I really want my August “Smart” Lock to work!
It works but I wish it was much better at delivering on its promise. #August @AugustSmartLock
It works but I wish it was much better at delivering on its promise.
I couldn’t make the thermometer work, but I can still use a normal thermometer pretty easily. But I really really want my August lock to work, since I’d like to stop using keys entirely.
The beautiful (but bulky) red version of the August lock installed on my front door in San Francisco
I already have keyless access to my office. I sort of have keyless access to my car (sort of, because I still have to have the key close by to get the car open). But I still need not just one, but two keys to get into my house.
I can’t get rid of both keys just yet, since I need a weatherproof smart lock to get rid of one of those keys. My house has built in layered security: One key opens either the welded iron front gate or the garage door. The other key open either the front door (behind the gate) or the inside garage door (behind the garage door) to get into the house. And it’s really, really hard to get into the house otherwise, since it’s sandwiched between a 10-foot tall retaining wall and the house next door.
My two front doors: gate and garage
I bought two August locks, one for the front door and one for the basement door from the garage. And I just installed one of those August locks on my front door. (I’m waiting to install the second one on the basement door until I decide if the use case works well for me and my three housemates.)
Installation? It’s simple, as long as you are prepared to discover which part of your existing deadbolt is not standard and then wait for the right parts. August tried as hard as it could to cover the majority of configurations, but I don’t think they got more than half! I happen to have a pretty standard looking Schlage lock, which is reported to have more than half the market of home door locks. But the screws provided by August were not long enough to attach the new mounting plate supplied by August (see the banner photo above to see the two screws I’m referring to). The company did get the right lock adapter, mounting plate, and instructions. I had to call and ask for the screws, which showed up two days later. Meanwhile, I had to re-install the existing lock to make sure we could still lock the door while I waited.
After I got the screws, I re-installed. I ended up doing Facetime with Richard in customer support, who was patient and very helpful. Together we discovered that I had the adapter upside down. Then he walked me through the entire installation — 31 minutes total; it turns out I’m as incompetent at installation as I thought I was!
Total committment for installing my first August lock? Just shy of an hour. The right question is, “Was that worth it?” So far, yes but… My phone does now lock and unlock my front door. But only when I am close enough to the lock for the phone to connect via Bluetooth. And connection takes anywhere from 20 seconds to infinity to happen. Infinity is not good in this use case,
by the way, although August protects against that because you can always turn the August manually or use your existing key on the outside. So you’re locked in or out. But you can’t eliminate your key until you trust August to always work.
Here are the specific issues:
Connection: I don’t know why the Bluetooth takes so long to connect or why it doesn’t always work. I won’t install the second August until I figure it out. (August has introduced but not delivered something called August Connect, but I don’t know if it solves this particular problem.)
Auto Unlock: This is a feature that says it will unlock the lock as I approach my house. I don’t see any way to control how close I need to be to make it work. And I haven’t seen it actually work yet. The feature uses GPS in the app to identify when you’re close to the house, which means it is always using GPS and therefore draining additional battery on my phone. If I don’t see it work soon, I’ll give up on this feature.
Everlock: This is a feature that promises to relock the lock after you leave, if you forget, so that you can rely on your lock always being locked. Whatever! If I don’t trust Auto Unlock, I’m not going to trust that it does Auto Lock!
App support: You can connect your August lock to your Nest thermostat. Result? Every single time I lock the August lock, it asks me if I want to set my Nest thermostat to “Away”. How annoying? I only use Away when I know that all four of us will be out of the house for more than 24 hours (and more likely for a week or more). But August isn’t smart enough to know that I’m leaving for any length of time, so this is a really stupid integration. Turned that off immediately!
So yes, the August lock does lock and unlock the front door from my phone. But I thought I was getting a lot more than that. I might eventually figure out how to get more, but right now — 24 hours after installing my first August lock — I’m feeling that this whole “smartness” trend has a long way to go.