I’m planning to build a 2GIG Alarm.com system and I want to include Z-Wave door locks? Which do you recommend? Schlage, Yale or Kwikset?
Use Yale or Kwikset. Don’t use Schlage locks with 2GIG and Alarm.com.
We have had the best experience with Yale Z-wave locks. They have been the most reliable and caused the fewest headaches for our customers both in terms of Z-Wave compatibility and mechanical reliability. They have a swappable Z-Wave radio module so if the Z-Wave radio ever goes bad and needs replaced it’s relatively easy - you don’t have to remove the lock itself, you can just swap out the pluggable Z-Wave module.
Kwikset locks have worked well in terms of Z-Wave radio compatibility. We have experienced slightly more mechanical defects with Kwikset locks than we have with Yale locks but overall Kwikset locks have worked well for us. The biggest problem with Kwikset electronic locks is that they made an awful design decision to only have 5 digit buttons instead of 10 which makes them far more vulnerable to brute force code guessing. See this post for more information:
http://suretydiy.com/forums/topic/kwikset-z-wave-lock-security-problems/#post-1683
The latest model Kwikset Z-Wave locks have finally fixed that problem and have 10 digit buttons.
Schlage locks have been plagued with Z-Wave compatibility problems with both 2GIG and Alarm.com. A web search shows that Schlage Z-Wave locks have had compatibility problems with most all Z-wave systems except Schlage’s own Nexia system. The vast majority of Z-wave lock problems that our customers have experienced have been with Schlage locks. Schlage makes great locks but it seems they haven’t succeeded (or tried?) at making them very compatible with non-Nexia systems. If you’re designing a 2GIG Alarm.com system and you want to avoid headaches, I highly recommend using Yale or Kwikset locks and not Schlage locks.
Would be excellent to get a list of those schlage locks that do work flawlessly and without issue.
It would be difficult to compile an accurate list. The problems have come and gone over time as Schlage has released locks with different firmware, 2GIG has updated firmware and Alarm.com has updated their servers.
If anyone has a specific Schlage model/firmware and 2GIG firmware combination that they know works or doesn’t work feel free to post it here. Even then, there is no way to tell which Alarm.com server software version they tested with. Also, not all users use all features so one person saying a Schlage lock works might just mean they haven’t used the lock in the way that triggers a problem.
All I know for sure is that people are much happier on average when they use Yale and Kwikset with 2GIG and Alarm.com than when they use Schlage.