Test smart zamka tedee powered by GERDA

Admission

There are few gadgets that are really useful and can be safely recommended. Certainly, these are selected smartwatches, sports bands, good headphones, intelligent speakers that work with voice assistants, advanced bicycle counters, intelligent home lighting, a robot - vacuum cleaner and, for example, cameras monitoring an apartment or garden. I know that robotic mowers are also becoming more and more popular and highly rated. This is probably the end of the list of devices that I could recommend to others. For several weeks, however, I have been testing the Polish "smart" lock. tedee will definitely make it to my list of featured electronic gadgets. This text is not a sponsored article, so it will objectively list the advantages and disadvantages of this device. At the outset, however, it is worth emphasizing - the lock is definitely not an empty shell gadget, it is indeed useful, it makes our life easier and, importantly, it is fully accepted by people who are not gadget lovers - they can still use an ordinary key to open them.

Why do we need a "smart" lock at all?

New electronic gadgets are often skeptical, also by a gadget enthusiast like me. Most of them are useless (and usually it turns out "fortunately" or, unfortunately, quite quickly). It seems that the smart lock is also not the most needed device in the world, but let's consider the scenarios in which it will be useful to us.

Scenario No. 1

We sit on the couch, watch Netflix, and the expected guest knocks or calls us - we click on the smartphone widget and the door is remotely opened.

Scenario No. 2

We go to our apartment and already on the stairs or in the elevator, we can remotely open our apartment without wasting time right at the door. The lock also has an automatic door opening mode depending on our GPS location.

Scenario number 3

We leave the house with only the smartphone - we press the button on the lock and the door after the number of seconds we set will close by itself.

Scenario No. 4

A person known to us irons or cleans at our place. He calls us that he is already at our door (we are at work or on vacation). We open her door remotely. After finishing work, she presses the button and the door closes on her own. We also check it in the application.

Scenario No. 5

We have been waiting for a few days for the desired package. The courier arrives when we are just shopping. We open the door for him remotely - he puts the package in - we close the door remotely. We can monitor the entire delivery remotely on the camera when we have one at home or we can simply trust the courier.

Scenario No. 6

We go shopping with the whole family. After 10 minutes of standing in traffic, we panic that we forgot to close the door. We check whether our door is closed in the widget or in the tedee application.

Scenario No. 7

On vacation, we can check remotely if our lock is closed.

Scenario No. 8

Our guests came by an earlier train and we are still shopping. We open the door for them remotely and they can make themselves at our place.

Scenario No. 9

We host a few people for a few days. Each of them receives an invitation from us to install the key and can open and close our apartment on their own.

Scenario No. 10

Our life partner says that she will not agree to open the door with "some application". We give her an ordinary GERDA key and she opens the door as usual.

Scenario No. 11

Our children are already returning home from school or extracurricular activities. They will lose the key sooner than their beloved smartphone, which they can use to safely open the door, and we will remotely check what time it arrived and whether the door has been locked after entering the apartment.

Scenario No. 12

The pipe under the sink has broken and we are flooding the entire riser while we are in the Canaries. We remotely let a friendly neighbor who supervises the work of a plumber into the apartment.

Scenario No. 13

We are gadget lovers and have been dreaming about a smart castle for a long time. We were just waiting for a proven solution from a company that we know and which will provide us with professional installation of such a device in our door.

There are many such and similar scenarios. Most of them are really vital and are not sucked out of the finger, just to prove the sense of installing the lock at all costs (except maybe the last one). You can probably bet that in a few years most of us in new apartments will not imagine other locks than "smart". The list of scenarios that they can "drive away" is really long, as you can see above.

Advantages of the tedee zipper

Before the final decision to install, it is worth getting acquainted with the list of the main advantages of the smart lock (in my case it is of course the tedee lock), which I noticed during the 4 weeks of its use.

Here is a list of the tedee lock features that I really liked:

1. The lock matched my old door (not GERDA), more precisely, the lock can be installed on most doors with a standard flat-key insert.
2. The installation itself took about 20 minutes, and the configuration in the application probably took 5 minutes
3. The lock can still be opened with a traditional, ordinary GERDA key
4. When there is no internet (or our router freezes), the lock can be opened via Bluetooth or in an emergency with a key
5. During the month-long test, the lock never crashed and there were no problems with it
6. The lock works on the battery, but after a month from 99% our battery dropped to 92%, and the battery itself is charged with a nice and convenient cable with the so-called the cable will disconnect nicely by itself when you open the door
7. The lock can be controlled from a smartphone, tablet and Apple Watch (I only used Apple equipment for testing)
8. The lock has an auto-opening feature that detects the location, but we didn't use it
9. When we have a very modern door - without a handle on the outside - the lock can pull the spring for us and we will open the door by slightly pushing it - this function supposedly consumes energy more (I do not have such a door)
10. There is an option to remotely share the key with other people - it is not too convenient for them (the need to install the application and set up an account), but it can be done
11. The physical button for opening and closing is convenient and practical (the automatic closing when leaving is especially nice - just press the button longer)
12. The castle is nice and you can't see we have it outside our apartment
13. We have access to logs, i.e. a full log of events
14. The sound of the lock is not bothersome, although it is certainly much louder than "normal" opening with a key
15. The lock is opened from the inside by pressing the button (when it is loaded) or by turning it manually (when it is unloaded)
16. The guest can access our virtual key for some time or, for example, on certain days, only at certain times

Disadvantages of the tedee lock

Like any device, the tedee is not without its drawbacks, of course. For me, the most painful thing is the poor performance of the tedee application on the Apple Watch. The application connects to the lock for a long time or even has no connection problems. This definitely requires a development fix on the tedee side. It is also complicated to share the key with someone in the application. I understand that it "has to be", but downloading the application and setting up an account for many people is an insurmountable barrier. tedee is not yet compatible with solutions known from smart homes, so we will not add it to the Home application (Apple system) or Google Home (Google solution). According to unofficial information, the certification process for the native support of the Home Kit system is ongoing, but the manufacturer on its website does not promise us a specific date. When this happens, we can, for example, tell the voice assistant to open or close the door.

The minor disadvantages are that the WiFi bridge is a separate device, not sewn into the lock (and must be connected close to the lock) and the fact that looking at the lock we do not know if it is open or closed. It's also a pity that there are no push notifications to open or close the lock.

Security

Maintaining the same or higher level of security in our apartment and house is of course crucial when talking about a new lock on the door. When installing the Tedee lock, the cylinder is replaced with the same or similar to the one we had previously installed. It is a class 6 D cartridge (whatever that means) made by Polish Gerda. The company declares in its materials that it is working on a function in which the lock will detect shocks, which will increase the security of our castle installation even more. Apparently, there is also no chance of opening this lock with an electromagnet.

Of course, a hacker can attack such a lock from the "Internet side" or via Bluetooth technology. tedee claims that such attacks also will not result in our lock being opened by an unauthorized person. User tokens are powered by the Microsoft cloud (Azure Active Directory B2C).

And this is how the entire procedure of securing our data is described:

Azure AD B2C uses authentication protocols based on the OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 standards. Each application user provides the name, login and password when creating an account. This data goes to Azure AD B2C and is stored there. Tedee does not have access to users' passwords. Access to them is protected by Azure AD B2C and is not physically readable. When logging in to the mobile application, the user is redirected to the login page of the Azure AD B2C service, where he enters the login and password, and then - after correct logging in - the appropriate token is returned to the mobile application. This token is later used during communication between the mobile application and the backend to authenticate the user.

In the lock itself, the data is stored as follows:

The keys on the lock side are stored in the TPM (Trusted Platform Module). This module is used to securely store keys and perform cryptographic operations. The TPM module enables the unique identification of each device, verification of signatures and data encryption. Communication between the TPM and the device processor is also encrypted.

This is how the Bluetooth transmission is secured:

The lock communicates with the mobile phone or the Bridge-m via Bluetooth. For secure data transmission, a session based on the TLS 1.3 transmission encryption protocol with a 256-bit key is established with each connection. During the session establishment process, authentication (identity checking) and authorization (rights and permissions checking) of the communicating parties are performed. A session can only be initiated from the Mobile App or Bridge.

The manufacturer also ensures that the lock is resistant to the "suitcase" attack, which is fashionable in car theft, because the tedee does not constantly transmit a signal that can be extended, and in addition, information sent from our smartphone is always needed to open the lock.

The lock will be exposed to unauthorized opening mainly in two cases: when we lose our smartphone and it has no access blockade set, or we lose a physical key. In both cases, the thief still needs to know where we live.

Set, prices, tedee assembly

The tedee lock can be purchased on sale as a set with a modular insert and a bridge for PLN 1849. When we order the assembly service, the cost will increase by PLN 250. The lock itself costs PLN 1289, the bridge PLN 499, and the cylinder PLN 229. If you feel strong enough, you can install the lock yourself. For me, it was done by a team from the Gerda company. The entire procedure took approximately 25 minutes. We invite new admins or guests by sending them an invitation by e-mail. We do not recommend buying a lock without a bridge, because then its installation loses a bit of sense.

Summary

The price of the tedee set is not low, but if we can afford it and we are gadgets, we probably have no choice - we have to order it. A smart lock will surely provide us with a lot of satisfaction and increase the comfort of our life. It is very cool that the Polish device works stably, because when the door is opened, there is no room for software hang-ups or slow operation of the entire system. It is also good that the smart lock still allows you to use ordinary keys, because there will still be people in our family who are allergic to new technologies (see: my wife). It's a pity that tedee can't be part of the Home Kit system yet, but hopefully it will change soon. Then, after opening the lock, we will be able to, for example, set the automatic switching on of lights or play a playlist on the streaming service, and after closing the door, for example, turn on the robot-vacuum cleaner. Returning to the regular lock will be painful for me and I think it's time to start saving for my own smart lock.