How to Upgrade Your Front Door with a Keyless Entry

Inside: How to install a keyless smart door lock on your front entry in less than an hour! This keypad system is a huge upgrade to any basic front door; reviewing Schlage Sense system.

This post is sponsored by Schlage Canada. All opinions in this review are my own.

The front entry of our home has always been a bit of a sore spot for me. It’s extremely small and awkward and I’ve never liked the front porch or the door very much at all. But it was functional, so I never really prioritized updating in a major way.

Instead, over the last few months, I’ve decided to make consistent, small upgrades to the front door that will create huge impact over the long term. This month, we changed our regular dead bolt lock for a new keyless entry system by Schlage Canada and I have to say, I’m impressed. I never thought I’d have so much love for a new door knob, but here I am professing my affections for one 🙂

In this post, I’ll run down the basic steps you can follow to change out your current exterior knobs for a smart lock (trust me so simple!) and give you my honest thoughts about what it’s like to have a keyless entry system after using ours for the last few weeks.

The Benefits of a Keyless Entry or Smart Lock System

The Grocery + Kids Unload

It is infinitely easier to unlock the door without having to hold eight bags of groceries and a key. Because let’s be real, we all try to bring ALL the groceries into the house in one go, right? LOL

Walking the Dog

Most of you know we have an aging boy and he needs to go out for frequent, short walks. We totally live in a safe neighbourhood and there were times before when I’d just close the door and leave it unlocked while I was out with the dog. But now, the Schlage Sense automatically locks the door after a set amount a time (that we choose) and I don’t have to worry about not having my keys! It’s like permission to do beach walks ALL THE TIME.

The Neighbours

We are so fortunate to have wonderful neighbours. We all look out for each other and the kids get along great. Every once in a while, we’ll need the kids next door to check in on the pets or water the plants or one of them will lock themselves out of their house. The Schlage Sense lock lets us set up a special entry code for the kids so they can get into our house easily if need be. And that is something you can set and reset from the mobile app, so you don’t have to worry about the kids blabbing a the code out loud in the school yard.

The ‘Did I lock the Door?’ Freak Out

You know what I mean. You get three stop lights from home and your mind is wandering and saying things like ‘Did I actually lock the door?’ or ‘Did I leave my straightening iron plugged in?’ While the electronic door lock can’t help with your hair accessories, it can alleviate the stress of even having to remember locking the door.

This also goes for when you’re tucked up cozy in your bed and ready to sink your teeth into a juicy romance novel and you all of a sudden remember you forgot to lock the door. With a smart door lock, it’ll just lock itself! And some Schlage models even sync up to your phone via and app or your Home Assistant and you can tell it what to do. Basically genius and no need to walk downstairs in the dark in your jammies.

Key Features to look for in a Keypad or Keyless Entry

I don’t think we’ll ever get to the point of fully phasing out the ‘lock and key’ concept (at least in my lifetime), I do think there are huge benefits to some of the features being added to Smart Lock Systems these days.

Specific ones I like are the integration with mobile apps that allow you to lock or unlock your door from elsewhere, so long as the app is within range. I also love that they can integrate with Home Assistants like Google Home or Alexa and can take voice commands.

Other key features I love – the automatic lock. With our Schlage Sense, you can set it to automatically lock the door after 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and so on. It took us a few days of trial and error to find the right automatic lock interval for us, but it’s so nice to have!

Other features I love? The light up key pad and the one-touch lock. If you come home in the dark, the key pad will light up as soon as you hit a button. And if you want to be super sure you locked the door, you can hit the Schlage logo and it’ll fire the lock.

The deadbolt also has an alarm feature that will sound if the wrong code is entered too many times or if someone tries to force the lock. Hoping to never encounter that in my lifetime – but it’s there as a feature.

How to Install a Keyless Entry Door Lock

I have to admit, I was a bit intimidated by this project at first, but it was so much simpler than I imagined! We allotted a ‘nap time’ on Saturday to starting and finishing the job and we had time to spare. In all, I think the whole install took us about an hour and that included reading the manual a few times and gathering the right drill bits and screwdrivers.

The nice thing about the Schlage Sense is that it fits most standard size doors and you only need a screwdriver (or drill) to put it in.

Beginner level DIY project for sure!

The process for the install is quite simple.

Remove the old door knob and hardware.
Measure to make sure the current holes on your door are properly placed to fit the new handles and dead bolt. All the measurement specifics are included in the manual, which is really easy to read and follow.
Make sure your plate is placed properly for the latch. We had to increase the depth of the hole for the latch. No big deal, we just drilled it out a bit more. Took all of 30 seconds.
Secure the keypad and make sure it’s straight.
Wire it up and affix the lock to the back of the door.
Test the deadbolt to make sure it’s easy to turn and aligns well with the latch.
Remove the old knob and install the new one! (If you want more detail on how to replace a standard door knob, check out this other post I have on swapping interior door knobs. The process is identical).