SCHLAGEEncode Smart WiFi Deadbolt with Century Trim In Bright Chrome

The instructions in the box plus an installation video that popped up on my phone when I scanned a barcode in the user manual made this a rather easy installation process. I replaced a basic mechanical Schlage deadbolt lock, so the holes were already there.I like the many features such as assigning temporary access codes, auto-locking after a specified time, being able to control and configure everything via the free Schlage Home app and various other things. Now our house-sitter won't lock herself out of the house again when we are away on vacation.It has a BHMA Grade 1 rating, according to the specifications sheet, which is considered the best of the best in locks.You can create from 4-8 digit access codes and store up to 100 different codes via the app.I also like that it is WiFi compatible right out of the box and it doesn't require an aftermarket hub to connect it through. Mine quickly found and connected directly to my home network router. It only works with 2.4GHz, not 5GHz. Not a big deal with me, I have both. It is Android and iPhone compatible, works with Alexa, Google Assist and my Ring security camera app.So far, I haven't found anything that I do not like about this Schlage Encode. After slightly more than six months since I installed this it shows 39% battery life in the app with WiFi enabled the entire time, so it drops about 10% per month. It looks nice, too. I will update my review if something changes.Here are some hopefully helpful hints to pass on after reading some other reviews where people were having trouble.1. If the battery life on yours is short, make sure that the lock bolt does not bind. There should be no extra friction when you manually operate the lock via the lever, whether you do that with the door open or closed.2. If you cannot see the keypad numbers at night, press the Home button in the bottom left corner of the keypad to wake it up and then you can enter the access code.

I've had this lock for over a year now. It was expensive and I told my wife we really didn't need it. But she insisted, saying it was easier for the kids and it had a lot of useful features. Well, I hate to admit it, but she was right.Although this unit was expensive, we trusted the Schlage brand. We have a lot of other locks in the house made by schlage. It's high quality and durable. As long as we've owned this lock, I have not had any wifi drop or disconnects. There has been zero issues with codes not working. Even my app on my phone has worked 100% of the time. I wish my other wifi-enabled appliance devices worked this good.The feature I like the most is being able to set temporary codes. On my old lock, I had extra keys made for both my parents, both my in-laws, one each for my kids, one for each of my car keys, a couple extras I can give the neighbors in case I went on vacation, and so on. There were so many keys floating around I couldn't even keep track of who still had keys to my house.With this lock, If I'm out on vacation, I can set a temporary door code for my neighbors to help grab mail and packages. If I'm not home and my family or friends need to pick something up, I can give them a temporary code to get into my house. I can delete it manually or set it up to expire from the app. It's easy and takes less only a few seconds to do. I never have to worry about getting my keys back or someone losing them. It also notifies me immediately when someone uses a key code.Since I've had this lock, I haven't had to worry about my kids losing keys or being locked out. We paired this up with Alexa and a Ring camera so I can even remotely unlock if the kids get locked out. Now we only have a few codes for ourselves and the kids. If our parents need to get in, they can call and we let them in. No more keys floating around.

We had a $600 very sophisticated LOCKLY installed for our AirBNB rental for little less than a year. What a nightmare. The system had a hub and it would go off the internet on its own, you had to be there to sync it with your phone and power cycle it constantly. Then on top of it it was not intuitive and it took an hour of instructions so they could open it and close it and use it. The best thing we did was throw it away. It was the most stressful for us being long distance property managers but was a total nightmare for our renters. The next best thing we did was to buy this Schlage Encode Lock. First of all Schlage customer service was excellent. We called them before we purchased and they had the right answers. First of all if you are not near your rental property, and you have a trusted handyman as we do, they instructed us on how he could put the app on his phone with my husband's email and passwords. Our handyman installed the Schlage he said it was a snap, downloading the app with the snap, he synced the lock to his app. He got out of the app. my husband then went into the app on his phone and done. Now if there is any problem our handyman can go over, hubby gets out of app, he gets back in and syncs the lock and etc.Since the October 30th 2023 install our AirBNB have been there now for almost 2 months, with new ones coming in early January. I just got off the phone with our renters and the lock is easy to use there's been no issues whatsoever. It is very intuitive easy easy. Not once has it gone offline, there has been one Schlage system update which would have thrown our old LOCKLY system off and us to be personally there to sync with our phone. This one no problem.The only negative that our renter brought to our attention this morning is that the batteries need to be replaced often. He said every 3 weeks. We need to look into this, but that said, we left a whole drawer of batteries not anticipating it, but thinking good and wise to do so. It was wise. That said very easy to replace the batteries and the renters didn't even call us he just handled it. The LOCKLY system was set up so that you need a small tiny Phillips screwdriver and directions to figure out how to replace the batteries.All in all this has been an answer to a prayer on the many issues we've had with the previous lock. Hope this helps out others with this review whether you rent or using it personally.