Have you ever returned home from the grocery store with your arms full of purchases and tried to open the door without falling anything? Even the greatest smart locks need to remove your phone from your pocket. The Schlage Encode Plus appears to make the procedure even more convenient by allowing you to open it with a touch from an Apple Watch or iPhone. It’s quite simple, as you can discover during our Schlage Encode Plus, but if you don’t have an Apple Watch or iPhone, this may not be the ideal smart lock for you.
On March 31, 2022, the Schlage Encode Plus went on sale for $299. This is $50 almost as much as the Schlage Encode, which will also continue to be sold together with the Encode Plus. It’s available in three touches: Matte Black, Satin Nickel, and Aged Bronze, and two styles.
Schlage also sells the Schlage Encode, which has all of having similar features except HomeKit suitability; the Schlage Sense, which links via Bluetooth as well as works with HomeKit. Also, the Schlage Connect, which works with either Z-Wave or Zigbee but requires a bridge or smart home hub to connect to your home Wi-Fi network.
If you already have an Apple TV or a HomePod Mini. You can connect the lock to them, allowing the lock’s batteries to last a little longer than if you linked it to Wi-Fi directly.
The Schlage Encode Plus resembles his sibling, the Schlage Encode, on the outside. An LED touch-sensitive numeric keypad with one physical key slot may be seen on the outside. The blacktop cover of Encode Plus which lies inside your house lifts out to allow you to change the 4 AA batteries that power the lock.
The Encode Plus’s biggest new feature is that if anyone owns an iPhone or Apple Watch. You can open your door by merely tapping it against the Encode Plus. This is because of Apple’s Home Key feature which adds a “key” to your iPhone and Apple Watch’s Wallet app. That’s a lot easier than entering a code or getting your smartphone from your pocket.
The Encode Plus, unlike certain smart locks, does not include a mechanism for you to provide emergency power in the event that the batteries expire. The Yale Assure SL, for example, has two metal connectors for just a 9-volt battery because then you can go back into your house.
It also contains a number pad, but the digits don’t move around as a safety precaution, and there’s no option to make users hit 2 random numbers before inputting their code.
While the Schlage Encode Plus might store up to 100 codes, it falls short of the Yale Assure SL’s 250 codes as well as the August Smart Lock’s limitless amount of codes. The Encode Plus, on the other hand, has a built-in alarm, which isn’t seen on plenty of other smart locks. If someone tries to tamper with the Encode Plus, this will produce a siren that should prevent them from trying to break in.
The Encode Plus is compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant, Amazon Key, & Yonomi. In addition to HomeKit, allowing you to combine the lock with other smart home devices and enable those assistants to lock your doors.
It’s as simple as touching your iPhone on the lock to unlock the door. The Apple Watch is the same way; simply tap your watch face towards the Encode Plus, and that will lock and unlock in a matter of seconds. When using an iPhone, you can just press a side of the phone towards the smart lock to unlock it. When using an Apple Watch, you must tap the full face of the watch towards the lock, which might be difficult.
You may unlock your door using Express Mode without first unlocking your iPhone or Apple Watch. Which adds another degree of ease, especially if you don’t have a free hand.
One can also find the keypad to be quite snappy, however, the illumination surrounding the digits was a little jagged, similar to how poor ink prints out. Even so, when the bolt slid in and out, the lock’s operation was smooth and reasonably quiet. The motor’s noise was definitely more audible if you test it on a door blank rather than an actual door – a little buzzing noise that lasted about a second.
The Schlage Encode Plus is similar to most other locks in terms of installation. It should just take ten to fifteen minutes and only require a Philips head screwdriver. It takes a bit extra effort to set this up with your phone.
If you have a HomeKit device, you can set up the lock fast and easily by pushing its pairing icon on the lock while putting your phone close to it. However, you’ll lose out on a number of features that are only available through the Schlage Home application. While the Apple Home application allows you to generate guest codes, only the Schlage Home app allows you to plan when those codes will function. Such as if you want only your dog sitter to be able to access the house during the day.
However, if you set it up using HomeKit first, you won’t be able to access the Schlage app’s functions afterward, nor will you be able to manage any codes set with HomeKit.
Connecting the lock to your Wi-Fi, triggering its built-in siren, and seeing a history about who opened the lock are all exclusive to the Schlage Home app. Virtual keys can also be made, in which the visitor downloads a Schlage Home app and enters a code to get entry.
How many times have you attempted to enter your home with your arms laden with groceries? Those who possess an Apple Watch will like the Schlage Encode Plus in those situations; tapping the watch against your door rather than digging your keys out of your pocket is a lot easier.
It’s a feature that distinguishes the Encode Plus from other smart locks, and it’s one of the key reasons the Encode Plus made the selection of the best smart locks, despite its shortcomings in other areas. It doesn’t accept as many codes as our favorite. The August Wi-Fi Smart Lock, and doesn’t have the Kwikset Obsidian’s keypad security function which requires you to push additional numbers before entering your code so that others can’t guess it.
However, having the ability to open the door with your wristwatch has many advantages.
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