Last Saturday, I brewed up a pot of coffee, pulled out the Lockly Secure Pro smart lock (latch model pictured), and set to work installing it on my front door. Using the lock’s Bilt app, I had the lock installed after only my second cup of coffee. If you’re handy with tools and can follow instructions, installing this product is pretty easy.
One issue I had with the installation is that my deadbolt didn’t quite line up with the hole in my door jamb (a common problem in homes). I had to push on my door to lock and unlock the deadbolt. If you cannot get the deadbolt to perfectly line up with the hole in the door, your lock won’t work. Thankfully, I was able to easily solve the problem with my handy Dremel tool.
Fortunately, the lock has a fail-safe where it will only try to lock or unlock the door for 5 seconds before it stops and emits an alarm, alerting you that the lock has failed. This prevents the lock motor from burning out.
Note to readers: Whatever you do, save the box — it’s the safest place to keep track of your individual device code. This is the only way to verify your ownership of the lock if you ever need to call customer service.
With the install completed, I polished off the rest of the coffee pot (and part of another) going through the network setup, which I’ll confess was not as simple as I would have liked.
Where I got lost was that the Lockly Secure Pro has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, and depending on what settings you’re changing you need to use one or the other, which can be confusing at first.
The Secure Pro is a comfortable size and it’s “Venetian bronze” finish matched the rest of my house beautifully. The lock is incredibly convenient — I love being able to use my thumb to unlock the door and easily sharing limited-time access codes with family and friends.
I love the input method on the Lockly Secure Pro. On the screen you will see four groupings of three numbers each (0-9 and two random numbers repeated). When inputting your code, you just press each grouping that contains a number corresponding to your code. For example, if your code is 4-2-9-6 and the groupings look like this:
(4-5-0), (7-9-2), (1-3-6), (8-1-3)
You will need to press the button containing the 4 once (4), containing the 9 and 2 twice (2, 9) and the button with the 6 once (6). The lock is designed to understand that you input 4-2-9-6 even if you didn’t select those specific numbers. An additional security feature randomizes the numbers and order every time you press a button, but I found that a bit too cumbersome to be practical.
When all is said and done, the Lockly Secure Pro works great. If you’re patient and organized, the setup will go smoothly. When you’re done, you’ll have a fantastic deadbolt that makes your home a little bit smarter and a whole lot safer.
Best view in the town !