I’m looking to integrate a smart lock to my existing iq panel 4. The lock will be on the door entry from the garage (secured by a locking garage door) to our kitchen. The main requirement is to be able to have auto-unlock capability upon approach without pin code/key (hands full of groceries, etc). We always carry our iphone (wife’s in her purse) and my car only requires iphone to unlock / lock (in fact it auto-locks when walking away, sort of opposite of what I am looking for here). Some sort of geofence / bluetooth sensing would probably work. I think the Alfred DB1 or DB2S (both can be obtained with zwave) are listed as supported by alarm.com and offer “geofencing.” Does anybody know of any other locks that auto-unlocking requirement or can confirm the Alfred locks do this? I can’t be the only one with this requirement.
You’re right, a lot of people have asked for this. But there isn’t a perfect, completely automated solution for it due to the security risk of automatically disarming the alarm and unlocking doors.
Geo-fences are great for automatically sending you reminders to arm the alarm and lock the doors when you leave but they can’t be used to automatically unlock doors.
The closest thing I can think of to this would be an automation that automatically unlocks the door when the alarm system is disarmed and using Bluetooth disarming on the IQ Panel 4 to disarm the alarm. But TBH people have reported mixed results with Bluetooth disarming. You would have to have a reliable Bluetooth connection from your garage to your panel.
The reason this use case isn’t supported very well is that Alarm.com really wants you to provide a credential (like a code or login) to securely disarm the alarm or unlock the door.
The most reliable solution for this would be to disarm with the Alarm.com app, CarPlay or Android Auto and have the door automatically unlock when the system is disarmed.
Which lock you use wouldn’t matter. Any Alarm.com-compatible lock would work.
Ryan - thanks for info on bluetooth phone disarming; I wasn’t aware. I’ll give that a try. I have started using CarPlay to disarm from my car but that won’t fly with other family members. Understand the concern on geofencing auto disarming but I still wish it was an option. Appreciate it.
@ryan.boder I tested the bluetooth disarming & it seems to work reasonable well in my limited testing, so I’ll go with that approach to disarm the system & then have the IQ PANEL unlock the door. As far as an alarm.com compatible lock, any specific recommendations that people have have good success with, or have not? I suppose the Yale Assure 2 line would be a good choice? Thanks!
For automation purposes any of the compatible Z-wave lock models found on this page would be a good option. Wifi options will impose a bit of latency in most rules.
Yale, Schlage, and Kwikset are all popular.
Thx Jason, I’ll try the Kwikset.
You might want to look at the Yale Assure Lock 2. I have the YRD410 BLE-619 and YRD430 BLE-619, both with a Z-Wave smart module. They support Bluetooth unlocking independent of the IQ 4 Panel and ADC. While I don’t use the Bluetooth unlocking independent, I do have an automation setup to disarm the IQ 4 when I enter my code on the Yale keypad.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’m going to try the Kwikset first to see if it meets our needs. It has zwave built-in & hopefully the bluetooth unlocking of the IQ PANEL along with an automation to then unlock the door will be reliable.
I’ll just add my experience here: I have the Kwikset locks and automate them based on the arm/disarm actions and they work great. Very timely and predictable. (I don’t use the Bluetooth disarm feature however. But I did test it for a few days and it seemed to work fine.)
I also have the panel setup to auto disarm based on unlocking the lock with a code and that feature works awesome as well. I even restrict that feature based on day such that it only works on weekends when we tend to be in/out a lot.
Thanks for the information. I just installed the lock today & paired it with the panel and it works fine. I need to adjust the door a little to smooth the deadbolt action but once I do that I’ll try some automations.