I have been opening the door with my smartphone for a month now. Tedee smart lock review

Tedee: Smart door lock. How it's working?

The Tedee lock is actually only an insert for the lock proper. The entire lock mechanism, locks, bolts - everything stays there. The only thing that changes is the cartridge that now has Tidey installed on the inside. What is Tedee? It is a door opening and closing mechanism controlled by a telephone and a button on the inside of the door. The lock can also be opened with our own traditional key. So no worries that in the event of a system problem, we won't get in.

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Tedee: How does the smart door lock work?

For nearly a month of testing, in short - Tedee did a great job. There has not been a single situation where I have to use a key or have had trouble opening the door. In fact, I did not take the keys to the lock from the drawer, which they got after installing the smart lock. Just a moment ago, while I was writing this text, my mother came to me - she lives nearby. She opened the door by herself through the app. There is absolutely no problem with its operation. This is probably the best proof that the designers of the entire solution really took care of the usability and simplicity of the application.

Moving on to the details, however, let me remind you what the Tedee smart lock can do:

In my configuration, Tedee is complete with a bridge, it is a device that allows us to control the lock remotely. Otherwise, if we had only the lock, all communication with the application would be via bluetooth, so we would lose the very nice option of automatic opening when we approach the door.

Here are a few of the scenarios we tested, and I think they will give a complete picture of what Tedee can do:

I'm at home

During your stay at home, you most often use the button on the front of the device to open and close the door. It is practically invisible and we feel any interaction only after pressing the outer wall of the slide. The button has two main functions. First of all, it opens and closes the door. The second option is to hold the button for a few seconds. Then we have the leaving home mode with automatic locking after the set time. In the application, we determine whether it is 5 seconds or more. I do not recommend 5 seconds, the option with 15 seconds works best for us. This is enough time for a family of 4 to leave the house quietly. The lock closes automatically after 15 seconds.

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Another lock option that I sometimes use is to close the lock after the time set by us. This is also what we define in the application. In case someone entered the house and did not close the door, the lock will close by itself after 10 minutes. A good option for those who forget to close their doors. What I think is missing (but from what I heard there is a chance that such an option will appear) is a schedule where the system, e.g. at 12:00 at night, checks whether the door is definitely closed, and if not, it closes it . While this sounds like an option that excludes automatic closing after 10 minutes, let me just mention that we may not use automatic closing. This is an optional option and probably in some isolated cases someone may not want to use it.

In the application, we also have a very nice function that shows not only who opened and closed the lock, but also in what way, i.e. whether it was done by a button, an application, or maybe by a remote opening system, etc. So we have information about who, at what time and how he entered or left the house or opened the door. A great solution when we want to check when our child came back from the party and that it was not midnight at all, but much later :)

I'm out and about

We can open Tedee from the outside in several ways. First of all, it is an application that shows us the status of the lock and the options we have. So, if the lock is open, we have the option of closing it, if it is closed, it is opening. Everything is so simple and intuitive that you don't really need to explain to anyone what to do to open or close the door.

So we can open the lock from the application. We can also open it using Apple Watch. My wife, a great Apple Watch enthusiast, immediately took advantage of this option, because often when leaving the house for a walk with the dog, she simply does not take the phone. Opening the Apple Watchem door is just as intuitive, except that you have to wait a while for the lock and the watch to connect, because in this case the communication uses the Blueooth module. I do not know what it would look like in the case of a watch with a SIM card that is connected to the Internet, because I do not have one.

The third option is to automatically open the door as we approach it. This is, in turn, my favorite option, although it still requires some fine-tuning (the system is very fresh, and the application itself and devices are regularly updated).

How does this feature work? I'm already translating. First, we need to indicate the location of our building in the application. This is done automatically. Then we define the exit and entry zones, specifying the distance in meters for each of the zones. For example, my entry zone is 100m and the exit zone is 200m. The zones are made in order not to initiate automatic opening when we are still outside and e.g. cleaning the garage or bustling in the garden, etc.

If the system detects that we are entering the entry zone, we get a notification (optional) that the process of opening the lock is starting. After approaching the door within a few meters, we get a notification that the lock has detected us and starts opening the door. From now on, in about 4-5 seconds, the lock will open automatically and then the opening procedure will be completed - we also get a notification about it (also optional - if we want, we can turn it off).

There are many scenarios for using automatic door opening, we go with heavy shopping, we do not want to take out the phone, etc. Very, very convenient function and well thought out.

As I mentioned before, in order to enjoy the auto-opening function, when approaching the door, you must have a bridge device, because it is used to send information from the application to the lock.

What does this communication look like and who sees our keys? Our key is only stored on our phone, the Tedee infrastructure cannot access it. Information used for communication between the application and the bridge is sent and stored in the Microsoft cloud in specially prepared services. Put simply - our key is only on our device, and communication to the bridge goes through the cloud. The latter, in turn, contacts the lock via BT and this is the last stage of communication. In addition, all communication going through BT is secured with a certificate issued by Tedee.

And now a few notes on auto-opening. I know that Tedee (in which Gerda is a shareholder) is still working intensively on this function. It happens that despite the detection of us in the vicinity of the lock, only one door does not open. Initially, the time from detection to opening was very long, around 9 seconds. This has now been corrected and it is about 5 seconds. I hope that it will be possible to stabilize the operation of this mechanism so that it is 100% reliable.

The last scenario we tested was the ability to open someone's door remotely. It works very well and practically instantly wherever we are, as long as we have internet access. This is obviously the feature most used in an emergency, but it comes in handy.

For all this, there is also an API, thanks to which we can integrate our home automation with the lock https://api.tedee.com/swagger/index.html

How long does it take to open and close a Tedee lock? Is Tedee lock noisy?

This question has arisen before while describing the first impressions. So how quickly I open the door for us, Tedee, depends on our lock. As a standard, my lock requires 3 full turns of the key to open it. Tedee does it in 4 seconds. The earlier lock I had needed only 2 full turns of the key, so I assume it would be similarly faster. Is 4 seconds a long time? You have to answer this question for yourself. I assume that we open the lock faster with the key, but that's not what this solution is about.

As for the volume of the lock, yes, you can hear it working. I don't have a classic noise measurement tool, but I checked out what the Apple Watch shows. Standing a meter from the lock, when nothing else is making noise, it shows about 38dB, and when I opened the lock, the result jumped to about 66 dB. I repeated the test 3 times with similar results. It is not very loud but the lock is clearly audible.

Tedee lock: what about the battery and internet access?

Something will happen when the Internet collapses, or is the entire system lying down? No, we can still open the lock via bluetooth, because in the absence of internet, BT becomes the main communication channel between our phone and the lock. Of course, the remote opening and auto opening functions will not work. Interestingly, we tested such a scenario recently thanks to a UPC failure, there was no problem.

What about the battery? How long does it last and how is it charged? According to the manufacturer, the battery lasts for six months. In my case, the device came with a battery of 61% and after less than a month of quite intensive use (a lot of tests) I have 56%. In the event that the battery level approaches zero, we will receive a message and notification. The battery itself is charged from a powerbank or from a charger with a USB-C cable, and we get a fairly long cable in the set.

Tedee lock application

The application is the heart of the entire system. There, we configure the auto-opening system, the time after which the lock will automatically close or even pull the latch (if we have this type of lock), we give access to our lock to other household members or even guests, etc.

In my opinion, the application is very well made, it is very intuitive and simple, despite the fact that it gives us a lot of possibilities. This simplicity will surely be appreciated by anyone who is not an advanced phone user. It can handle Tedee and unlock the lock without any unnecessary instructions.

While at the application, it is worth mentioning the key process of granting access to other household members or guests. This is done in a very simple way, at the beginning we give an e-mail to the person who is to be allowed to use our lock. Then this person has to install the application and register using their e-mail, to which they received the invitation.

In the application, we can assign two types of access: guest or administrator. The admin can do everything with our lock settings and other people's access, and the visitor can only open or close the lock.

Tedee also has a variety of guest access profiles. This can be, for example, permanent access, where someone can open and close the door without restrictions (but without remote access). We can also give you temporary access from a specific day and time to a specific day and time. There is also an option of cyclical access, where we can select specific days of the week and hours from to. We can also limit it in time.

Many of these functions are intended for landlords or service providers who work in the premises, etc.

The phone is dead or missing. Then what about the Tedee lock?

This is a common question that arose after the first text about Tedee. Well, if our phone is discharged, we can:

In the scenario in which we do not have a phone, because we have lost it, we do not have a key and we do not have the household members either, we are in a better situation than losing the key with a traditional door. Then the only thing left to do is call the lock specialists. In the case of Tedee, we can always use a friend's phone to open our door (of course, we must remember our login and password for the application).

Tedee Smart Lock: Summary

My household immediately accepted the new technology in the home, and this is perhaps the best argument for "it works". When I told my more beautiful half that I was planning to install a smartphone lock, I had some concerns. After a few weeks, everyone finds Tedee very comfortable and nobody wants to carry their keys with them anymore. We needed such technology at home.

I know that Tedee is going through or has already passed certification and it will soon be able to be connected to Apple's HomeKit. I also know that the company is constantly working on new opportunities offered by this lock. I've already heard about a few and I know there's plenty to wait for.

When it comes to prices, the basic lock costs about PLN 1289, while the set plus a bridge device costs PLN 1849. I realize that this is not a small amount of money and not everyone will be interested in such a solution. When looking for a smart lock, I first of all looked at what company produces it, whether I know it, where the support is and whether it has experience. In the case of Tedee, where Gerda is the shareholder and partner in this solution, I have no doubts about the appropriate experience and support.