Door lock review

@ faustg77, you can use a 3M strip or 2 to address the support issue of the top of the unit you mentioned above. It works great and makes it solid.

This also works with the FOB doesn't it? I don't think August has that. But Bluetooth would be nice if you are used to it

I wanted to like the door lock. There is much to like. But I ended up sending ours back for two reasons:

1. The keypad is cheap. I'm sorry. Too much cheap plastic. Feels flimsy.

2. We had a Schlage smart lock. Keypad was much better. And with a door where the deadbolt has a very slight amount of resistance the Schlage lock had no problems. The SS lock was too weak. It kept saying the door was jammed. Even though I am a big SS fan, I uninstalled and went back to Schlage.

I'm sending mine back too, noticed a major safety concern:
If I lock and unlock the SimpliSafe lock manually, the knob turns smooth and easy.
If I lock and unlock using the app, it locks and unlocks smooth and easy.

The problem is when the lock is locked using the app or auto-lock feature ( electronically ), you can not unlock manually, the knob will not turn manually to unlock, as the motor is still engaged. In an emergency, a child, someone elderly or disabled or anyone without the hand strength to force the knob to turn and unlock could be trapped, obviously this is a major safety issue.

I've reported this to customer support, but as usual they try to convince you that it's a door issue. My original deadbolt and the Schlage Sense smart lock worked fine for over 3 years. Yesterday, I bought and installed the August Pro smart lock that is supposed to be integrated with SimpliSafe and it works great, no issues.

Note: the August Pro lock can only be controlled by SimpliSafe, if someone uses a code or iPhone ..etc to unlock the August lock it will not disarm the SimpliSafe alarm, you still need to enter SimpliSafe code on keypad, so the August lock integration is basically useless.

@JT2228 , as you know from my posts, I state when SS is right and when they are wrong.

In your post, sorry, I am with SS support its a door issue with your case, or you have a defective lock. My lock works fine.

Not door issue, my standard deadbolt, Schlage Sense and August Pro that I installed yesterday all work perfect

I noticed when I installed the August lock yesterday, August supplies their own mounting bracket, Simplisafe does not, so you use whatever mounting bracket is on the existing deadbolt for Simplisafe install, in my case it was a Schlage mounting bracket, that could be an issue ?

Also noticed as part of the August installation procedure after the lock is physically installed August has you calibrate the lock by manually unlocking and locking the lock following the app instructions, seems like it is calibrating the travel of the deadbolt, but Simplisafe does not do this either ?

One or both of these could be the issue ? but it's definitely not a door issue.

@JT2228, I had a Schlage Sense lock I removed and then put back the original traditional Schlage deadbolt. I also took out the core mounting bracket and all other parts of the sense and put back the original deadbolt.  Then I took part of that off and installed the SS lock.  Don't know if that made a difference but mine, again, will lock and unlock from the app fine.

@JT2228, I was re-reading this and I just realized I missed one of your posts. I DO understand what you mean with the lock not letting you manually unlock if it was locked by the app, and that is NOT normal behavior, and my lock did start doing that after a couple weeks, and I did resolve it by re-calibrating the lock.

However, you said several other things that make no sense. You said it didn't come with a mounting bracket, and that's just plain not true. If yours didn't come with a mounting bracket, how exactly is it staying on your door? Mine certainly came with one. I'm thinking that you left unneeded parts in the door, or that you somehow managed to miss the mounting bracket but get your lock to cling to the schlage bracket, which would be a pretty neat trick.

Also, you mentioned Simplisafe not calibrating the thumb-turn. Again, this is wrong. When I installed mine it absolutely went through calibration steps, and being uncalibrated could absolutely cause the problem you described.

Correct, the Simplisafe lock does come with a mounting plate, I was probably thinking of the bolts and switching between the 3 locks, my Schlage Sense, Simplisafe and August locks over a couple weeks. I've spent a lot of time with next level support, they don't have an answer yet, but have at least acknowledged the issue. I must have forgot about the calibration too from the original install, but have re-calibrated many times recently with support, no luck still same issue.When locked electronically, can not turn knob to unlock manually.

@JT2228 , minus the August Lock, my setup was very similar to yours, going from the Sense lock to SS's, yet, didn't have the calibration issue.  With the August Lock integration, is there a bug in the code that is conflicting with the SS lock? I would at least mention that to SS techs.

I have three smart locks and locked all three with the app and then had them auto lock as well.  All unlock manually (by hand) through each step just fine.  No problems here.  I am very happy with them so far.

I did order the door locks early on.  As far as how well they work so far so good.  We have had no problems with the locks at all, and they have been working great.  It is nice having everything on one system.

I am having the same problem.  It is VERY dangerous.  You could get locked inside your house.  I did find that if you very forcibly turn the thumbturn inside it will unlock, but one may well not try to push so hard or not have the power to do so.  The first couple times this happened I thought I was stuck unless I literally used the app to open the door.

There is also a problem that when the gears get locked like this that you can't use a key to open the door - the key just spins in the lock.  You can only use the app or pinpad.  But if the pinpad were to break and you were a guest without the app you could not get in your own home.

I've called twice and the reps said they had not heard of this problem so I searched the forums to find this post.  This seems like more than just a product glitch, rather a MAJOR safety problem.  I'm surprised this is not known within the company and none of the reviewers have commented on this.  I'd think the product would actually be recalled with this type of problem

FYI I already replaced the external deadbolt with a brand new one and still have the same problem.  It is tough  because it is intermittent, so hard to know if it is fixed or not as it can go multiple times without a problem.
I got a call back.   They said a recalibration would fix it.  I'd already done this a few days after the first install but tried again with the rep on the phone.  After the recal I used the pinpad to lock and unlock it.  It froze again.   The rep said they'd ship me a new lock.  I'll try it, but am concerned this is a systemic product flaw SS is ignoring or not investigating properly, so I asked a supervisor to call me and tell me what steps they are really taking to investigate and fix this.  Saying "just recalibrate" sounds like a copout.