Yale Assure Lock 2 with Wi-Fi review: a smart lock for every smart home

There are three issues I need from a wise lock: a lovely design, greater than two methods to manage it, and the power to attach immediately with my good residence, with no single-purpose Wi-Fi bridge taking over an outlet in my home. Yale’s latest good lock sequence, the Yale Guarantee Lock 2, ticks all these packing containers. Plus, it really works with all the most important good residence platforms in case you add the appropriate networking module — and it will probably assist Matter, at any time when that lastly arrives. (Quickly, folks. Quickly).

The Yale Guarantee Lock 2 begins at $159.99 for a bodily keypad or $179.99 for a touchscreen, and you will get both model with or and not using a bodily keyhole for a similar worth. The bottom fashions all have Bluetooth inbuilt and may unlock with the keypad, through Bluetooth with the Yale app on a cellphone or Apple Watch, and with Apple Residence (together with Siri voice instructions).

All of the locks additionally work with Yale’s auto-unlock function, which makes use of your cellphone’s location and the lock’s Bluetooth radio to unlock the door while you strategy. It’s fairly magical when it really works, although I’d quite have a fingerprint reader. 

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Like its earlier good locks, Yale’s Guarantee 2 Lock makes use of networking modules so as to add completely different connectivity choices. The distinction now could be, as a substitute of a complicated lineup of connectivity choices, there are simply three: Wi-Fi (to connect with Amazon Alexa, Google Residence and others), Z-Wave (for Ring Alarm, Samsung SmartThings and different Z-Wave methods), and Matter over Thread (coming quickly) to connect with all the above (hopefully). There’s additionally (lastly!) no want for a separate Wi-Fi bridge. 

I examined the $259.99 Guarantee Lock 2 Key-Free Touchscreen with Wi-Fi, which comes with the Wi-Fi module included and provides out-of-home management via the Yale app in addition to Google Residence and Amazon Alexa integration (SmartThings Wi-Fi integration is coming quickly). In any other case, it’s the very same lock because the Bluetooth model. The truth is, in case you get the Bluetooth base mannequin, you should buy the Wi-Fi module later for $80.  

The Yale Guarantee Lock 2 is essentially the most discreet-looking keypad lock I’ve examined. From a distance, the matte touchscreen is barely noticeable towards my darkish entrance door, which was not the case for the hulking Eufy good lock I had put in beforehand.

Even higher, the rear housing is considerably smaller than the sooner Yale Guarantee fashions and far smaller than most different deadbolt good locks I’ve examined. It’s nonetheless not a glance I really like, nevertheless it’s much less of an eyesore. 

Whereas the keypad-only fashions haven’t modified dramatically from the unique Guarantee SL line, the keyed fashions have a very new look, bringing them in keeping with the sleeker stylings of the keypad-only fashions.

Now, the distinction is simply that the keyed mannequin is barely bigger to make room for the keyhole. However, except you’ve got a selected purpose for needing a bodily key, that is largely a waste of house that (ahem) might have gone to a fingerprint reader. 

If you happen to do go for the keyed mannequin, Yale sells alternative cylinders for Schlage and Kwikset keyways and may key them to your present locks — although if in case you have a number of exterior doorways, you don’t really want a keyhole on the one with the good lock, do you? 

I’ve been testing good door locks for over a decade, and I can’t bear in mind once I final used a bodily key to get into my residence. My teenage youngsters have by no means used one, as I came upon with some embarrassment once I dropped my son off at a university dorm for summer time camp.

The one state of affairs I can consider — past some catastrophic mechanical failure — is that if I managed to let the lock run out of battery. Even then, the key-free model allows you to jolt it again to life with a 9-volt battery lengthy sufficient to enter your code.

Whereas maintaining a 9-volt battery readily available feels weirder than sticking a spare key underneath a flower pot, it’s positively safer, and 9-volt batteries are straightforward to get ahold of in a pinch.

The matte keypad on the touchscreen mannequin is so unobtrusive that it’s sort of a shock when the keys mild up. The draw back is that it doesn’t mild up with only a contact. I found this at 6:30AM once I was rudely awoken by a loud banging on the door.

My husband was again from work, and I hadn’t but educated him on the brand new lock. In his post-24-hour-shift exhaustion, he couldn’t work out easy methods to get the keypad to indicate up. 

As I ought to have informed him earlier, he needed to both press the Yale button (which I’m not a fan of; I don’t like branding on my entrance door) or put his complete palm over the lock to get the keypad to indicate.

That is how the sooner Guarantee locks work, too, and it’s an pointless additional step. Simply let me faucet the display. If this is a matter for you, go for the usual keypad model, which has bodily buttons. It’s much less discreet however simpler for everybody to make use of.

As soon as we acquired the grasp of the keypad, although, unlocking was straightforward and dependable. Not as fast as a fingerprint reader, however quick sufficient. As talked about, the auto-unlock function is my most well-liked methodology when there isn’t a tap-to-unlock possibility (there’s no Apple Residence Key, sadly).

I’ve used auto-unlock on August locks (August and Yale are sister corporations and the locks share the identical apps), and whereas I like it in concept, it isn’t as clean as I’d like. 

When auto-unlock works shortly sufficient, it’s fairly magical, unlocking a number of seconds earlier than you get to the door. However when it doesn’t — about two occasions out of 10, in my expertise — you find yourself standing in entrance of your door like a doofus for a number of seconds ready for it. 

The Yale Entry app can also be fairly clean. It’s nicely laid out and has all of the options I search for. I can lock and unlock the door in Bluetooth vary or remotely utilizing Wi-Fi (with the Wi-Fi module put in).

I can see if the door is open or closed within the app (the lock comes with a magnetic sensor you placed on the door body) and think about a log of each interplay with the door. 

That log consists of who opened it and the way — manually, remotely with the app, with a code, or utilizing a wise residence platform like Apple Residence — and I can arrange good alerts to inform me when these items occur.

I can add visitors to the lock and permit full app entry or simply give them a code and schedule the time they’ll use it. There’s no restrict to the variety of codes, and I can revoke them anytime.

The built-in Apple Residence integration means I can add the lock to a Goodnight Scene or a Leaving or Arriving Automation. Leaving will lock the door (the Yale app additionally helps you to set an auto-lock for any interval), and Arriving can unlock the door. Though, not like Yale’s auto-unlock function, I’ve to faucet a immediate on my iPhone or Apple Look ahead to the automation to run.

Other than having the ability to lock and unlock the door while you’re away from residence, every little thing I’ve mentioned up to now pertains to the Bluetooth base mannequin, with no additional networking modules.

The lock I examined had the Wi-Fi module put in, and whereas it’s nice to see a lock with Wi-Fi inbuilt, I don’t assume it’s the model most individuals ought to get. 

The Wi-Fi module provides out-of-home management with the Yale app, in addition to integration with extra good residence platforms. The out-of-home management labored nicely within the app, however each Google Residence and Alexa integrations didn’t work in my testing.

I might add the locks to the platforms and add them to Routines, however once I tried to manage them — via the Alexa and Google Residence app or with their voice assistants — the motion timed out.

That is probably some form of connectivity situation; Garrett Lovejoy, VP of product administration at Yale, says they’re engaged on a repair, and an replace ought to be accessible subsequent week. I’ll replace this overview if I see an enchancment.

One other draw back of built-in Wi-Fi is poor battery life. I’ve solely had the Yale put in for per week however primarily based on my testing of Wi-Fi locks generally, the 4 AA batteries the Yale runs on ought to get round six months. Altering your lock batteries twice a yr is extra tiresome than it sounds.

The Guarantee 2 is a stable good lock. Its design will slot in with most properties, it guarantees broad compatibility (though there are some bugs to work out with Alexa and Google), and it gives a number of straightforward and dependable methods to entry your door whereas ditching your keys. 

At $260, the Wi-Fi model of the Guarantee 2 is dear, though barely cheaper than the earlier Guarantee SL. However you won’t want the Wi-Fi model.

The $160 to $180 Bluetooth mannequin (keypad or touchscreen), in distinction, is an actual cut price: it’s the least costly good lock that works with Apple Residence, you get out-of-home management if you have already got an iPhone and Apple Residence hub, and it’s upgradeable in case you determined you wished so as to add Wi-Fi later. 

If you’re all-in on Alexa or Google Residence, I don’t advocate getting the Wi-Fi model but. Wait till they get the bugs labored out with the good residence integrations, and even higher, watch for the Matter over Thread module, which Lovejoy says will arrive quickly after Matter is prepared for producers later this yr.

The brand new good residence commonplace ought to assist connecting the lock to all the identical platforms the Wi-Fi module does, with much less latency and higher battery life. Plus, it additionally provides Wi-Fi connectivity. I’ll check it when it’s accessible and replace this overview.

The Matter module, just like the Wi-Fi and Z-Wave modules, may be purchased individually, so there’s no worth penalty for getting the Bluetooth model now and including a module later, however in case you don’t use Apple Residence, you will not be capable of management the lock while you’re not at residence.

Keep in mind additionally, you will want a Thread border router for the Matter model. As this may be something from a Google Nest Hub Max to an Echo 4th gen good speaker to an Eero Wi-Fi router and extra, hopefully it will not contain a separate buy.

It’s a disgrace Yale couldn’t have simply constructed Thread proper into the machine and successfully performed away with the necessity for modules in any respect. However Lovejoy informed me they had been too far alongside within the growth course of to attend on Matter.

Yale isn’t the primary good residence firm to be put in an ungainly spot by Matter delays — some, like Nanoleaf, shipped Thread gadgets they assumed would work with Matter, solely to be left within the chilly as {hardware} necessities modified. 

Yale’s modular strategy to connectivity — which dates again a minimum of a decade to the Yale Actual Dwelling deadbolt — is a good asset right here because it means the corporate can ship the lock with out ready for a ultimate Matter spec. And all the Guarantee 2 modules can be backward-compatible with Yale’s older Guarantee locks. That’s intelligent and user-friendly, and extra corporations ought to observe Yale’s lead. 

Images by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge