So, I’m looking at this Kwikset door handle/lock from the known compatible hardware list: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004F1F1PY/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=
But I’m having a devil of a time figuring out what’s on the other side of it. Is there a handle on the inside of the door?
It’s just a turning bolt
Well… that’s a little odd. How are you supposed to open the door from the inside then?
@Chris… LOL - I hadn’t noticed that! I’d like to know that too. 
I wonder if the turning bolt “opens” the latch or just prevents/allows the outside handle to open the latch? Seems a really odd setup.
The more I’m reading the description the more I wonder if this a normal “push closed” sort of setup, or a deadbolt with a handle. I’m thinking the latter. All the description says is deadbolt. I dunno…
It has a lever much like the exterior. See installation guides at:
http://s7d5.scene7.com/is/content/BDHHI/smartcodeleverinstructions
Thanks @twack
I got one for just under $100 off eBay, so I’m happy.
So…this is a door handle lock, not a deadbolt?
Yes… a door handle lock. I specifically did NOT want a dead bolt as this would require some action AFTER leaving the house.
I’ve mentioned it before here but it’s been a while. I have a wife who, while clearly not a technophobe, also firmly subscribes to the policy of: It it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Replacing a perfectly good door handle that we’ve used in our house for nearly 15 years and been able to just lock and pull the door closed with a dead bolt that I have to close and then push a button or two to lock just isn’t going to fly.
The fact that it will give other advantages is meaning less if it removes advantages that she currently has.
I plan to setup a deadbolt which will lock after the presence tags have left. it should require no action from her leaving, or returning.
The problem there, Cory, is that I’m not positive that I’m comfortable with the idea of a presence tag opening/locking a door for a couple of reasons:
First, unless you have a smartphone, there is no way to tell that the door locked after leaving. On the off chance that the batteries have died, I would hate to leave for a while with my door unlocked. Presumably I could have the system send me an alert after the door locks, but my wife and kids don’t carry a phone. No way to alert them in the case of a failed lock.
Second, it could be tricky how to setup for the door to unlock ONLY when a person is coming home. For instance, when my kids or wife come up, they typically lock the door behind them. I don’t want the door unlocking every time it notices the tag in range. For instance, let’s say my kids come home from school. The tag comes in range, the door unlocks. And I’ve setup a rule to ONLY work when the tag first comes in range (assuming it’s possible). Now my kid goes down into the basement and the tag is some how burried under a bunch of stuff… just enough to lose connect with the network… then something get moved, tag is seen by the network again… then the door unlocks.
To be sure, this situation is unlikely, but when it comes to the safety of my kids I’m not sure I’m willing to risk it. At least not until I can test some things and ensure it’s working okay.
BTW, my package from eBay arrived today.
Goodness: It DOES have an indoor handle.
Badness: Smartthings is still weeks away… 
I still might set it up just to be able to use the digital codes for my kids.
To each their own I was raised on a 1000 acre ranch, we left the keys in the car…no one even knew where the keys were for the house doors. Now that I’ve moved to the big city I logical know the dangers of leaving your home unsecured…but it’s hard for me to actually take them seriously. I rarely lock my door and figure it be fun to use technology to fix my carelessness. Granted, someone would have to be out of their mind to walk into my house with how vocal my German Shepherd is about how bad of an idea that would be… and more than likely a door lock wouldn’t stop someone who wasn’t in their right mind.
Thought I’d post and update here on my door handle.
I’ve had it installed now for a couple of weeks and generally I’m very happy with it. There are a few things I’m not thrilled with, but only minor things.
Installation: This went pretty easy. I didn’t have to do any modifying of the door hole at all, just fit perfectly. The instructions are fairly clear. I was stumped for a while on how to get the handle on the outside. There’s a little trick to it with having to put the core in, turn it slightly, push the handle all the way on, turn the core back, then secure the handle with a set screw. It’s a little odd but looking back on it, it’s by design. There’s no way to remove the exterior handle (and there by gain access to the key core) without first unlocking the door with a key.
One thing you should be aware of is that, especially on the inside of the door, the mechanism is pretty big. On my door I have a large window with a plastic “frame” around it. The mechanism overlapped this and I have to cut away a bit of the plastic in order for the cover to fit properly. I don’t think this will be a problem for 99% of people, but do bear it in mind if you have a big window.
After installation setting up the code was easy to do and my kids memorized it in no time at all. Now they and easily get in when they come home from school and we don’t have to worry about getting them a key. Also no worries about them remember to lock the door behind themselves.
Now, one REALLY nice plus with this lock… the core is “programmable.” I’m not exactly sure how it works but you can change the core to fit any key of the type that would fit into this lock. It just so happens that the handle I replaced was a Kwikset as well and so my keys fit in. By using a special tool you can insert the key that comes with the lock, turn it halfway, remove that key, then put in any key of that type, turn it back and now the core responds to that key. Pretty cool!
That’s not to say that I’m in love with every aspect of it. In particular there are three things I’m not thrilled with:
First, the inside is always unlocked. What I mean is that even when the door is locked you can always turn the lever and open the door. Right now my kids are hold enough that this isn’t a problem, but a family with young children who you don’t want wandering outside without your knowledge… then this might be a problem. Additionally if you’re used to checked your door to ensure it’s locked by turning the handle… well you can’t do that anymore either. On the plus side there is a little LED that blinks like every 30 seconds or so. It’s amber when it’s locked, green when it’s unlocked.
Second, I’m not wild about the lever handles. They just don’t feel terribly strong too me. To be fair I have no reason to assume they will break. They certainly haven’t so far, but I just don’t feel overwhelming confident that they will hold up for a long period of time. I fear that years of yanking on them might eventually cause the metal to snap. Perhaps I’m worrying for nothing. We’ll see what happens.
Third, I feel they are slightly misleading with the numbering on their keys. Each button has 2 numbers: 1 and 2 on the first, 3 and 4 on the second, and so on. This gives the illusion of being able to enter a 10 digit number when really it’s just 5. I suppose part of the reason is to be able to use all 10 digits when making a code that works for your family, but it doesn’t mean a fewer permutations for your code. That said, because the code can be 4 to 8 digits long, that still gives 488,125 possible combinations. Still quite a few to say the least. If someone were to try brute force and entered one combination a second it would take he over 5 and half days of straight entering before they went through all possible combinations. I think we’d tend to get suspicious after the third day of him just standing at our door. Certainly by the 4th day we’d be questioning what he was doing.
However, despite those minor problems I’m over all VERY happy with the lock. I think it looks good and it works great as just a stand alone lock with a keypad. The Zwave functions are just going to be icing on the cake when I finally get my hub. I’ll report back here after I get me hub and am able to do some testing with it.
Some of the things I’d love to be able to do when I get it connected:
Program in ‘one use’ codes to let someone in once but then the codes stops working.
Report when five failed codes are entered in a row. Prevent entering of codes for 30 minutes at this point.
Turn off keypad remotely.
BTW, just happened to look on eBay and there are four auctions right now at $80.00 for this door handle. $80 is a pretty good price for this, so you may want to look into it if interest. Please note: I have NO idea who this seller is. I’m not endorsing him/her at all. In fact the only feedback he has as a seller is negative due to there being a logo on the items he previously sold. Please take that into consideration before bidding. I’d ask questions before bidding.
Brass finish:
Venetian Bronze finish:
Satin Nickel finish:
I’ve had three of the deadbolt locks for a couple of years. They’re great. My wife and I don’t find them a burden to use. When you leave, you just press the center “lock” button to lock the deadbolt. Our door handles don’t have locks, just the deadbolts. There is a dip switch inside that, when set, makes the deadbolt automatically lock after about 20 seconds.
Have you tested at all what happens if the door isn’t fully closed? I mean closed enough that it appears closed, but not enough that the deadbolt lines up with the hole properly? I guess another thing I worry about with my kids is they may leave the door not fully closed and then lock tries to push through the deadbolt and ends up burning out the motor try to push and push that bolt.
Chris, as far as I know most of them try a couple times then set off an alarm. I really don’t understand why they don’t have a magnet/contact sensor that goes in the dead bolt hole to give you more of a 100% indication the door is locked. As far as I know most will set off the auto lock with the door wide open.
Chris, I’ve "tested " that. Not intentionally. The lock will attempt to autolock whether the door is fully closed, fully open, or anywhere in between. Cory is correct. It will give up and beep loudly around 3 times if the deadbolt is unable to lock because it is hitting the door jam. It will think it successfully locked the deadbolt if the door is wide open. It will not burn out the motor.
@donmesserli, I saw on the kickstarter forum that you discovered that your ZigBee Kwikset locks weren’t supported by SmartThings. I have the same problem (discovered after I bought the Hub). You mention your locks here, and I wonder whether you ever got them to work with your SmartThings hub? Sorry to hijack this thread… any other advice would be appreciated! I’ve had no luck searching the forums for this problem. Support emailed me and confirmed that my lock isn’t currently supported because they stopped supporting the ZigBee lock. They suggested I check the forums, so here I am.