Hi sboerup, this solution seems pretty great, how fast does the status update? Is it pretty instant?
With this native Schlage integration the lock state takes 10-15 seconds or more in some cases to update the lock status. It’s driving me nuts!
I’ve had the integration removed for a while now and can say that HA, nor the integration, has anything to do with the extreme battery drain on the locks now. Its quite frustrating as I had the lock setup using wifi since february and the first set of batteries didnt go flat until sometime in July. I was fine with that battery life, but batteries are only lasting about 3 weeks now… I dont yet have a thread border router, so even setting up the above workaround wont really help me.
For what it’s worth, Schlage seems willing to replace locks that rapidly drain batteries.
I installed 3 of the locks in February. They were set up in HomeKit only. In June 2 of the 3 started eating batteries. It seemed like it was happening faster and faster. Ultimately the batteries didn’t last a day. The third lock was completely fine. I even tried swapping the batteries from the good lock to one of the other locks to see if it was a problem with the batteries, but no. I tried Eneloops, PowerOwl Lithium rechargeables and Duracell alkalines. None lasted longer than a day.
I opened a support case with Schlage, describing the battery drain and they didn’t ask any questions. They just sent me an RMA and replaced the locks. The new locks are not eating batteries.
Interestingly, the two locks that had problems were Matte Black, and the one that never had a problem was Satin Nickel. So maybe I got two locks from a bad batch?
I started a support case recently as well. They are asking for basic info, so I’ll see where it goes. My lock is a satin nickel though.
That’s good to know that they’re willing to replace locks. I just contacted them regarding the battery drain, so let’s hope they’ll send me a replacement. Mines is a matte black.
On another issue, looks like HA’s recent update to 2024.10.1 the logbook isn’t showing any activity anymore and when I tried either reloading oe deleting then re-adding, it now only shows that the entities are unavailable. My automations have also been not firing.
So is there still no way to connect over Thread with HomeKey + Home Assistant (local or Schlage Cloud) integration?
Edit: checked in the Eve app and it looks like it made it to the Thread network automatically. I’ll leave it alone for now and see how the battery life is considering that wifi is connected.
To give some more data points, I have two locations, one each with an Encode Plus.
Lock one is a matte black (I saw this mentioned earlier, so for reference), Century version, that is connected via Thread to a Home Pod Mini. Never connected to HA, never to WiFi. Smooth actuation (this can greatly affect battery life by itself).
This lock lasted 1-1.5 years on the original batteries, I cannot remember precisely because it was so long, and is frequently used.
Lock two is a satin nickel Camelot lock. Originally connected via Thread to an Apple TV, and was integrated into HA via WiFi and the Schlage integration. Smooth actuation.
Initially, this lock barely lasted anywhere between 1-3 months, with infrequent use… I got fedup, factory reset the lock, added it to Homekit via Thread to the Apple TV again, but NOT to Home Assistant, or WiFi.
Those batteries were over 6 months ago, and it’s still showing 100%.
WiFi just isn’t cut out for this.