Lock Touch – Previous Model (Matte Black)

TLDR; Perfectly designed and machined, easy to use and integrate, but you'll likely need to do a little work on your door unless your builders were perfectionists. Also, get the connect wi-fi dongle. I recently got a house with a smart lock that told me I was unable to use it due to not being the "owner." While this makes sense from a security perspective, there was apparently no way to reset the device, even with full physical access, without engaging the prior homeowner. This wasn't a problem as we'd been in contact, but annoyed me no end. That, plus the fact that the prior smart lock was a tumor attached to the deadbolt, ate batteries, etc. led me to seek out a better solution. Level's bolt is the better solution. It is hidden in the door, uses your original hardware, seems to not be vulnerable to any standard attack with magnets etc. It's designed very well, to spec and standards, and works perfectly. The app is low footprint and can be dropped once you hook the lock up to google home or alexa. It just offers more details about lock and unlock history. I gave "alexa integration" five stars, though I am using it with Google Home. I have to assume the experience is similarly easy. Ease of install should be five stars, but it does require more fiddling with hardware than other on-top solutions. Ideally this would amount to a couple more screws to take out. However, beware that most homes are not drilled and cored to exact spec. This lock measures perfectly according to spec, but my door did not. I ended up carving out a little more wood on the wall side for the deadbolt to fit through (not much, it was flat before but drilled offcenter with a round hole). I also had to do a bit of carving with a chisel to get the strike plate on the door side to fit properly. All-in all, it was very satisfying and not hard, just a little time-consuming. Once it was in place, the rest of the setup only took a couple minutes. I'm fairly certain that the problems with door fit were why the prior lock solution ate batteries, as the motor in it had to struggle (as would a human with fingers) to get the deadbolt into place. Now that the hole is in the proper place for the deadbolt, keys, fingers, and the smart lock all work with no pressure/effort, and the lock has been in place for longer than it took to burn through a new set of batteries on the prior smart lock I had. Big thumbs up.

Short Review: The MAIN feature of this lock is the Touch to Unlock feature. It ONLY works 20% of the time. Customer support was no help either. At first they'll say this is a known issue and is being worked but no time frame is given on that update. Next, when you show them pictures of where the lock is installed, they will start to blame the location of the lock. I have mine installed in the door that connects to my garage. Simply put: Do NOT buy this lock. Detailed Version: The main reason you're looking at this lock is due to the convenience of just touching the lock to lock/unlock the door. On paper that does sound super convenient! But how about if the lock never unlocks for you? You are just standing in front of your door touching the lock over and over and over but nothing happens. Beyond frustrating and you start to question "Why did I buy this?". I reached out to Level support and at first they actually acknowledged the issue as a known problem. Great! When will the main feature of this lock be fixed? Nicole over at customer support has no idea so she let me know she would follow up later with the engineering team that's working on the firmware update. Ok that's fair! She initially blamed Apple's iOS and how it handles background operations request from apps so thus the randomness of the unlocking. Understandable. How Apple or even Google updates their Operating System is out of Level's control. Both Nicole and the engineering team follow up with me and this is where it all goes downhill. They suggest that the lock needs time for it to get ready for the Touch to Unlock feature to kick in. This MIGHT be true as sometimes I am standing at my door 15-20 seconds before it actually unlocks. 20 seconds might seem short just saying it but actually standing in front of your door for that long is ridiculous. Sometimes the feature just doesn't even work and you have to pull out your phone/key/card to unlock! Isn't everyone buying this lock expecting to just walk up to the lock and be able to unlock it without a waiting period? I sure thought so. And this whole thing about having to wait with a buffer is all nonsense because of the 20% of the time that it DOES work. I am simply walking up to it and touching/unlocking the lock and it works. Where was the buffer in those times? They then request pictures of where the lock is installed. They immediately say I have the lock installed in a wrong room and that the lock is only meant for entry way doors. I have mine installed in the doorway after getting in through the garage door. I believe they mean they only expect this lock to be installed on the outer perimeters of your home. Like the main entry door way for example. If that's the case, shouldn't this be way more clear in their marketing or product descriptions? Also, why did support pivot from the whole "this is a known issue and is being worked on" to "you installed it in the wrong room"? They sure do make it sound the lock would work PERFECTLY if I just fixed all the issues they mentioned. Not ONCE in the follow up did the engineering team even mention a firmware update. Basically all the blame is put on me and the room I chose to install the lock and what operating system is on my phone. Stay far away from any product that Level releases.

This was surprisingly easy to install and has worked well in the short time that I've own it. It took less than 20 minutes to install starting with unboxing, and probably half of that was taken up by a couple of rounds of firmware updates. Once installed, you can't see the Level Bolt, but the build quality is outstanding. Really great design and finish. Be aware that there are multiple models of the Level Bolt. This review is for the Bluetooth (only) model. If you want Matter over Thread, it's a different model and about twice the money. Bluetooth is fine for me -- I don't really need remote operation of the lock, but could do so if I had a compatible Apple TV or HomePod located within 25 feet or so of the lock. As stands, HomeKit running on my Apple TV can be used to operate and monitor the Level Bolt, but only if my iPhone is within 25 feet of the Level Bolt. I plan to buy a couple more of these for other swing doors in my house.

Lock stopped working after a couple weeks. When I reached out to customer service they say it’s because it’s installed on a metal gate and it doesn’t work well with other metal!

I bought this lock because it is sold on the Canadian amazon site. Unfortunately, Level Home does not provide a warranty for customers in Canada. Yikes.

A real shame it’s otherwise a brilliant product well thought out seamless homekit integration and a nice app. Unfortunately the lock is extremely fragile and often breaks during installation, of course Amazon don’t care so you’ll just end up with a 500$ paper weight. Just stick to a regular lock.

I bought two of these to use in my home. Fast forward a couple of years, and I have been locked out of my house not once, but twice. First time was because of connectivity issues -- I only had an Apple Watch on (no Level app access) and Homekit could not get the lock to open. To be fair, it might just be that my WiFi was patchy. But the second time, the battery ran critically low and the lock never gave a warning, whether through the app or Homekit, and when I returned home the lock was dead. Honestly these locks have been a huge hassle and I would not recommend.

I taught myself to pick simple locks in college. I hadn’t tried picking a lock in many years. I picked this lock in 10-15 seconds on my first attempt. Wow. I tried picking my old Weiser smart key deadbolt that I replaced and it was difficult and after 20 minutes I gave up. This lock is meant to let people in, not lock them out… I would not recommend this for your house. Maybe a shed.