Yale Home Assure Lock 2 Deadbolt, Black Suede Keyless Entry Door Lock with Digital Touchscreen Keypad and Bluetooth Connectivity (No Wi-Fi), ‎YRD450-BLE-BSP

I bought two of these, one for my entry door and one for the back door. I am on a let's make our home a smart home kick right now. Part of that is I want to eliminate all keys except for my vehicle key fob. And, it is also important for me to use one application to control my home, in my case, I am using Apple Home - therefore to some degree HomeKit compatibility is important. This review is about the the installation, lock itself, the Yale Access App, and HomeKit integration.After looking at a lot of locks I landed on this one, the Yale Assure Lock 2 with Wi-Fi. It looks nice, it is keyless, and it is HomeKit compatible.INSTALLATION: Installation was a breeze for me. I am replacing existing keyed deadbolts. So no need to align a door to a frame. The lock itself easily installed in the existing cutouts. I didn't even need to replace the door frame strike plate as my old one works fine. I found the instructions easy to follow, the lock installation of the physical device/lock took me about 15 minutes, most of that was just making sure I did it per the instructions.THE LOCK: At first my thought was this is a $200+ deadbolt and in my head I was comparing it to a normal deadbolt. This is absolutely the incorrect view. This is a computer that has a physical deadbolt it controls. When thinking like that the $200+ price tag is not all that bad. I would say good value for the money. The only criticisms would be that the physical locking mechanism (thing that turns the deadbolt mechanism to extend it into the door frame) is a simple flimsy piece of metal, versus in normal deadbolts it is typically a non-square type of peg to do that job. I am unsure if this really matters at all though, as long as it does the job it is kind of who cares. Another criticism, which if you think about it, would really be an unfair one, yet important to note, is the size of the interior part of the lock is HUGE (comparatively speaking) - reason for unfair - where would the batteries and computer portion go if it wasn't this big?YALE ACCESS APP: The working of the lock portion is good enough. The set up is horrible. You must watch (or scroll) through the installation instructions for each item, just to be able to set it up, would be much nicer to have a skip. My issue is that on one of them I had to do things more than once, and for my second lock, I knew it all already and just wanted to set it up. C'mon Yale, allow the "Skip".HomeKit INTEGRATION: There have been a lot of negative types of comments on this, which I don't understand because I easily added each lock to HomeKit. Scanning of the HomeKit QR code did not work on either lock, this has been commented on a lot with this reviews. For me, I merely manually entered the device IDs and it worked immediately without issue. Granted, you cannot scan the QR which is easier for sure, but not enough to rank lower.All in all, a great purchase IMO, could use some improvements, but really good just the same. Lock Feature rating is 4 stars due to what I comment on, I just expected better, not sure if better is necessary. Tech support I rated 4 stars, this is not by dealing with a tech support staff, it was the only place to rate the app and the setup issues I discussed.

The Yale Assure Lock 2 stands out as a top-tier smart lock. It offers a blend of advanced technology, robust security, and thoughtful design upgrades that make it a compelling choice for anyone looking to replace their existing deadbolt fully.One of the most impressive features of the Yale Assure Lock 2 is its integration with the DoorSense sensor. Unlike many smart locks that lock after a set period, regardless of whether the door is closed, the Assure Lock 2 uses DoorSense to detect if your door is open, closed, or left ajar before engaging the deadbolt. The Yale Access app provides notifications about your door's status, so you're always informed if the door was left unlatched or open.A significant reason for choosing the Yale Assure Lock 2 is that it serves as a complete deadbolt replacement, not just a retrofit add-on. The lock comes with everything needed to swap out your old deadbolt, including the bolt itself, exterior keypad, mounting plate, and interior thumb-turn mechanism. Installation is straightforward for standard doors, and the included hardware feels substantial and secure. The "heavy duty" feel and the solid, smooth action of the deadbolt when locking and unlocking inspire confidence in its mechanical reliability.

*****Updated Review May 2024****Device errors and overheatsI bought this lock in Nov 2022 (so roughly 1.5 years now) and would highly discourage anyone buying this lock as it is dangerous and overheats.The battery issue has always been terrible on this product. It last maybe 1 months tops before needing replacement, so I'm constantly burning through batteries. A couple months ago, the lock was low on battery, so husband replaced it and then less then a week later the lock was again low on batteries. I thought perhaps my husband mixed up the double A batteries and put the low batteries back in by mistake and just let it be assuming it was a mistake.Just last week, the lock started giving error sounds that it wasn't locked even though the door was locked and then indicated it was low battery, so I changed it. Again, less than a week later it was low battery and continued having errors. When I went to open the compartment to replace the battery, I could smell smoke, and when I removed the front 2 batteries, I could see that the top coil touching the battery was so hot it was glowing red. I immediately removed the rest of the batteries from the hot coil/device and burnt my finger with a small shock in the process.When I contacted Yale, they did a simple apology, didn't care at all that I burnt my finger, that the device overheats or care to fix/understand why it was having potentially dangerous issues, but that the device is over a year old and since it was, out of warranty, and the most the can do is offer 20% discount on the next product. Such a terrible response. I will not be buying another product from them, especially if it puts me or my household in a potentially dangerous situation.********"When this works, it's wonderful but due to the terrible battery life and finicky app I wouldn't recommend it.Set up: not as straight forward and took a lot of trial and error. The app set up also wasn't included and I had to call for them to tell me how to set it up since this was too new at the time.Battery: this thing just chews through batteries. I'll need new batteries every month and there's no way to see battery life. You get a warning sound when its almost dead and then within a day it'll stop working and you won't be able to lock your door from the outside unless you manually do it. Also, Everytime I put new batteries in it resets my connection to the app....App: laggy. I get booted everytime I put new batteries in.

Honestly the best upgrade i have done to my house. Don't know how i went so long without it. The setup is super streamlined and it's so easy to follow the instructions. The videos make it really helpful. Great product! I've already bought three of them and keep recommending to everyone I can.