As smart home technologies continue to ascend in public consciousness, more homeowners are asking for smart thermostats, lighting, and security products like the new Schlage Encode Smart WiFi Lever: the topic of today’s CE Pro Mini Review.

Smart locks are a convenient and cost-effective way for integrators to deliver the benefits of today’s smart home without a major investment into their homes.

The newly announced Schlage lock is available in a choice of configurations and a choice of finishes.

According to the company, the lock is supported by the Schlage Home App to support homeowners’ ability to remotely interact with the lock. Some of the features the Encode Smart WiFi Lever offers through the app’s smart functions include the ability to create and manage as many as 100 access codes; homeowners can set schedules for these codes based on recurring, temporary or permanent access status.  The smart lock also provides real-time activity logs to let homeowners know when security codes have been used, and integrators can install the lock to deliver push notifications.

Additionally, the latest Schlage smart lock provides Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant voice control capabilities.

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The Schlage Home App is available from the Apple App Store for Apple iOS device owners and the Google Play Store for Android users.

Schlage Encode Smart WiFi Lever Easy to Install

I don’t remember exactly when the Schlage lock shipped to my house, but it was sometime in August. During this time frame I am extremely busy with pre-CEDIA Expo related responsibilities, so I hadn’t started the installation of the lock.

While I was in Denver attending the CEDIA Expo on Sept. 7-9, my wife noticed the Schlage box and decided to install it herself. When I had arrived home from the show, she told me to look at the garage door.  According to my wife, the lock was extremely easy to physically install—it took about 15 minutes to complete the physical installation, which basically entailed the swapping out the old lock for the new lock.

All that was needed to do was to complete the installation through the downloading and setup of the app. Downloading the Schlage Home App on my iPhone 13 Pro took a matter of minutes. Like most smart products that include companion apps, I finalized the installation of the lock using the Schlage Home app. Using the app, I started by updating the Schlage Encode Smart WiFi Lever, naming the lock, setting its security parameters, and inputting of some security codes. Explaining the process more simply: Just follow the series of setup prompts the app provides and setup in the app won’t take long.

I’d like to point out that I’ve gone the other way with Alexa usage in my house. A few years ago, I had setup a bunch of Amazon Dots throughout my home, but over time I removed them because we simply didn’t use the voice commands. So, with all of that said, I did not setup voice control with the lock, but it does offer voice control capabilities.

Getting back to the ease of installation for a moment—to be completely honest—I ended up rechecking everything that I had done in the app because it was so surprisingly quick and easy to use that I thought I must have missed something during the app setup process.

With the lock, which is installed on my garage door, and setup on the app, we’ve been using it to enter and exit our garage and it’s worked well. The lock handle is much easier to use than the lock it had replaced. The Schlage Encode Smart WiFi Lever also sends me notifications when the lock is used. These notifications pop up on my phone and on my Apple Watch so I immediately know if there is activity related to the garage door.

Physically, the lever side of the unit features a simple unlock and lock button and the touchscreen side allows users to input security codes to gain access and/or lock a door. The Schlage Encode Smart WiFi Lever uses a combination of plastics and metal in its construction to help the product match the aesthetics of a door, while providing a reasonable level of build quality. The level of basic simplicity the lock brings as a traditional lock solution is nice. The bonus is how simple the app side of the lock is to use, which I think will make techies and technophobes happy to have this product installed in their residences.

I think for a competitive price, the latest smart lock solution from Schlage provides dealers with an easy-to-install smart lock that homeowners will find easy to use.

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