I want to improve my front door lock

[micky]

Has anyone ever used this or do you know about it?
https://www.amazon.com/MiLocks-WF-02SN-Digital-Deadbolt-Exterior/dp/B01J8UI2YI/ref=sr_1_27

Remote control, like a car. Were you pleased? When the batteries get
weak, do you know if the door did not get looked? It uses iirc 4 AA
cells. (With a car, one locks the door when he's finished driving so the
car battery is allways strong.)


What about this push-button combination front door lock?
https://www.amazon.com/MiLocks-QF-02SN-Keyless-Deadbolt-Electronic/dp/B01BK9K5LS/ref=sr_1_19
Any opinions on that? I'd have to lose the key and forget the code to
get locked out


Or what about this one:
https://www.amazon.com/SCYAN-Fingerprint-Generation-Non-Handed-Non-Weatherproof/dp/B083JZWMMR/ref=sr_1_21_sspa
that uses my fingerprint to let me in. I can't forget that. But does
the model you have in mind recognize a fingerprint immediately or do I
have to wiggle my finger and wait? (It also takes a key and a
combination.) Again batteries, doesn't say how many. (THIS ONE IS FOR
INDOORS BUT THERE IS PROBABLY ONE FOR OUTDOORS.

 

[Jon Elson]

On Mon, 09 Mar 2020 12:18:54 -0400, micky wrote:

Has anyone ever used this or do you know about it?
https://www.amazon.com/MiLocks-WF-02SN-Digital-Deadbolt-Exterior/dp/
B01J8UI2YI/ref=sr_1_27

The electronic keypad locks can be damaged by an ESD event, locking you
out. And, of course, a dead battery could lock you out, too.

The RF remote locks seem to avoid the ESD issue, but have to keep the
radio receiver turned on all the time, that might deplete a small battery
pretty quickly.

The mechanical push-button locks have been around a long time, and seem
to be fairly reliable.

As for fingerprint, I'd want to have somebody do some testing to make
sure the thing will still recognize a finger that has a scrape or blister
on it. I have some doubts about that.

Does any of this ACTUALLY give you some benefit? Or, is it just
technology for technology's sake?

Jon

 

[Adrian Caspersz]

On 09/03/2020 19:17, Jon Elson wrote:

As for fingerprint, I'd want to have somebody do some testing to make
sure the thing will still recognize a finger that has a scrape or blister
on it. I have some doubts about that.

Does any of this ACTUALLY give you some benefit? Or, is it just
technology for technology's sake?

If you are being chased by a bear that hasn't eaten for weeks, having
one of these locks could be beneficial.

With the correct IT integration, should be quite be easy to say,

"Alexa, there is a nasty bear chasing me, please open the door!"

"Hi Adrian, I don't know "there is a nasty bear chasing me", here is a
track from Amazon music - 'teddy bears picnic'.

--
Adrian C

 

[pfjw@aol.com]

OK - I gotta ask: Why?

If only for convenience, then any of the locks you picked are fine. Just change the batteries every time-change, whether they need it or not. Do keep in mind that these locks can go wonky for any number of reasons, and that, if our neighbor is any indication, they have a very short (perhaps 3-5 years) life span. They just replaced their lock for the third time in nine years, each time going up a tier in apparent quality. The last one failed after a very hard freeze and being un-exercised for a week. Imagine getting home at 3:00 am and finding the lock inert. The key simply turned 360 degrees without catching and the remote did nothing even though the LED on it and on the lock responded. They had to break out a piece of glass to get the door open.

If for security, even the very best lock is no better than the door frame it is in. Which, unless it is reinforced with steel in some way is no better than a swift kick. And this is not even getting into bump keys and lock-picks.

Some basics:

Light only gives the bad guys light to work with. Motion-activated lights are only marginally better, and should be on the shortest of possible cycles..

Alarms are good - if properly designed. Few are. But a properly designed system will also handle smoke and fire sensors as well as intrusion. And, alarms must be stand-alone in every aspect from power to notifications. Lines can be cut, along with power, phone, WiFi and so forth.

Best of luck with it - we keep a very large dog.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

 

[Trevor Wilson]

On 10/03/2020 6:56 am, pfjw@aol.com wrote:

OK - I gotta ask: Why?

If only for convenience, then any of the locks you picked are fine. Just change the batteries every time-change, whether they need it or not. Do keep in mind that these locks can go wonky for any number of reasons, and that, if our neighbor is any indication, they have a very short (perhaps 3-5 years) life span. They just replaced their lock for the third time in nine years, each time going up a tier in apparent quality. The last one failed after a very hard freeze and being un-exercised for a week. Imagine getting home at 3:00 am and finding the lock inert. The key simply turned 360 degrees without catching and the remote did nothing even though the LED on it and on the lock responded. They had to break out a piece of glass to get the door open.

**One of my neighbours has one of these new, high tech front door locks.
Cost him 700 Bucks. Fingerprint, swipe card, cell phone compatible. I
just have a primitive key in lock system (the best I could obtain) with
a door frame strengthener). It'll do me. FWIW: I had to break into
through the front door of my in-laws home, after the old guy managed to
damage the door lock. The damage was substantial and I saw only one way
to remove the old lock. I had to cut the stainless steel bolt. I dug out
my battery angle grinder, fitted it with an innox disk and prepared for
a long job. FORTY FIVE SECONDS! That is how long it took me to cut
through the stainless steel bolt! YIKES! Burglars have it easy nowadays.
All the fancy locks are no match for an angle grinder and a suitable
cutting disk. An alarm is essential. Window bars? No problems. Locks
just keep honest people out. Further and for the record: A mate lives in
a high(ish) crime area. Fancy home, the best locks. After his home was
broken into twice in quick succession, he called me for help. I went
over immediately and fitted a siren box, with a blue strobe light and a
red LED. No break-ins since. I did, eventually, put a complete
(Professional) alarm system in his home, but the siren box, prominently
mounted does most the deterrence.

If for security, even the very best lock is no better than the door frame it is in. Which, unless it is reinforced with steel in some way is no better than a swift kick. And this is not even getting into bump keys and lock-picks.

**True.

Some basics:

Light only gives the bad guys light to work with. Motion-activated lights are only marginally better, and should be on the shortest of possible cycles.

**For the most part, burglars hate motion activated lights. Yes, the
lights do give them an easier job, but it does alert others to the
intruder/s.

Alarms are good - if properly designed. Few are. But a properly designed system will also handle smoke and fire sensors as well as intrusion. And, alarms must be stand-alone in every aspect from power to notifications. Lines can be cut, along with power, phone, WiFi and so forth.

**ALL professional alarms are fitted with back-up batteries (my alarm
operates for about a week without mains power). Most modern
(professional) alarms operate with the cellular 'phone network. Cut
'phone lines are very much a 20th century problem.

Best of luck with it - we keep a very large dog.

**A large dog is not, necessarily, the best choice. It depends, of
course, but two small dogs are less easily bribed with food and make a
Hell of a racket when disturbed.





--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

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[pfjw@aol.com]

We do also have a small dog with vibration sensors - and gets excited when people are simply walking up the front walk, much less anywhere else on the property.

But our best defense is nosy neighbors with apparent insomnia to boot. Absolutely wonderful people on all four sides of us - not a sparrow shall fall and so forth. We do the same for them. At one time, our right-hand neighbor was in India, and a tree-branch went through their back window about 15 feet into their family room during a driving rain. We had a restoration contractor in, the water cleaned up and the window boarded up within 8 hours. And we sent them an email letting them know what happened so they would not be shocked on their return. When they got back 10 days later, we had a check in our hands for the cost before they unpacked.

Good neighbors trumps any other options.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

 

[Trevor Wilson]

On 11/03/2020 4:58 am, pfjw@aol.com wrote:
> We do also have a small dog with vibration sensors - and gets excited when people are simply walking up the front walk, much less anywhere else on the property.

**Yep. Small dogs are great in urban areas. Noisy damned things.

But our best defense is nosy neighbors with apparent insomnia to boot. Absolutely wonderful people on all four sides of us - not a sparrow shall fall and so forth. We do the same for them. At one time, our right-hand neighbor was in India, and a tree-branch went through their back window about 15 feet into their family room during a driving rain. We had a restoration contractor in, the water cleaned up and the window boarded up within 8 hours. And we sent them an email letting them know what happened so they would not be shocked on their return. When they got back 10 days later, we had a check in our hands for the cost before they unpacked.

**Nice.

Good neighbors trumps any other options.

**Oh yeah. When I was away for a couple of days and my alarm system
developed a false alarm, one of my neighbours walked the perimeter of my
property to check for any problems. Above and beyond, IMO.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

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[Fox's Mercantile]

On 3/10/20 12:58 PM, pfjw@aol.com wrote:

At one time, our right-hand neighbor was in India, and
a tree-branch went through their back window about 15
feet into their family room during a driving rain.

If that had happened to me, my neighbors would have emptied
my house.


--
"I am a river to my people."
Jeff-1.0
WA6FWi
http:foxsmercantile.com

 

[Trevor Wilson]

On 11/03/2020 11:47 am, Fox's Mercantile wrote:

On 3/10/20 12:58 PM, pfjw@aol.com wrote:
At one time, our right-hand neighbor was in India, and
a tree-branch went through their back window about 15
feet into their family room during a driving rain.
If that had happened to me, my neighbors would have emptied
my house.

**Yikes! You need to find a new neighbourhood. My next door neighbour
leaves the key in his front door most of the time. He leaves his
workshop unlocked so I can use his tools when I need to. I frequently
leave my car unlocked on the street outside my home. The back door is
usually open during the Summer evenings and nights and the front screen
door could be forced open by a 10 year old. None of us have experienced
a problem with burglaries or car theft in the entire time I've lived
here (15 years). In fact, the only reason I have a home alarm system is
because it is a requirement on my home insurance policy.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

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[Fox's Mercantile]

On 3/10/20 8:31 PM, Trevor Wilson wrote:

On 11/03/2020 11:47 am, Fox's Mercantile wrote:
On 3/10/20 12:58 PM, pfjw@aol.com wrote:
At one time, our right-hand neighbor was in India, and
a tree-branch went through their back window about 15
feet into their family room during a driving rain.
If that had happened to me, my neighbors would have emptied
my house.



**Yikes! You need to find a new neighbourhood.

Not really, when I'm here, nobody fucks with my stuff.
I have a bigger problem with people borrowing stuff then
forgetting to bring it back.

The point is, if they knew I wasn't around and saw a tree
sticking through a window, they would want to check it out.

They've all seen the sign on the front door.
"This door is locked for your protection, not mine."


--
"I am a river to my people."
Jeff-1.0
WA6FWi
http:foxsmercantile.com

 

[micky]

In alt.home.repair, on Mon, 09 Mar 2020 14:17:34 -0500, Jon Elson
<elson@pico-systems.com> wrote:

On Mon, 09 Mar 2020 12:18:54 -0400, micky wrote:

Has anyone ever used this or do you know about it?
https://www.amazon.com/MiLocks-WF-02SN-Digital-Deadbolt-Exterior/dp/
B01J8UI2YI/ref=sr_1_27


The electronic keypad locks can be damaged by an ESD event, locking you
out. And, of course, a dead battery could lock you out, too.

The RF remote locks seem to avoid the ESD issue, but have to keep the
radio receiver turned on all the time, that might deplete a small battery
pretty quickly.

This one is not meant for outdoors, but it has two 9-volt contacts on
the bottom, so you can hold a 9-volt battery there in case the one
inside dies!

https://www.amazon.com/COLOSUS-Deadbolt-Auto-Lock-Anti-Theft-Touchscreen/dp/B07Q784JYY/ref=sr_1_4

The mechanical push-button locks have been around a long time, and seem
to be fairly reliable.

As for fingerprint, I'd want to have somebody do some testing to make
sure the thing will still recognize a finger that has a scrape or blister
on it. I have some doubts about that.

LOL

Does any of this ACTUALLY give you some benefit? Or, is it just
technology for technology's sake?

I got locked out again, 4th time in 35 years, over the weekend, and this
time I didn't get back in easily. Had to drill out the lock. So I
want to avoid that, and while I'm at it, maybe get some other good
features too.

>Jon

 

[micky]

In sci.electronics.repair, on Mon, 9 Mar 2020 12:56:02 -0700 (PDT),
"pfjw@aol.com" <peterwieck33@gmail.com> wrote:

>OK - I gotta ask: Why?

So I won't get locked out of the house again.

If only for convenience, then any of the locks you picked are fine. Just change the batteries every time-change, whether they need it or not. Do keep in mind that these locks can go wonky for any number of reasons, and that, if our neighbor is any indication, they have a very short (perhaps 3-5 years) life span.

That's not very good.

> They just replaced their lock for the third time in nine years, each time going up a tier in apparent quality. The last one failed after a very hard freeze and being un-exercised for a week. Imagine getting home at 3:00 am and finding the lock inert. The key simply turned 360 degrees without catching and the remote did nothing even though the LED on it and on the lock responded. They had to break out a piece of glass to get the door open.

Wow. And I don't even have a piece of glass to break, except on the
second floor! The first floor has one door and two sliding glass doors,
each with a piece of wood or pipe in the channel so they only open 6
inches, even when unlocked.

If for security, even the very best lock is no better than the door frame it is in. Which, unless it is reinforced with steel in some way is no better than a swift kick. And this is not even getting into bump keys and lock-picks.

Security is not the issue. Getting in when I've locked my keys in the
house is. (Another time, the hospital lost my keys. No, no one broke
in. )

Some basics:

Light only gives the bad guys light to work with. Motion-activated lights are only marginally better, and should be on the shortest of possible cycles.

Alarms are good - if properly designed. Few are. But a properly designed system will also handle smoke and fire sensors as well as intrusion. And, alarms must be stand-alone in every aspect from power to notifications. Lines can be cut, along with power, phone, WiFi and so forth.

Best of luck with it - we keep a very large dog.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

 

[John-Del]

On Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 4:59:34 AM UTC-4, micky wrote:

In sci.electronics.repair, on Mon, 9 Mar 2020 12:56:02 -0700 (PDT),
"pfjw@aol.com" <peterwieck33@gmail.com> wrote:

OK - I gotta ask: Why?

So I won't get locked out of the house again.

Far easier to hide a physical key.

 

[pfjw@aol.com]

Y'all need to understand that the population of Ranger,TX is 2,456. The population just in my zip code is 20,159. Eastland County is 19,480. Montgomery County is 826,075.

Apples and oranges.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <010e8da8-8218-4c04-953b-9ff60296ad8e@googlegroups.com>,
ohger1s@gmail.com says...

So I won't get locked out of the house again.


Far easier to hide a physical key.

That is what I have. A hidden key. The 2 grown children I have know
where it is incase I or my wife is not around when they want in.
There is a keypad outside the garage door to open it up. From there the
door to the house is seldom locked.

 

[three_jeeps]

On Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 10:21:58 AM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:

In article <010e8da8-8218-4c04-953b-9ff60296ad8e@googlegroups.com>,
ohger1s@gmail.com says...

So I won't get locked out of the house again.


Far easier to hide a physical key.



That is what I have. A hidden key. The 2 grown children I have know
where it is incase I or my wife is not around when they want in.
There is a keypad outside the garage door to open it up. From there the
door to the house is seldom locked.

So consider a 'belt *and* suspenders' solution based on having a *physical* key.
belt: Surely this is some place to hide a physical key: in a fake or under a real rock, bottom/behind mail box, fake panel on storm door, neighbors garden, a very inconspicuous place in a gas grill, etc. it *can't* be that difficult

suspenders: on your person: inside wallet, inside shoe insole, neck chain, inside cell phone case, etc. or, inside your car - lots of places there and you can even get creative - magnetic case inside engine compartment or trunk, inside air filter case, etc...

This is a problem where the KISS approach works well

 

[Trevor Wilson]

On 13/03/2020 1:07 am, pfjw@aol.com wrote:

Y'all need to understand that the population of Ranger,TX is 2,456. The population just in my zip code is 20,159. Eastland County is 19,480. Montgomery County is 826,075.

Apples and oranges.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

**The population of my town (Sydney) is 5,230,220 (2018 data). I live in
the metro area. My suburb has a population of 5,488 (2016 data). Thanks
a quirk of geography, my suburb is relatively isolated (IOW: People do
not travel through my suburb on their way to somewhere else). It is,
officially (according to government data) the least burgled suburb in
metropolitan Sydney.

--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

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This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
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[The Real Bev]

On 03/12/2020 12:33 PM, Trevor Wilson wrote:

**The population of my town (Sydney) is 5,230,220 (2018 data). I live in
the metro area. My suburb has a population of 5,488 (2016 data). Thanks
a quirk of geography, my suburb is relatively isolated (IOW: People do
not travel through my suburb on their way to somewhere else). It is,
officially (according to government data) the least burgled suburb in
metropolitan Sydney.

....until now.

--
Cheers, Bev
"Don't bother looking for that key. There is no Esc."
-- M. Tabnik

 

[Trevor Wilson]

On 13/03/2020 9:16 am, The Real Bev wrote:

On 03/12/2020 12:33 PM, Trevor Wilson wrote:

**The population of my town (Sydney) is 5,230,220 (2018 data). I live in
the metro area. My suburb has a population of 5,488 (2016 data). Thanks
a quirk of geography, my suburb is relatively isolated (IOW: People do
not travel through my suburb on their way to somewhere else). It is,
officially (according to government data) the least burgled suburb in
metropolitan Sydney.

...until now.

**LOL. Do your worst. We look out for each other over here.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

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[Tim R]

On Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 7:12:06 AM UTC-4, John-Del wrote:

On Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 4:59:34 AM UTC-4, micky wrote:
In sci.electronics.repair, on Mon, 9 Mar 2020 12:56:02 -0700 (PDT),
"pfjw@aol.com" <peterwieck33@gmail.com> wrote:

OK - I gotta ask: Why?

So I won't get locked out of the house again.


Far easier to hide a physical key.

Nah.

Get a wind chime, one of those oriental looking ones with weird shaped pieces of metal.

Add a lock pick and tension wrench to it. Hang it near your door.

Practice a bit with it - you only have one lock to get used to and you'll quickly learn how to pick that one.

This is zero risk. Real thieves kick your door in. That one in a million who actually knows how to pick a lock already has lock picks. Neighborhood kids won't know what your picks are or how to use them if they did see them.