The Complete Guide to Smart Locks

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We install smart locks almost every week now. Five years ago it was once a month. The technology has come a long way, and we genuinely believe smart locks can be a great addition to the right home. But we also remove them almost every week — because someone bought the wrong one, installed it incorrectly, or didn’t understand the limitations.

This guide is what we tell every customer who calls asking about smart locks. No brand deals, no affiliate links — just practical advice from a locksmith who works with these things daily.

A Locksmith’s Honest Take on Smart Locks

Let’s start with what smart locks are genuinely good at. Keyless entry is real convenience. If you’re a parent juggling groceries and a toddler, being able to unlock your door with a code or your phone is a meaningful improvement over fumbling for keys. If you have a dog walker, a housekeeper, or an Airbnb, temporary access codes are far more practical — and secure — than hiding a key under a rock.

The activity log is another legitimate benefit. Being able to see exactly when your front door was locked or unlocked, and by which code, gives you information that a traditional lock simply cannot provide. For families with kids who get home from school before the parents do, that visibility is valuable.

Where smart locks fall short is durability and reliability. Traditional deadbolts from companies like Schlage and Kwikset have been refined over decades. They work in extreme cold, they don’t need batteries, and they don’t rely on Wi-Fi. Smart locks, by contrast, have electronics that can be affected by temperature swings, batteries that die at inconvenient times, and connectivity that can be spotty. Kansas City winters can hit the single digits, and we’ve seen smart locks freeze up or drain batteries rapidly in those conditions.

Types of Smart Locks and How They Work

Smart locks fall into a few main categories, and understanding the differences matters:

• Keypad deadbolts replace or retrofit your existing deadbolt with a numeric keypad. You enter a code to unlock. These are the simplest, most reliable type. Many still include a traditional keyhole as backup. We install more of these than any other type.
• Bluetooth locks connect to your phone over Bluetooth, so you can unlock by tapping an app or simply by approaching with your phone in your pocket (auto-unlock). Range is typically 20–30 feet. The limitation is that they don’t offer remote access — you have to be physically nearby to connect.
• Wi-Fi locks connect directly to your home Wi-Fi, allowing remote lock and unlock from anywhere with internet. This is what most people picture when they think “smart lock.” The trade-off is higher battery consumption and dependence on your home network’s reliability.
• Hub-based locks (Z-Wave, Zigbee) connect through a smart home hub like SmartThings or Hubitat. These offer better battery life than Wi-Fi locks and play well with broader home automation, but require the extra hub hardware and setup.
• Retrofit smart locks attach to the interior side of your existing deadbolt, so you keep your current keys and exterior hardware. They add smart features without changing the outside appearance of your door. Good option for renters or people who like their existing hardware.

5 Things to Consider Before Buying

Before you order anything, take five minutes to think through these factors. They’ll save you from the most common regrets we hear:

1. Check your door prep. Smart locks need specific hole sizes and alignments. Most modern exterior doors use a standard prep that smart locks fit into, but older homes in neighborhoods like downtown Olathe, old Lenexa, or parts of Shawnee sometimes have non-standard door preps, odd backsets, or thicker-than-normal doors. Measure your backset (the distance from the edge of the door to the center of the deadbolt hole) — it’s either 2-3/8" or 2-3/4". Both are standard, but you need to know which one.
2. Consider your door’s exposure. Is your front door under a covered porch or directly exposed to rain, snow, and sun? Exposed smart locks take more of a beating and will have shorter lifespans. If your door faces south or west with no cover, factor in that the electronics will be stressed by temperature extremes.
3. Think about backup access. What happens when the battery dies? Some smart locks have a physical key backup, some have an emergency power port (you hold a 9V battery to contacts on the exterior), and some have neither. We strongly recommend choosing one with a physical key backup — at least until the technology matures further.
4. Decide what “smart” means to you. If all you want is keyless entry, a simple keypad deadbolt is the most reliable and affordable option. If you want remote access, auto-unlock, and integration with Alexa or Google Home, you’re looking at Wi-Fi or hub-based locks with more complexity and more potential failure points.
5. Don’t forget the rest of the door. A smart lock on a weak door frame is like a state-of-the-art alarm on a car with the windows down. If your door frame is old, splintered, or has short screws in the strike plate, addressing that is a bigger security improvement than any lock upgrade.

Installation Mistakes We See Constantly

Most smart locks are marketed as “easy DIY installation,” and to be fair, many homeowners install them successfully. But we also get a lot of calls from people who ran into problems. Here are the mistakes we see most often:

• Not checking door alignment first. This is the biggest one. If your deadbolt doesn’t extend smoothly into the strike plate with your current lock, a smart lock won’t fix that — it’ll make it worse. The motorized bolt will strain against the misalignment, drain batteries faster, and eventually burn out the motor.
• Using the old strike plate. Most smart locks come with a reinforced strike plate and longer screws. Use them. The factory strike plate that came with your door is usually held in by 3/4" screws that only reach the door jamb, not the structural framing behind it. The 3" screws that come with most smart locks anchor into the stud and provide significantly more kick resistance.
• Forgetting to program a master code. We’ve been called to homes where the homeowner set temporary codes for a contractor, forgot to delete them, and only realized months later that those codes still worked. Set a master code. Create a habit of auditing your active codes quarterly.
• Mounting the interior assembly wrong. Several popular smart lock models have an interior assembly that connects to the exterior through the deadbolt hole. If this assembly isn’t seated correctly and tightened properly, the lock will feel loose, the auto-lock sensor may not work, and the motorized bolt can jam.
• Ignoring battery warnings. Smart locks give you a low-battery warning weeks before they die. Don’t ignore it. Lithium batteries perform better than alkaline in cold weather, so if you’re in the KC area, consider making that switch regardless.

Are Smart Locks Actually Secure?

This is the question we get most often, and the honest answer is: the good ones are, with caveats.

Reputable smart locks from established manufacturers use AES-128 or AES-256 encryption for wireless communication. Picking the physical lock mechanism is no easier (and often harder) than picking a standard deadbolt. The locking mechanisms themselves are typically ANSI/BHMA Grade 2, which is the same rating as most quality residential deadbolts.

The real security considerations are digital rather than physical. If your Wi-Fi network isn’t secured, a smart lock connected to it has a potential vulnerability. If you use the same simple password for your lock’s app as you do for everything else, that’s a vulnerability. If someone shoulder-surfs your PIN code, that’s a vulnerability — the same as someone copying a physical key.

Here’s the perspective we give our customers: the vast majority of residential break-ins don’t involve picking locks or hacking smart devices. They involve kicking in a door with a weak frame, prying open a sliding glass door, or entering through an unlocked window. A smart lock with auto-lock eliminates the most common security failure of all — forgetting to lock the door when you leave.

What We Recommend to Our Customers

We don’t sell specific brands, so we have no financial incentive to push any particular product. When customers ask, here’s the advice we give based on what we’ve seen perform well and what we’ve seen fail:

• For most homeowners, a keypad deadbolt with a physical key backup is the sweet spot. It gives you keyless convenience without the complexity or failure points of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. These locks are reliable in Kansas City weather and battery life is typically 12+ months.
• For tech-savvy homeowners who want remote access and automation, Wi-Fi-enabled deadbolts from the major manufacturers work well. Just accept that you’ll be changing batteries more frequently and that the lock is only as reliable as your Wi-Fi.
• For renters, a retrofit smart lock is the best option. It attaches to your existing deadbolt, so you don’t need to modify the door, and you can take it with you when you move.
• For rental property owners, keypad locks with code management are the clear choice. Being able to create and delete codes remotely between tenants, without ever re-keying or making new keys, pays for the lock many times over.

Regardless of which type you choose, we always recommend reinforcing your door frame and strike plate at the same time. That combination — a quality smart lock on a properly secured door — gives you both the convenience and the security you’re looking for.