August Smart Lock

Why would I be talking about August? Why am I talking about the month of August? Is it a smart home item?

Month of August

I guess it is the time kids go back to school so does that make it a smart home item since the kids are getting smarter. Well, they are supposed to right? No, I am not talking about the month of August. I am talking about August the smart lock.

August smart lock

Now that makes more sense, wasn’t sure where this crazy person was going. With things for the smart home, you have to have a smart lock, right. So you don’t have to think did I lock that door? Well, that is where the smart lock comes into play. You can see if you did indeed lock that door.  Let me explain.

But first….

What is August Smart Lock

This is a good upgrade to your existing door lock and a good move into the smart home.  Take a look at this YouTube Video from August Home

App

The app is pretty straight forward This is what it looks like.

You can set up multiple locks in what is called the keychain this way you can control all the locks you have here.

If you click on the one you would like, you will have some options

Here you have

You can see that the lock is unlocked and it is closed. Wait… Wait… Wait… You can see that it is closed? Yes, you can and I will get to that shortly just hold on.

If you click on the green it will lock the door

Now you have some options with this lock. If you notice here

You have the following:

• Round circle
  • That is the pictures above
• A list
  • For all unlock and locking of the door and by who
• People thing
  • Showing you who has access
• Settings
  • Takes you into some advanced things

We are just going to jump to the settings.

Settings

• You can name the lock and take a photo  of it
• Edit the house owners
  • That is the people thing up above
• Edit the lock settings

Lock Settings

• Verified access
  • This means if this is turned on, it will require some sort of authenction to operate the lock.
• Lock Sounds
• Notify when offline
  • Yes it loses it’s connection
• Smart alerts

Under Automation

• Auto-lock
• Auto-unlock
• Door ajar timing
• Door sense

You have the Home kit Platform

Utilities

• Calibrate
• Disconnect Wi-fi
• Factory Reset
• Switch Wi-Fi Networks

Then it has an information area about the device and troubleshooting stuff.

The one I got

The August smart lock I got was the following:

The reason I got this one was due to the WIFI lock. I didn’t want to have a bridge plugged in close by the door, just another expense to an already high-priced lock. I picked this up for $199.99 from the August website.

My thoughts

So my thoughts on the lock differ from a good thing to why in the hell did I get this lock. It all depends on the day.

The Good

I really like this lock, it provides a sense of security when you can set the lock to lock after a few min or up to 30 minutes after the door is closed.  One can also disable that option if you’re going in and out of the door often.

I can lock the door or check on it from anywhere, that you have an internet connection. You can add a guest to the app where they can access the lock during certain times. Like if you have a house cleaner or a maid service, a plumber (you trust), your in-laws, family, etc. coming over and you don’t want to leave the door unlocked. You know due to the people who just want to steal from you. (Scimbags) You can set up a time frame on certain days, like every Tuesday and Friday from 1 to 4 PM, the dog walker comes. They can access the August App and unlock the door and grab the dog. The door will lock after the door is closed. That is nice.

I also like how it will unlock when you get home. It unlocks in the car or on the way up.

I really like this lock

The Bad

Now onto the bad things of the lock.

• The battery life
• Not unlocking the lock when you get home
• Uconnect’s from WIFI
• No ability to set up a good auto locking schedule

Battery life

This takes 2 123 (CR123) batteries

I have gone through 8 of these batteries since March 2021 now it is August of 2021. Yea, not that impressed with the battery life.  Most of the poor battery life comes from the duration I had it set for auto-locking. I have since changed that, but still, the battery life sucks big time.

Not unlocking

There are times when you get back to your house and it won’t auto-unlock, and that drives my wife and kids crazy. They would have to get a key out and unlock the door if not for this option. You have to have the app open and running in the background.

Sometimes the app on the Apple Watch won’t unlock the door, it takes a while for it to achieve the unlock the door if it does work. It is a pain in the butt.

WIFI disconnects

I have set up notifications on my phone and it comes up with the message

August has lost connection to the WIFI, or something like that.

It re-connects shortly after that, but I had to reset the lock one time to connect.

Auto lock, lack of

I wish August would come out with the ability to set up a schedule that will benefit how you want.  Not just, lock in 5 min after you close the door.  On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I would like to see that the door stays unlocked from 10 am to 3 PM and then auto-lock after 2 minutes of the door being closed. Something like that, so you don’t have to worry about if the door is locked. It would be nice to have the ability to have it unlock the door and keep it unlocked while your phone is at home, as long as it is during the time you say. Set it up to make sure that the door is locked from say 7 PM to 7 AM, and if open lock after 1 minute or something like that.

Overall

I like this lock and I am happy I got this, my wife and kids will just have to deal with the issues they are having with it. It is workable and it does what it needs to do. That is to unlock and lock the door and bring that feeling of security to check if the door is locked when you are away from the house.

I would recommend this lock.