So. You buy a smart lock. The box says “Easy Install! DIY Friendly!” Like 20 minutes tops. You think, cool. No more keys! Future! Then… the horror begins. Honestly? My first one? Total fail. The deadbolt hole was “standard size” they said. It wasn’t. Needed a drill. And who owns a powerful drill for this? Borrowed Dave’s, nearly took the entire door handle off with it. Sketchy. Took two hours. By then, I’d sweated through my shirt and lost three tiny, mission-critical screws down the heating vent. Gone forever. So much for easy.
Then the next one? Supposedly “retrofit” just pop on the old deadbolt. Brilliant! Until the little adapter thingy refused to line up right. Instructions said “Insert Tab A into Slot B”. Except Tab A looked suspiciously like Tab C, and Slot B was approximately… nowhere. Pictures looked like they were drawn by Picasso on a bad day. I tried gentle force. Force force. Maybe yelled at it a bit. Finally, it kind of clicked? But the key spun freely inside, useless. Door wouldn’t lock. Fantastic security feature. Back to the big store. Return desk guy gave me that look. Ugh. Point is, the “smartest” lock with all the bells and whistles – fingerprint ID, app geofencing, talks to your toaster – is absolutely no good if it takes an engineering degree to install. And an entire Saturday you won’t get back. Or worse, breaks your door. Which happened. Twice. Maybe three times. Don’t ask.
What makes it not easy? Let’s list the fun stuff:
- Screws: Too short? Too long? Wrong head type (Philips my butt, needed hex)? Stripped your old ones? Check. Nightmare.
- Alignment: Does the new bolt actually hit the strike plate? Or does it just miss? Creating a satisfying thunk without actually locking? Bonus points! Adjusting that? A whole new game of frustration.
- Wiring?: Some, the real high-end ones needing constant power? Forget it. Not touching wires behind the door frame unless you are an electrician. Or enjoy mild electric shocks. Safety third, right?
- Phone App Setup: You finally get it physically on the door. Success! Now… pairing Bluetooth. “Device Not Found”. Resetting the stupid thing. Re-pairing. Cursing the app developers. Needing three different logins? All while standing outside in the rain. Classic convenience.
- Battery Compartment: Seems simple. Slide off panel. Except it’s jammed. Or needs a tiny key to release? Tiny key = inevitably lost during unpacking. Insert batteries upside down. Whoops. Fry it? Maybe. Panic.
My neighbor’s brother? He got a dead simple one. Literally just replaces the interior thumbturn. Deadbolt stays put. Basically a motor that turns the lock you already have. Slapped it on in… maybe ten minutes? Uses the same key outside. Not cutting-edge. Doesn’t unlock with a retina scan. But works. Every dang time. Easy. Done. Walked straight in.
So… is the best smart door lock, the one drowning in features, actually the easiest to get on your door? Probably not. Honestly, seems kinda inverse? More tech, more complexity, more little fiddly bits that must align perfectly inside your unique, weird, probably-settled-over-50-years door. That lock Brenda paid a fortune for, the feature monster? Installation required a professional… paid by the hour… with a truck full of tools. Took him nearly three. Not exactly DIY or quick. My basic one? Ugly. But stays put. Sometimes “easy shmeasy” is just better than “future perfection trapped in the box it arrived in”.