I noticed today a small security flaw in the kwikset deadbolt…
If I manually unlock the deadbolt at the door it correctly reports status unlocked. If I manually lock the deabolt at the door it correctly reports status locked.
However…
If I manually turn the deadbolt to unlock it until the deadbolt physically retracts and stop, the deadbolt will not report status unlocked.
In other words you can manually unlock the door by turning the lever to about 80%, this retracts the deadbolt and you will physically have access to open the door. However the deadbolt will not report itself as unlocked until the lever is turned 100% to the unlocked position.
To me, this means the sensor to report status unlocked is measured at the lever… personally I think it should be measured by the physical position of the deadbolt.
It doesnt worry me too much as I have a contact sensor on the door and I know when it has been opened or closed… but for someone relying on the deadbolt status to reflect an insecure situation… it may not be 100% correct unless the lever was thrown to 100% when last unlocked.
Has anyone else seen this problem? Can anyone else reproduce it?
Haven’t tried the 80% technique yet, but I expect allowing it to be reported as unlocked would complicate things because it involves having to know the physical distance from the door to the door jam and this can vary slightly from door to door. For example one door I have is very very close to the jam while another door is a tad further away. There would have to be a way to teach the deadbolt how close the door is to the jam since not all doors have the same gap. Granted, 80% is pretty far already.
I should clarify:
The lever switch was 80% thrown, the deadbolt was 100% retracted into the door.
While unlcoking manually, there is a point on the kwikset where the deadbolt springs to the completely retracted/unlocked position. This position seems to be at about 80% while throwing the lever.
My suggestion would be to send the zwave command based on physcial deadbolt position. As in, send the zwave unlocked command class when the deadbolt is 100% retracted, not when the lever switch is 100% thrown.
If you have a kwikset deadbolt, try unlocking manually slowly and you will see the point I am talking about. You will notice the deadbolt 100% retracts at 80% throwing the lever, you also see that the lock status is still “locked”.
Then, throw the lever switch all the way to 100% and you will see this is when the lock sends the “unlocked” message even though the deadbolt did not retract any more than it was before.
I understand what you’re saying now. I tried to do what you’re saying, and I couldn’t replicate it on my Kwikset deadbolt. Did you try retraining your deadbolt to see if it makes a difference (the step where you press the button for about 20 seconds while inserting battery pack)?
Good idea, I’ll try that tonight.
Also see instructions that say lever should be slightly below horizontal when unlocked and slightly clockwise from vertical when locked. Does your lever look like the diagram in the instructions when unlocked and locked? My deadbolt becomes fully retracted at about the point my lever is a little below horizontal.
I had noticed that a long time ago but was able to re calibrate it.