2020 has been a crazy year. Amid everything going on, I decided it was time to look into making my smart home even more connected. We have garage doors that are WiFi-enabled, smart assistants that can turn on my bedroom lights, and speakers that can play my music with a simple request. Yet, I found myself avoiding the front door for one reason — I hate having to use a key.
Yes, I know physical keys aren’t by any means dated yet. I know that there is a level of comfort and security with a physical way to access your home. For a while, I believed that having this physical access (simply as a backup), was a necessity. Now, I believe I have found a perfect solution.
Alfred Smart Lock has answered my quandaries with ease. As stated on their website, Alfred has made life at my house safer and easier. I now can access my home in a variety of secure, and truly easy ways. While gaining the ability to grant access to others within set parameters.
First off, I can enter one of my pin codes on the touch screen to gain access to my home. I can set up to 20 pins and control when each is active, controlling access and security.
Second, I can access my home by simply approaching my lock with my Bluetooth-enabled device of choice. Meaning that as I walk to the front door with an arm full of groceries, my door will automatically unlock (if I choose to enable this setting) as I approach, allowing me to skip reaching for a key or entering a passcode.
Third, I can wirelessly lock or unlock the door from the companion app. What this allows is secure access to whomever I want in my home even if I am not there. So if I have friends coming over and they beat me home, I can let them in — if I trust them.
To make this device even smarter, I can track who is coming and going based on individual key codes or devices in my app. This means as a parent I can check when my kid actually arrives home when he grows up (shhhh don’t tell the kids).
As a backup, I can plug in a portable battery to unlock my door in case of a dead battery. Also, some models include a physical key backup.
I love having this smart lock on my front door. I feel as though I have my very own Alfred (as the name implies) without actually having him. And, my favorite part is that it feels so natural and seamless that it is hard to imagine not having it again. This device did not have a big learning curve, it simply worked like it was supposed to work. And that is a breath of fresh air here at the end of 2020.
