Remote Control Locks Bring Your Home into the 21st Century

By brwood (view all posts by brwood)
at 10:48AM Tuesday July 27, 2010
under Shop Smarter

In the mid-1800s door hardware to a great leap forward, along with most other things, due to the industrial revolution. Door handles went from blacksmith wrought thumb levers (the style you still see in gate hardware today) and handmade brass and iron rim locks, to mass produced iron rim and mortise locks sold throughout the country by retailers like Sears and Roebuck. By 1880, Yale had invented the modern pin tumbler lock and key system. About 1925, Mr. Schlage invented the modern cylindrical lockset and revolutionized the installation process--though these didn't really catch on until the post WWII building boom.

Then, sixty years of nothing.

Your hotel room and you ATM kiosk got electronic magnetic card reader locks. Your car not only got keyless entry, but it could remember where you wanted the mirrors and seats and change from wife to husband mode. How come your house didn't do this?

Well now your house, just like everyone else, is going on the internet!

Finally someone has dragged the front door into the 21st century and guess what--it's Schlage. They call it the Schlage LiNK system. The geniuses at Schlage took an iPhone, a deadbolt, a wireless router and a remote control electrical outlet, gave them to a savvy computer geek and made them all play nice together.

Now you can log on with your smartphone and lock or unlock your door, turn on your lights or any other electrical device plugged into the remote outlet. You can also unlock the door for the handyman or the maid, or more accurately activate their personal P.I.N. so they can unlock the door, and deactivate it so they can't get in when you don't want them to get in.

With additional accessories running on a Z-wave network, you can keep an eye on the pets via webcam, turn the heat and AC on or off and, with a little bit of work, control everything in the house from anywhere in the world. You can also make sure your daughter gets in before curfew when you let her stay home alone while you go on vacation. And you can turn the lights and heat off when she leaves--or at least check that she turned them off.

Another version of "smart lock" is available from Black & Decker. With features similar to Schlage's option, it's known as Kwikset and it's better looking than the Schlage. The Kwikset looks like it requires professional installation (unless you're very adept at DiY) whereas the Schlage starter kit comes complete and ready to install. It's hard to say though, since the Kwikset Smartcode has only just hit stores.

Then there is the RF Remote Controlled Keyless Entry available from SmartHome. For about $100 you get a doorknob with two remotes--and the ability to impress your friends. Now this one is not networked like the others, but it is upgradable and adaptable to a variety of home automation systems.x10

In 1986, a company named X10 first came out with a system that allowed you to control your whole house with your Commodore 64 home computer. If I remember correctly, even then you could control it remotely--if your computer was connected to a modem line. Of course, almost no one had a modem line then and there was no widely available internet or smart phones. Well X10 is still out there and they have kept pace with things over the past 25 years and are still one of the leaders in home automation. Be forewarned: they have one of the worst web designs I have seen in many years.

So you see, we are in the year 2010 now and soon you'll have your whole house in the palm of your hand--in the form of your smart phone.