Best Smart Lock that reports manual locking/unlocking and STRONGLY preferablly Zigbee since Z-Wave has been an absolute NIGHTMARE

I have been browsing the boards for over two hours and every. single. lock. seems to have issues. What in the world is going on?

I bought the Kwikset SmartCode 916 and used both OpenZwave and Zwave JS and neither can give me the ability to lock/unlock nor do they report the status correctly. It has been an absolute nightmare to even get the device to pair and I have no problems with Zigbee devices all around my home so I prefer that technology I believe.

Is there a Smart Lock that will reliably report manual locking/unlocking that is Zigbee?

Other nice to haves I guess would be bluetooth and wifi but then it starts to feel less secure. I just want something that works and reports status accurately and that I can of course remotely both lock/unlock as well as check lock/unlock status regardless of if it was done manually or automatically.

I don’t have any issues using Schlage and Yale Zwave deadbolts using Zwave JS in multiple homes. I don’t have any experience with the Kwikset though. Perhaps it needs a firmware upgrade? As far as Zigbee goes, I know that both Kwikset and Yale offer them. However, implementation/integration with HA might be hit or miss as is any Zigbee product. That’s the issue with Zigbee in general.

Did you add the device with secure inclusion? Lock/unlock functionality will not work unless included securely.

Same, and I have some Kwiks too. And not just ZWJS, but older integrations as well.

I had similar problems with Kwikset 914 SmartCode locks - three of them, and their states would get out-of-sync way more than I would like. I was able to upgrade them to Zigbee by swapping their radio boards, and Zigbee has worked fantastically for me (zigbee2mqtt, CC2652R Launchpad board) ever since. Very fast, very reliable. Manual lock/unlock reports come in practically instantly, whereas on Z-Wave it could take 10-15 seconds, or might never show up.

If you give up on Z-Wave and want to do the switch, here’s what I did:

I purchased the Kwikset 914 Convert product (only $40 at Amazon, product B072NCJTNG, says it’s “Amazon Key Edition” but it’s really just Zigbee) and swapped the plug-in cards. That’s it! It’s as simple as unplugging the circuit board from your installed lock and plugging in the one that comes with the Convert. Then add it to your Zigbee network. No need to change any other components of the lock. You will need to reprogram your codes, though.

I THINK this would work for a 916 too, since they are almost the same under the shell, and I suspect they use the same interchangeable radio cards, but I’m not positive. It’s a fairly low-cost experiment to try, though, much cheaper than a new full lock.

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I never saw the option for that only that I had to specify the USB device and I left the network_key blank so it generated one. It finds it and that’s about it - the state is wrong and in the Log it shows it pings it now and then but nothing really works and the state is wrong and actions don’t work

You won’t have any ability to lock or unlock unless you perform a secure inclusion. For Z-Wave JS specifically the integration settings panel in HA and the zwavejs2mqtt GUI provide the option for secure inclusion. Secure inclusion is disabled by default.

HA:

zwavejs2mqtt:
image

The zwavejs2mqtt control panel also informs you of whether the device is securely included or not.

I know you were originally asking about Zigbee locks, but it might be worth one more try to get yours working. Many people are using Z-Wave locks successfully. On the other-
hand, Z-Wave locks can be tricky to get working. If the lock is not within range or the controller, or you don’t have a good mesh of powered devices, you will have other problems.

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Nuki lock seems like a good lock.
I don’t have one but will have a look at it once we have moved to the new apartment.

I read through the thread a few weeks ago and as far as I remember there was not much negative comments.
But I could be remembering wrong.

As long as you don’t buy a Danalock. It’s by far the crappiest lock on the planet.

What’s the problem with the danalock?

Our experience is that the app locks fairly often.
If it does work then it can’t connect to the bridge.
Or it manages connect but the bridge is busy.

If we choose to have the proximity setting on (the whole idea of these locks), then it unlock the door every hour/two hours during the night.

If it fails to lock the door then there is no warning at all.
Nothing. No notification, no sound, nothing…

Again, our experience, if you unlock with the key then you need to recalibrate it.

Then lastly, the customer support is way worse than you can ever imagine.
Imagine you got scammed by Indian or Bengali “Microsoft” support, that would still be better.

Sorry for sounding harsh but that is my serious opinion.

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Thanks for your input!

I have this lock for a couple weeks now and have no problems with it so far.
Not using it with the Danalock app nor the bridge so no experiences with those.

Problems encountered:

  • To use the Danalock app with Bluetooth connection, GPS and Bluetooth must be kept on, otherwise you have to unlock the phone, enable both, start the danalock app, wait for it to connect then open the door.
  • Initial plan was to put an RFID tag by the door and use my phone via HASS companion app to read the tag to open the door. But android phones must be unlocked to be able to read a tag (it might be possible to circumvent this by rooting and a custom android version)
  • There’s no way to tell if the door is locked or not by looking at the door or the lock, but the tag reader’s led can be used to indicate that through HASS automation

The entity:“Poly-control Danalock V3 BTZE Access Control” does report if the lock is jammed

  • 0: Jammed
  • 1: Manual lock
  • 2: Manual unlock
  • 3: RF lock (Zwave or Bluetooth)
  • 4: RF unlock (Zwave or Bluetooth)
  • 9: Auto locked (timeout can be set via Danalock app but data stored in the lock itself, so it lock even if there’s no connection to HASS or the app)
    Zwave manual: Danalock V3 Product Manual Z Wave V 0.9.1

I’m a complete noob though, this was my first ever project in HASS.

All this is based on the Zwave version.
I have no Zwave products so buying a Zwave lock was not an option.
Perhaps that version works better, but for the customer “support” alone I would not recommend the lock.

I wanted to stay clear of Zwave too but the only Danalock I could find around here was Zwave so figured why not. Getting a Zwave stick was cheaper than the Danalock bridge and now I can add Zwave nodes to my network if I have to.

I will try Nuki in an other flat and see how it compares to the danalock, it seems like the only other reasonable option in Europe at least.

Yale Linus is also a lock where you still can use the key.
I have no other info about it.

Once I get to the stage where I will buy a new lock to the new apartment, then I will start looking around more.

Beware of Nuki, I used it for about 6 months in France 1 year ago. If it crashes (and it will, since the software/firmware is not stable enough), you won’t be able to open your door with your keys… + the integration is cloud based only !
Still looking for a perfect solution here, been using Danalock v3 for about a year in zigbee, it disconnected once or twice with an update, but the main issue here is that it is laggy… Sometimes takes 5 secs to lock/unlock, sometimes 0 secs…
Going to try out chinese locks https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000864403795.html and this one maybe : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct4b-xgk-q0

zwavejs, august vers 3 no longer works.

Not sure what I should do with that information?

out of interest
other than manual lock/unlock reports
is it able to diferentiate and to show lock button presset from keypad

as there are some automations where i only want to know if it was locked from keypad but dont want to know if it was locked manually from the inside

im askinbg as im thinking of switching to zigbee and get this lock but currently have the schlage which does support this ability

Yes, that works. I’m using zigbee2mqtt, and it exposes the action (lock/unlock/failure), the action source (manual/remote/keypad), and when the keypad is used with a code, which user number the code belongs to.

So it’s easy enough to do what you say - identify when the door is locked via keypad, with or without a code.

thanks so much
seems to be the same way the schlage zwave works
I will give this kwikset zigbee lock a try