I am leaning toward getting a Schlage deadbolt and have a few questions. I have an old house and there is no inside access to the garage. Currently, I leave a key by the door so I it is handy when I need to unlock the door that goes to the garage. I think it would be nice to have a Schlage deadbolt there so I do not have to worry about grabbing the key all the time.
I conveniently have a Leviton 4-scene controller by the door and wanted to program a button to unlock the deadbolt (I realize that I still need to physically turn it). Is this possible? Also what is the lag time in people’s experiences? Vera is very close to both the scene controller and would be deadbolt, probably about 10 feet and away with one wall in between.
Is is possible to rekey the lock? Yes, I know the point is to go completely keyless, but I would prefer to use the same key in case I need to manually open it.
I checked the installation instructions on the Schlage website and it says that the bottom and top locks must be a minimum of 5.5" apart center to center. I measured my locks and it was more like 5.75". Is this going to be a problem?
No, I bought it online, but I think the guy at Lowe’s thought I bought it there, so he didn’t charge me. I can’t imagine he would have charged more than $5.
I’d sell you mine - I am not real happy with it. Not sure what the point of having the deadbolt configured to the central location when you still have to physically be there to lock/unlock it. I will likely replace mine with a Link lever lock and just put a standard deadbolt in. That way I can still lock the lever remotely and/or on a schedule. Its annoying that I can’t really lock the entire house remotely.
That being said - Lowes charged me $5 per lock to re-key and I bought them there. It took the guy quite a bit of time since they are not real easy to take apart - probably 10 min per lock.
What’s the point of having a button on the controller? Seems like it totally makes the lock pointless - if just anyone can come up and push a button to unlock. Plus its not hard to enter a PIN on the keypad to unlock. Either way you have to physically be there to lock or unlock it. Am I missing something?
@kcb2
Thanks for your honest feedback. I think the deadbolt will work for what I want to use it for, but let me know if you think otherwise. Also, the lever lock will not fit as the deadbolt is only about 5.5 inches away from the door knob.
I do not have inside access to my garage, I have to walk out my front door and open another door to get into the garage. Currently, I have a key on the wall by the front door for the garage. (I also have a 4-scene controller on the wall by the front door.) Sometimes I misplace the key or put it down in the garage somewhere and lock it inside.
Here is how I think the Schlage lock will help me. Instead of using a key to open the door to the garage, I will simply press a button on the scene controller which will enable me to turn the deadbolt (without a key) by the time I get to the door to the garage, thus eliminating the need for a key.
The only concern I would have is do you have enough time to press the button on your scene controller and then exit your front door and walk over to the garage to turn the dead bolt? When the command is sent via z-wave to unlock the lock, it only leaves it in the unlock state for I think about 5 seconds. I am not home to test the amount of time, but I sure someone else on the forum can jump in.
I have three Schlage dead bolts all keyed to the same key. I had a lock smith install them and he was easily able to re-key all to the same key just as a back-up. I am happy to say over the six months of using the locks, I have never needed the key to gain entry.
My primary reason for a z-wave aware lock was to track when contractors entering and leaving my house which has worked very well with Vera.
The door to the garage is only like 3 steps away from my front door, so 5 seconds should be fine. The only time I may run int problems is when I am carrying something into the garage (like laundry) and my hands are full. I could also incorporate a 2-3 second delay in the scene if necessary.
I just got home a did a few tests clicking the unlock button on Vera’s dashboard. I did three tests and got the same result each time. Vera directly controls the lock - no hops between Vera and the lock.
3 sec - for the lock to unlock once I clicked the unlock button
5 sec - after 5 seconds, the lock re-locked.
I assume your scene controller will add an additional delay, so with three steps to your garage door, you might be waiting for it to unlock.
My only issue with the deadbolt is that Vera doesn’t report status correctly. Like other have said, when you activate the lock (press unlock button) it engages a pin in the lock allowing the bolt handle to be turned, after 5-7 seconds the pin retracts and the bolt handle spins freely so nobody can get in. Vera will report the status of the lock as Locked, I’ll press the buton to Unlock and you’ll hear that pin engage for about 7 seconds and then release, but the status changes to Unlocked and stays there even though the lock remains Locked.
For the deadbolt, the status should display Locked or Unlocked based on the position of the cam and microswitch in the lock. My lock is installed correctly (I am sure), but Vera never reported status like I thought it should. Am I the only one or has someone else had this experience?
Well, I bought the deadbolt and installed it this afternoon. However, I am not able to get it to pair with Vera2 (988). I keep getting “unable to get secure classes” even after repeatedly excluding the lock, factory resetting it, and trying to include via high power again. I will enter the programming code, wait for the three amber flashes and three tones, press the schlage button and then 0. After a few seconds, I will see that Vera has included the device and attempts to get the secure classes. Meanwhile the Schlage button on the lock is flashing amber. After about 10-15 seconds, I will get tones from the lock and the Schlage button will flash red like it has timed out. I know it is supposed to flash green to indicate a successful inclusion.
Try removing the lock via vera before you try to re-add it… I had to do that a few times and reset the lock a few times before I was able to get it to pair. Hope that helps.
I did a test from the dashboard and noticed the same behavior. If I click “unlock” from the dashboard, but do not turn the cam, the door status updates as unlock although the door remains locked. If I then go up to the door and turn the cam lever to unlock and then back to lock, the dashboard does not update, it stills says unlocked.
If I go back to the dashboard and click lock and then walk up to the door and move the lever the dashboard updates with the correct status of the door lock.
Interesting that I did not notice this problem, however, for my needs manual turning of the cam does report the correct lock/unlock status of the door in the dashboard just as long as you have not clicked unlock from the dashboard.
@apanek Thank you apanek, I think that is how my lock is behaving, I’ll check it against your test tonight. Then I’ll try to report a ticket about it to support. I think the reason that I notice it so much is that I am testing the Square Connect iphone app and usually monitor the lock from there and noticed that behavior passing up to the SQ Connect UI (originally thinking it was their app that was doing it).
I’m not sure, but I suppose that the Schlage lever lock is similar in behavior to the deadbolt, in that it returns to a locked state after a few seconds, or is the lever able to be unlocked via Vera and stay unlocked?
Has anyone ever got a defective Schlage lock? I am thinking about picking another one up on the way home to test to make sure it is Vera that is having problems and not the lock itself.
I had lots of trouble with my lock initially, but that was numerous firmware versions ago. I assume you’ve seen it, but this was the post that helped me get mine working.
Thanks, I read your thread and that is pretty much what I have been doing, except I left the timeout at 30 seconds and did not change it to 120. I can try this later when I get home to see if it makes a difference.
Just out of curiosity, do you really need 5.75" to fit both the deadbolt and the leverlock on the same door? I think standard is 5.5" on most doors. The instructions for the leverlock say 5.5" minimum between holes.
