.8 inches you may require one or more risers to bring your Haven up to a level that will maximize efficiency and strength.

Each riser adds .111 inches to the height of your HAVEN” $10 ea.

2.82 mm doesn’t seem like much at $10 ea.

I wonder if this could be installed on the lock-side wall instead. With reinforcing lumber? Ok some features like the foot peddle locking mechanism wouldn’t work but I would like that better. I’d cut out the casing around the lock. (Would only work with the smart lock, not the mechanical version).

There’s a foot peddle to lock/unlock which is calibrated to not work for small children (which might be a hazard during fires)