Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you have an hour to blow, you can read details below. The too long didn't read synapses is thus: Installed Oct 2013. ( - ) takes too long to respond to touch (almost faster to pull normal key out to unlock) ( - ) Calibration has been an issue from the start: door locks with no fob anywhere near unit. Has resulted in being locked out of house. ( - ) WAY too easy to brush against lock and unitentionally activate it. Even after living with the lock for two years and knowing this annoyance, it still happens at least once a week on me. And always happens with guests, who proceed to slam the door shut as though the deadbolt were not extended. Horrible feature that could have been easily engineered around. ( - ) Must purchase additional e-keys ( - ) Additional e-key users must register through Kwikset. Real PITA for guests who just want to download the darn app and use it to open the door like a normal key. Tis not family friendly. And, family think they need to purchase kevo plus, because its presented as an option during registration. Uuggghhhh. ( - ) Must purchase expensive wifi hub if remote access desired ( - ) Not compatible with Apple HomeKit ( - ) First unit failed after a year. Not user error, just typical electronic device failure. ( - ) In-app open/close history log cannot be turned off. Not a big deal, but folks with big brother complexes will have an issue with this. ( + ) Kwikset customer service has been great. I've had to call at least three times for issues (which is a negative), but they are very responsive and courteous. ( + ) Great looking "smart" deadbolt (best looking on the market, in my opinion). Non-obtrusive from the front. But pretty large on the interior. Check dimensions before buying. I had to modify my door a bit--but my door is an old, colonial door. Nothing standard about it. ( +/- ) App okay. My non-techie parents find it confusing. But easy for most to use. All in all, I'd not buy again. Too expensive. Too buggy. Build quality questionable. Standard features in other smart locks are costly upgrades for Kwikset. And Kwikset opted not to make this device compatible with a prime platform for the internet of things (yet have done so for another lockset). To me, that suggests Kwikset isn't interested in bringing Kevo into the future. Just one person's opinion. And those boring details.... 3/21/2016: Auto-calibration remains an issue. Despite the engineers telling me it cannot happen, on two additional instances brushing the face plate with neither a key fob nor a phone anywhere near the lock has activated the bolt. Very frustrating. And not that it matters as I purchased before HomeKit was even a well known thing, but Kevo does not support Apple HomeKit. Would be a nice fit. 7/16/2015: All on its own, today the Kevo decided the bolt calibration was off. When the bolt latched shut, it clicked three times, as though it were trying three successive times to extend just a little bit further, and spins red. The door locked, Kevo just thought it wasn't fully latched. This behavior continued every time the lock was activated, prompting an attempt to manually re-calibrate. When re-calibration didn't fix the problem, I broke the lock down, taking it completely apart, and ensuring there were no obvious issues with either the unit or door. I then reinstalled the lock, and re-calibrated. Calibration took, but on activating the lock: three clicks, spinning red. Re-programming didn't solve anything either. Frustrated, I called tech support who to their credit took their time and helped me troubleshoot. After hearing the three clicks time and again, it was determined that calibration was failing on the lock. Also to their credit, an exchange under warranty was issued. The new unit arrived in about a week, and installed no problem. I certainly am questioning my sanity in purchasing such an expensive lock. I wanted to have the coolest lock around. But I can tell you that for the past week I've resorted to only using the normal key, and frankly, it's faster to get in and out with the key, versus waiting a few seconds for the lock to respond to Bluetooth. Maybe not as convenient, and certainly not as cool, but faster. And in my haste to be cool, I also forgot the cardinal rule of electronics: they eventually fail. Every time. My Kevo (used daily for a family of two) failed in just over 20 months, equating to a $10.95 monthly use rate. That's the price of technology, I guess. To be fair: the lock still works as a normal keyed deadbolt... so the use rate will continue to go down. But let's face it: if I didn't get a replacement under warranty, I'd be very upset at such a short lifespan. Oh, and the replacement was a refurbished unit, which dually makes me chuckle (is irony appropriate here?) and makes me slightly upset. 7/10/2015: There have been two times in the past six months where Kevo has locked the door without having a key anywhere near the deadbolt. The first time, it happened to the wife. The second time, it happened to me. In my case, neither the wife's phone nor mine were within 50 feet of the door, nor were any key fobs. Yet, as I was shutting the door I brushed (as happens way too frequently) against the lock. Lo and behold: the lock activated. Of course, I couldn't get it to re-open--but fortunately, the wife was home to help. In the wife's case, she had to break into the house to get back in. That was not a good day to be the person who installed Kevo. Also just learned that Kevo Plus is "close" to being released (so says their Facebook page), and that it will carry an annual fee. Kevo Plus sounds great, but the fee part does not. From a business perspective, I get that Kwikset wants to try a new business model for a high tech service. It may work. But I can guarantee I won't be "renting" a wifi key, and I suspect I'm not alone (heck--many reviews on here scream bloody murder at the idea of a $1.99 e-key). In fact, I'm a little miffed at this development as I've been really excited about Kevo wifi connectivity. Shame on me for forgetting the first rule of capitalism and thinking it would come inexpensively (or even, for free... the lock itself was already quite pricey). 1/16/2015: Unrelated to Kevo, I did a complete system refresh on my iPhone 5 at the start of the year. In so doing, my Kevo response time returned to what were acceptable levels prior to my 12/9 update below. Don't know what was goofy about my phone in relation to Kevo, but the reset solved the problem. Would appear the phone was the culprit and not the lock. Back to being happy with Kevo performance, and feeling dumb for not troubleshooting my phone earlier and putting the blame solely on the lock. Still waiting for remote locking capabilities. And would still love to see an update wherein the lock does not activate until the door sits squarely in the door jamb, or perhaps the sensitivity of the lock is reduced. Can't tell you how many times I've slammed the deadbolt into the jamb because I brushed against the lock while shutting the door. 12/9/2014: Since updating to IOS 8, and also updating the Kevo firmware, communication between my iPhone 5 and the Kevo has been very slow at best, and unresponsive at worst. I'd say 7 out of 10 taps on the lock since updating roughly 2 months ago take at least 5 seconds for the Kevo to respond; 2 of 10 taps are completely unresponsive; with the final 10% of attempts responding in between 2 to 5 seconds. I'm a patient man, but I've been frustrated by the lack of responsiveness since the upgrade--so much so that I've actually resorted to pulling out my keys to open the door on more than one occasion. 7/7/2014: I took an IOS update yesterday (now on V7.1.2) and shortly afterwards left the house. I was shocked to find the Kevo respond immediately upon being touched. And I mean immediately. Kwikset promised a faster response time with their March/April firmware update, but I never saw it until yesterday. I was so shocked that I locked/unlocked the Kevo 20 times with stop watch in hand to test this new functionality. Not once did I have a response time slower than 3 seconds. The average response time was 2.1 seconds. That's twice as fast as before the update. I'm very satisfied with this response time, so consider one of my original gripes addressed. Another gripe, that of range sensitivity (how close the phone needs to be for the deadbolt to recognize it), also appears to be addressed. Initially, I had great range sensitivity (with no issues of the lock activating when the remote keys were inside) but that diminished for some reason. And for full disclosure as I understand calibrating is critical to determining sensitivity, I haven't re-calibrated the unit since set up. Well, the range is back. We will see how long lived it is, but as of now, I no longer have to be within elbows reach to the door for the lock to activate--which means I can used an outstretched arm now. Very convenient. Bravo, Kwikset! Gotta hand it to you: you certainly are listening to customer feedback and executing. Bumping the review back up to 4 stars. Bring on the remote locking feature! Update, 12/28/2013: Additional cons: 7) My original praise of Kevo's ability to recognize my phone far from the door has diminished a bit. Over the past month I've had times when standing not 3 feet from the door that the lock did not respond. I had to inch closer to the door to activate it. As long as I'm within a bent elbows length away--about 1.5 feet, or say, the same distance away as when using a regular key--it has responded each time. But it is frustrating to think you are close enough, wait ten seconds for the lock to open only to find that you have to move closer, re-initiate the touch sequence, and wait another few seconds. 8) My wife has become even less enamored with this lock. She wasn't keen on it to begin with (I'm the one who likes these types of "toys"), but there have been quite a few times when, unbeknownst to her, the app on her phone was not running in the background and she fumbled around trying to get the door open, cursing the day I put this lock in the entire time. The WAF (wife acceptance factor) is low right now. I have to downgrade my 4 star rating to a 3 star based on the accumulation on these cons. On the plus side: Kevo customer service continues to listen to its customers and has allowed "purchased" e-Keys to now be transferred between devices just as if i were a physical key. Also, for what it is worth, the Kevo was my first Kwikset lock device. Security questions aside, I really like the smartkey feature they have on many of their locks. I added new Kwikset (non-Kevo) locks around the house to match up keys and it was a breeze. VERY convenient. Original Review: Install was no more difficult than installing any other consumer deadbolt, with one major difference: the size of the interior latch unit is BIG. Make sure you have the space for it before purchasing. For reference, the top of the unit extends 6.5" above the center of the deadbolt, the bottom 1.5" below deadbolt center, and the unit is 3" wide, centered on the latch/key hole. Yes, it's big. But it doesn't look bad once installed. Just make sure you have the space for it. Once installed, calibration was also straightforward, and the instructions provided are clear and easy to follow. I read reviews from others that had to calibrate devices multiple times before it took, but it my case it was one calibration and done for each of three eKeys. I then tested inside/outside sensitivity. I pulled a high chair next to the door, still on the inside of the house, and pushed it as close to the exterior wall and as close to the door as possible. I then placed an eKey on the chair, pushed against the exterior wall, and no more than 6" from the latch unit. Archaic key in hand, I went outside and shut the door. After touching the lock, I anxiously watched the spinning blue LED to see what happened next. But nothing happened. Probably ten touches later with equally boring results, I called it quits, opened the door, grabbed the eKey, shut the door, and touched the lock one more time. The spinning blue LED ended with the sound of a latch locking and the flash of red LEDs. Suffice it to say I was impressed with the inside/outside sensitivity. I also read another review with exterior sensitivity issues, where the user had to be within a foot of the lock for the unit to activate. So I threw an eKey in my pocket, went outside, shut the door, and stretched my leg with the eKey in the air as far away from the lock as I could while simultaneously stretching my arm towards the lock as far as possible without toppling my 5'10" frame over. With an outstretched finger barely contacting the lock, spinning blue turned to red.... no issue in my case. You have to decide whats right for you and your family, but regarding worisome comments on the Smartkey system: I don't have the same concerns as others. There are plenty of easy ways to break into homes... if you think a deadbolt is the one thing stopping potential thiefs, I've got news for you. Besides, I'm not convinced the hack is as easy as some videos make it out to be. See reviews on CNet and reach your own conclusion. So why not 5 stars? There are some cons. 1) $220 will buy you two archaic keys, one eKey fob, and two eKeys. Want another key fob? That will cost you $25. Another eKey? Fork over another $2.00 for each instance. This is a big F U from Kwikset. 2) The app. Where to start? I haven't played around enough with it yet, but it's certainly lacking. Not too user friendly. It doesn't sync with your iPhone's address book when adding users. There is no option to NOT track history... I'd like that option. There is no option to disable vibrations/noises when activating a lock with the phone... I'd like that option as well. I'm sure I'll have more complaints the more I play around with it. 3) The interior blinking red light. Sure, it's nice to know the batteries are still fine, but it's a bright light that is quite annoying. Look at what Nest is doing with their fire/CO2 detector, and learn a thing or two about integrating performance notifications within an app, and minimizing annoying visual indicators in real time. All at a price less than Kevo! 4) Lack of a double cylinder option. But still, 4 stars is solid from me. I'm looking forward to playing around with this more, and I'm really looking forward to keyless control of my lock! UPDATE, 11/4/2013: Still fairly impressed with the unit, and very satisfied with Kwikset's customer service who have amended their eKey policy to provide 5 eKeys in addition to the original 2 for users purchasing before a certain date. They have also made me aware of how to disable the LED indicator light. Kudo's for that. Couple additional gripes I've experienced over the past 5 days of ownership: 5) Response time is slow. At it's best, we're talking five second between touching the lock to the device actually locking/unlocking. It's slow enough that you can't touch the lock when leaving and immediately walk away. You have to stay in range of the lock and wait for it to engage. At it's worst, the blue "thinking" LED has spun for almost 10 seconds as it triangulated my signal. It's a small gripe, but the keyless fob on my car is instantaneous and it would be great if Kevo were closer to that experience. 6) I've accidentally rubbed up against the lock at least twice now with the door open, resulting in the deadbolt activating. This is also a small gripe, but it would be ideal if the strike plate and deadbolt communicated to each other with a sensor so as to avoid this nuisance. It's very easy to accidentally touch the lock when the door is partially open. The same thing happened to the wife when her hands were full and she pushed the door open. She considered this to be a much larger issue than do I--not large enough to ask me to replace the lock, but she wasn't far from that conclusion. Besides those six points, I've not experienced any of the other negative issues many other reviewers have--although I do agree the lock isn't exactly quiet. But that's a positive in my book: I know it's working and feel more comfortable when the LED flashes red and gives a single beep indicating it's locked.