Yale Assure Lock SL review

In the span of four months, our family sold a house, made an eight-week international trip, moved across the country, and then bought a house, all with three kids under five in tow. In the process, we stayed in eight different Airbnbs and sampled a variety of smart locks. These locks are becoming commonplace in short-term rentals, due to the convenient ability for hosts to share entry codes remotely with guests instead of having to meet in person or leave a lockbox with a key.To get more news about best smart home company 2022, you can visit securamsys.com official website.

Trying several brands of smart locks and using them so often convinced me that I would get one for the next home we purchased. So when we got lucky enough to go under contract on a house in a sizzling home market, I quickly started researching and comparing different locks.

Smart locks are straightforward devices as there’s not a whole lot you can add in capabilities to a lock, so the biggest considerations narrow down to whether you want a deadbolt or a door handle, a keypad vs. a screen, Wi-Fi-capability or not, and which home assistant, if any, you want to integrate with.
We knew we wanted a Wi-Fi-enabled lock and we also wanted something that is compatible with the HomeKit, since we have a HomePod Mini, so we read different reviews and eventually boiled our choices down to one: the Yale Assure Lock SL with the iM1 HomeKit smart module.

You can buy this smart lock without Wi-Fi capability for a lower purchase price of $169, which would add the keyless entry feature to your home. Yale offers separate Upgrade Modules in case you want to use it with your smartphone or smart home system later on. These include the Z-Wave Plus module (to integrate with SmartThings, Wink, Ring Alarm, Honeywell), the Zigbee module, and the Yale Access Upgrade Kit to use with the Yale Access app and integrate with voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri. The latter is the Connected by August component, made by both Yale and August that adds Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities to the lock, as well as DoorSense, which is a sensor that lets you know if your door is open, not just locked or unlocked.
One of the most attractive features for residential customers is that this Yale lock actually makes your home safer with its BHMA Grade 2-certified deadbolt. Removing the keyed access to the deadbolt gives you the peace of mind that the lock won’t be picked and that someone with an old or lost key won’t have access to your home.

The Yale Assure Lock SL comes with everything you need for installation and setup: the interior and exterior deadbolt assembly, the smart module (if applicable) strike plate and mounting hardware, a manual and template, and four AA batteries — though you can use rechargeable batteries as well. It features a touchscreen instead of a keypad and is pretty user friendly at setup. It’s also available in four colors: oil-rubbed bronze, black, polished brass, and satin nickel.

Not needing any keys to unlock the front door is an attractive feature in itself, as you’re able to open your door with a smartphone or an Apple Watch or with geofencing.

If you’re worried about what happens when the batteries die, don’t be. The Yale Assure Lock SL comes with a handy fix for that. Simply hold a 9 volt battery up to the lower end of the lock to power up the screen so you can input the access code and successfully unlock it.