Keyless deadbolt s ?

[phideaux]

I'll be closing on the farmhouse Friday.
So I will be changing the door locks.
I can change them with regular key only locks and deadbolts, or , I can go with the simple keyless locks.
Nothing elaborate, just a 4 digit pass code.

No wifi, no cell phone, no voice , no Bluetooth.

Seems simple enough.

Question...anybody here using them and can recommend it or not.
Pros and cons ?

Jim

 

[kd4ulw]

Don’t they still have a key in case of battery failure?

 

[Caribou]

A friend of ours had one and replaced it after a few years with a regular lock. I don't remember why.

 

[WVDragonlady]

We have them on most of our doors (house and sheds). We like them.
You can key them to use your regular lock in case the batteries die on you. We have a house key on each vehicle keychain and its nice not to have to turn off the vehicle in case I forgot something in the house (like my phone which I do all the time)
Its nice not needing a key to get into a door in case I forget to grab it.

 

[Sparky_D]

If you're going with the manual (unpowered) push button style, don't go cheap.

On some of the cheap ones, it doesn't matter what order the numbers are entered (1572, 1725, 7152, 2571 will all work) and won't let you use the same digit twice (IE: 3575 or 9227).
We did a cheap one when we were doing AirB&B and only found out because one of our guests was dyslexic and wasn't sure they'd read the number right.
Didn't matter on that lock, lol

My advice for keyless? Go name brand like Simplex. Buy once, cry once.

 

[backlash]

I have keypads on 3 doors. All of them and a couple of other doors are all keyed alike. The great thing about that is I was able to set the key myself.
I keep a key in the shop just in case I need it.
Only the front door is a deadbolt the other 2 are regular door handles with a keypad.
All are 4 digit combinations and can be set to any number you like.
I can set multiple combinations so the water softener guy can get into the pumphouse but nowhere else.
Kwikset model 917 and 942.
I've had one for over a year and it's still on the original 9v battery.
Amazon.com : kwickset 917

 

[Peanut]

I researched them a few years ago and decided against them for my situation. One thing I wish I had done 20 years sooner...

Get a lever type door knob. Especially for the door you most often use leaving your car and going into the house. When my hands are full from shopping or my wrist is banged up (again) they make it so easy to open the door.

 

[Terri9630]

I researched them a few years ago and decided against them for my situation. One thing I wish I had done 20 years sooner...

Get a lever type door knob. Especially for the door you most often use leaving your car and going into the house. When my hands are full from shopping or my wrist is banged up (again) they make it so easy to open the door.

View attachment 71942

We are teaching the kids dog to open door knobs like that.

 

[Haertig]

We went to keypad locks many years ago. Best thing we ever did regarding house entry and security. If you have a guest, you can set up a temporary code specifically for them, and then delete it when they're gone.

It is very convenient not to have to reach into your pocket to get keys out to enter your home.

The battery in ours (a Schlage brand model) is a 9 volt, and lasts for many years - I'm thinking it must have been a good 8 years before we had to replace the battery).

[edit] Wait, now I can't actually remember the battery type for sure. It may have been a CR123. But I think it was a 9 volt. [/edit]

If you get one, I would recommend one where you key in a code to enable the deadbolt, which you must then turn by hand. These are much stronger and much more reliable than the ones where you key in a code and then the deadbolt retracts under power from a small motor. These auto retracting ones often use cheap plastic gears and all kinds of other cheap innards. They are more toys than locks.

I would not get one that allows WiFi, bluetooth or other "smart home" activation. Too much of a security risk there for my liking. I want a good strong deadbolt that simply does not require a key to open. To my knowledge, they all allow backup key access. You are not buying one to get rid of a key, you are buying one for the convenience of not needing a key 99.99% of the time (unless the battery fails - which you get plenty of advance warning for - you'd have to ignore it for weeks/months to ever have a problem).

Ours is similar to this one (cosmetic differences, but functionally equivalent):

You can get just the deadbolt part separately. We got the additional handle with it to also replace the original doorknob. When your hands are full you don't want to have to turn a knob, and you can just lean down on the thumb paddle with your elbow and then push inwards with your body to open the door. You can also key in the code using your pinky finger or any other handy appendage and turn the deadbolt effortlessly with that same appendage. You don't have to grab the deadbolt - just kind of nudge it to turn it. Again, very handy when your hands are full.

This is actually what ours looks like (but minus the extra door handle shown above in the cosmetically different model):

( remove extra spaces around "amazon" in the link below - I don't seem to be able to post an Amazon link normally )

https://www. amazon .com/Schlage-BE365VCAM619-BE365V-Camelot-Deadbolt/dp/B000NJJ1MQ/ref=sxin_14_ac_d_rm?ac_md=0-0-c2NobGFnZSBrZXlwYWQgZGVhZGJvbHQ%3D-ac_d_rm_rm_rm&cv_ct_cx=schlage+keypad+deadbolt&dchild=1&keywords=schlage+keypad+deadbolt&pd_rd_i=B000NJJ1MQ&pd_rd_r=e4c2d165-e9d4-4b24-91ee-b72a75f42182&pd_rd_w=pFRvR&pd_rd_wg=JRbIa&pf_rd_p=c41d1f6c-956c-4fe2-8019-1663b7e1dd23&pf_rd_r=D8T2BVGV856V4FE0WASM&psc=1&qid=1631047369&sr=1-1-12d4272d-8adb-4121-8624-135149aa9081

 

[Spikedriver]

I'm not a huge fan of keypad locks. My employer have the non-battery kind on a lot of our buildings across the country and it's a PITA because sometimes I need to get into those buildings, but each site has its own code. There's a way to figure it out, which is something I can't disclose here, but it doesn't always work.

I would just put a decent quality keyed lockset in and call it good...

 

[backlash]

All of my doors have lever handles. Even the ones with keypads.

 

[Neb]

I would opt for the mechanical versions. I specified a old school combination for my safe because I did want to be stymied by a bad battery.

Ben

 

[backlash]

People worry about the battery dying. It is not a problem. If the battery dies you just put in a new one like anything else.
No tools are required, no combinations are lost.
My door locks have a battery cover you slide up and the battery is right there. You do have to be in the house to change the battery. My gun safe I just slide the keypad up, replace the battery, and slide the keypad back on.
I have an old floor safe and it's easy to open If you remember the 4 number combination, how many turns, and in what direction to turn it. I don't use it much because it's not easy to access.

 

[The Lazy L]

I'm not a huge fan of keypad locks. My employer have the non-battery kind on a lot of our buildings across the country and it's a PITA because sometimes I need to get into those buildings, but each site has its own code. There's a way to figure it out, which is something I can't disclose here, but it doesn't always work.

I would just put a decent quality keyed lockset in and call it good...

Which numbers have the most grime or paint worn off. Then try the four digits in the 16 different possibilities until you hit the right one?

 

[Spikedriver]

Which numbers have the most grime or paint worn off. Then try the four digits in the 16 different possibilities until you hit the right one?

Nope. All I can say is, it's a company secret, particular to the company itself, and it doesn't always work...

 

[Haertig]

Which numbers have the most grime or paint worn off. Then try the four digits in the 16 different possibilities until you hit the right one?

There are more than 16 possibilities. Order is important in the subset, thus the subset 1-2-3-4 is not the same as the subset 4-3-2-1 which is not the same as the subset 1-4-2-3. So you are talking permutations, not combinations. You could assume that since there are four keypad smudges, there are four unique numbers in the set. That is a reasonable assumption. But you cannot assume that the code is four digits long, because a digit could repeat. Example: the code is 1-2-3-4-4. Four smudges, but a code length of five.

Assuming the set is 4 (reasonable) and the code length is 4 (you're just guessing at that), then nPr (the number of permutations) is 256. But if you assume the set is 4 and the code length is 5 you are talking permutations with repetitions, and that number is 1024. For a set of 4 with a code length of 6 the permutations with repetitions is 4096.

In any case, there are a lot more than 16 possibilities. And we still have to allow for the smart homeowner who intentionally smudges all the keys, or cleans their smudges routinely to throw burglars off!

[edit]One more thing I forgot to mention, if you could assume that four smudges equals four unique digits equals a code length of four equals no digit repeats (which you can't, but let's say you could), the number of possibilities would still be 4! (that's "four factorial"). So 4x3x2x1 = 24. This is still greater than 16, but only by a little bit. It would be reasonable to try all these possibilities by brute force.[/edit]

[edit_2]Don't forget that they keypad locks can have more than one code programmed (at least mine can). I think we have five or six codes programmed into ours. So any smudges could be the combined result of several different codes being used by different people with different finger cleanliness profiles at different times.[/edit_2]

 

[joel]

I got a keyless lock for Father day, five or so years ago.
No key if batteries(AA) die. The lock will shut down if you punch in the wrong code three times. You have to wait for two to three minutes, then try again. I memorized the pattern, could not tell you the numbers in order, 0-9 makes up a short triangle & a long triangle.
I know what order to punch what button, but not the code that the pattern makes up.
I have replaced the batteries three times.
Door knob is a keyed lock.
I have no problem with the keyless lock, the lock button is in the center of the pattern & only used to lock the door.
My code is 5 digits.