August Wifi Smart Lock Review - 6 Months Later 

Great review and one of the first (that I’ve seen) to honestly talk about the experiences of having to dig out a phone each time you want to unlock the door.

This is the second home in which ru-vid.comUgkx0jZ_lGlDVJhDnmagEU8gn47cmfPNlLQU we've replaced our "regular" doorbell with a Ring video doorbell and we really enjoy it. It is very easy to install and it works very well, with a clear picture through the app and good in-home use (we added the chime, which is also easy to install and doesn't require another thought to use).

I live in South Korea and, here, keys are pretty much a think of the past. It has been 5 years now without carrying a key, and this is wonderful. I don't know why the electronic locks used here are not more popular everywhere. They are amazing.

Another reason that the 3rd gen utilizes better battery life is because of the bridge itself. It operates as a ZWave hub (Much like Phillips Hue included hub) and as a result garners you better battery life because ZWave is an incredibly low-power protocol that functions essentially similar to Bluetooth Low-Energy by using Sub-Gigahertz frequencies. The reason the 4th gens battery life is impacted so greatly is because it *only* has Wifi as a connection offering.

Another great review with some solid advice. Good things to hear!

I have had the previous generation with the bridge on my home since August 2018 and have only changed the AA batteries once when it sent an alert to tell me to do it. I would say if you were a home owner who enters mostly through the garage and instal this on your front door you would be amazed. Setting up temporary codes for maintenance people that allows them access etc is also a great feature.

Very glad you mentioned battery life off the bat, it’s been my experience as well. I actually contacted August support for help, and they sent a free WiFi bridge which has helped extend battery life a bit!

I've had the August Smart Lock the previous generation for about 2 years, and it has completely replaced my keys. I think I've used my keys a total of five times since I've installed it. The features I really love are auto lock because after 10 minutes just locks itself. My family usually opens the August app 5 to 10 minutes before they arrive home. We honestly love it. However I have to mention some bugs. The geofencing is terrible, similar to you it's literally faster for me just to open The August app then waiting for my phone to GPS or Bluetooth to kick in and activate the feature. Also it does require me to be a little proactive of when I'm approaching my house, sometimes I do get frustrated when I'm at my door and I'm just so conditioned to use the August app that I forget I have keys but it'd be faster if I use the keys then using the August app. But other than that I still love the August Smart Lock

Battery life can be affected if your lock experiences any resistance when locking and unlocking as well. Everything must line up perfectly so the lock moves smoothly. One thing I can’t find is a notification if the door is left unlocked, or the ability to auto lock at a certain time. This would ensure that the door is not accidentally left unlocked. The auto-lock feature only allows for a specific amount of time, not a time on the clock, ie 8pm.

It’s crazy I saw your video today, I just removed my august 4th gen yesterday because I was absolutely sick of buying batteries for it every month or so! Reinstalled my old 3rd gen pro! But I have been told if you use a wifi bridge with the 4th gen it might help its battery life a little bit! Great video

Thanks for your review and it is very close to my experience. About the NFC unlock feature, actually you can integrate August lock with Home Assistant and setup a NFC key in HA. That is the way how I unlock my door and it is very fast and stable. I never carry any physical keys anymore.

what does wifi do in the lock and what gen do you recommend to get for batterylife?

IMO the best all-around smart lock is the EUFY that lets you enter via keypad, app, physical key, voice assistant, or fingerprint (what I use daily). It absolutely rocks; best smart home purchase I've ever made. Of course the downside is that you need to completely replace your deadbolt, and as Josh mentioned, landlords won't like that their master key won't work any more. If I was still renting, an August lock like this would definitely be the way I'd go. Nice review Josh!

I only see the smart lock pro + WiFi bridge for 229$? Did they just start adding the WiFi bridge now? I also don’t see the 3rd Gen

I got this lock because there were concerns about not being able to use the regular old fashioned key. It was an extremely good way to provide some comfort knowing that you could always use your key to get in to the house in the event the lock didn't work. The locks work so well that keys are no longer carried around. I would recommend them to anyone who is hesitant to make the jump to smart home locks and I would give them at least an A rating. Why not A+? So, these locks are the reason I started using Home Assistant. I wanted to have a more reliable and much faster "Auto Unlock" feature. I wanted Auto Unlock to work on more than just one door in the house (August won't support having more than one lock in your house/garage Auto Unlock) because they haven't figured out how to properly sense for your phone. August, if you ever read this... bayesian algorithm, use it! I wanted a button on the home screen of Andriod/Apple phones to quickly unlock door without having to open an App. I wanted better control of Auto Lock feature so that I wouldn't accidently lock myself out of the house by forgetting my phone in the house. The August App is a very good application, I just kept running in to minor things that, when added together, summed up to make me want to try Home Assistant. This was about a month ago and currently I have added temperature sensors and lights to Home Assistant becuase I figured out that Home Assistant can run all your smart home devices and have one application on your phone to control them all. Anyway, nice video. Just wanted to point out some of the things about this lock (which I believe is one of the best, if not the best lock out there) I found myself wanting more from it.

Loving the new setup!

I have a Yale keypad lock. Could I still use this on the inside portion?

Hi, I have the 3rd gen with the connect hub and was very happy with it until I changed my WiFi. I’m not very tech savvy and have been trying to figure out what went wrong. I think the problems started with just the new router but 3 months later I also got 5g. Now the connect hub is flashing red and when i tried to reset it tells me I don’t have a compatible lock. Also the August guide says the lock doesn’t work remotely with 5g. Does that mean I can never use it remotely again? Thanks

Interesting to read about different struggles with this lock. I have the 3rd gen w/ the bridge. My battery life is fantastic. My auto-unlock works every single time but I did buy a keypad to use for those times that I don't have my phone with me (running). The keypad provides excellent flexibility for friends & family to use when they stop by. I think it is certainly key to not only have the bridge, but to have the bridge close to the august lock.

Apple Watch app has been the easiest for me, normally like 2-3 seconds to unlock. You really need it set as a complication for it to be speedy.

Can you do a 6 months later review on the google pixel buds a series?

I have a 3rd gen and live in a traditional suburban single family home. The Auto-Unlock works well about 95% of the time. Enough so that I don't cary my key in my pocket because it's convient enough to just pull out my phone to unlock when the auto-unlock doesn't work. Though I do keep a key in my wallet, but that's mostly me being paranoid. I haven't needed but once or twice in 3 years or so of having the lock.

It would be interesting to know how loud these smart locks are as I once had an automatic button pusher that made an unreasonable amount of noise

Fantastic balanced and thorough review - I had heard some complaints about Bluetooth before. Is there an iOS widget yet? (that might be a bit quicker than opening the app…)

Thats strange. I've had my August Smart lock for 2 going on 3 months now and the battery is still at 78%. I also integrated the lock into Home assistant and unlocking and locking from that app is very quick and efficient compared to the app.

what a great review

It's unfortunate that you haven't gotten as much use out of your August lock as you had hoped. I have an August lock as well. I got the Pro version which comes with the Connect Hub but doesn't have Wifi built in. I've had mine for over a year now and I'm quite happy with it. So far I haven't needed to replace the batteries yet. I don't even remember how to open it at this point; I'll have to look it up when it is time to replace them. The Auto-Unlock feature works almost every time for me (99%). When it doesn't it's usually an issue with my phone. In order to make certain the door didn't relock before I got to it I just had to raise the delay time for Auto-Lock in the August app to 90:seconds. I hear the tone from my phone when I get to the bottom of the stairs telling me that my front door has unlocked. And 90 seconds so far has always given me enough time to get to the door and open it before it relocks. You can set Auto-Lock as high as 10 minutes or more, or you can turn it off completely if you're having issues with it. I do have the 3rd gen rather than the 4th gen. But I think the Connect Hub makes a difference, especially when it comes to battery life. That's part of the reason I bought that version; read some reviews from existing customers online before purchasing.

Helpful review. Sounds like they are almost there but not quite. Will hold off until next generation perhaps.

The Schlage Encode with Apple Key will be the way to go if you want NFC key capability with Apple Watch and iPhone.

I guess with WiFi built into it compared to the previous one was just Bluetooth and needing the bridge, it would use more battery power. Might still be worth getting the previous generation and the bridge.

I am a landlord and planning to move out of state, so am looking to changing old school deadbolt locks to the August 4th gen so that I can lock doors once a tenant moves out, QUESTION IS, CAN I CONTROL/LOCK THIS LOCK FROM ANOTHER STATE? THIS BUILDING WAS BUILT IN 1926 SO HAS NO WIFI SO DO I STILL NEED TO GET WIFI IN BUILDING THO THERE IS BUILT WIFI IN LOCK? WILL THIS BE A GOOD LOCK FOR A REMOTE RENTAL OVERALL?

I have the previous generation and love it. The quickest way for me to unlock my door is asking Siri on my Apple Watch as it doesn’t require authentication.

Seems like having a low voltage sensor connection at the latch that doubles as a charger for a built-in battery/capacitor when closed would solve the battery life issue. Plus the owner wouldn’t have to constantly buy batteries.

So, there’s no good/worthwhile NFC equipped smart lock on the market? I will be moving (hopefully) somewhere in the next 4-5 months, and I’ve been thinking of getting a smart lock. But if it’s still faster to use your keys in most cases, I might wait an extra few years.

Josh... Great video...Question: If I understood you correctly August Smart Lock supports multiple locks (individually addressable) in relatively close proximity to one another (e.g. front door, back door & supply closet)?

Get the august connect to get better battery life. I haven't replaced mine in about 4-6 months

The battery issue was my original deal breaker but I ended up just buying a rechargable 4pack off amz. Swapping them potentially more often isn't an issue it was the long term cost of batteries and throwing more into the garbage because I'm a hippy tree hugger. So far so good the rechargables work fine in the lock.

the issue with august lock disconnecting from homekit: i belive is an issue with homekit not the lock, I am a smart home installer and I usually program/set/show a way to reset homekit which usually brings these disconnected devices back online Hope you have heard of Savant :) they are pricey but amazing tech, dm for questions

Isnt uwb compatible ?

Does the app have a battery level indicator or low battery notification? Thanks

I stopped using the 4th gen August smart lock because after about one year of using it and installing the keypad I was replacing the batteries every 2 to 3 weeks, so now I use it as a very expensive turn knob form my doors deadbolt.

You should try the Level Lock

I’m confused. How do you unlock with regular keys?

After 6 months use reliability and battery life are disappointing, initially replacing every 5 weeks but after disabling wifi and installing the connect bridge batteries lasted twice as long. Bridge also improved remote operation which was previously slow and often timed out even though wifi coverage was excellent near the lock (app reporting 46bB). Auto-unlock was the main reason for purchase but can take up to 3 minutes before triggering, when it works. Manually unlocking/re-locking does not abort an in progress auto-unlock action, consequently after entering the house the door you thought you'd locked is now unlocked. Auto-unlock outcome is also unpredictable if multiple phones (same model) arrive home simultaneously, frequently one device unlocks then minutes later the second device attempts to unlock. August techs confirmed only single device trigger is supported, obviously not realistic in family home. This could be a good product with further development, but I'm not ready to leave my keys at home.

What about the doorknob?

I use a Hafele smart lock. Best thing I ever bought.

Does this work for top lock I don't have bottom lock

I found setting your auto re-lock over 2 minutes, gives you enough time to get to the door 👍. That's odd all you guys are having battery issues, every 6 months Amazon auto ships me batteries for the lock

I've had mine for a while and it works great but all of a sudden the lock doesn't turn all the way. I'll reinstall it like you mentioned and cross my fingers it works otherwise I got a useless smart lock :( Thanks for the video!

I’d consider an updated video because I think NPC is now available

I had 2 august smart lock 2nd and 5th gen and same problem the motor go bad after one to 2 years. And in general not working properly 100%. Most of the time works. But most is not all the time.

So if I go outside without my phone I am locked out?

Change the auto lock to a few minutes, instead of instantly and then you won’t have to worry about it relooking before you get there

I’ll wait for nfc implementation

I tried those energizer batteries and the battery life was not great. Gotta stick with the copper tops.

I’ve been a very happy #August #SmartLock Pro 1st Gen user over the past 5+ years (8/2016)! It just “died” recently and I’m debating being faithful to the August brand and purchasing their 4th Gen SmartLock *OR* the Level lock.

i had one of these and just today it wont lock manually or with smart phone....had a problem with battery now this.....

I think it is stupid that they didn't go with a 18650 since those are common and rechargeable.

Batteries last 4 months for me. But even 6 months isn't long enough. And you get annoying daily emails that you can't opt out of when batteries start to run low. One time I got emails for 3 months even though it was still working.

YALE with iOS geo locking and unlocking is by far the most seamless. No need to use any device. Using it for 2 years, battery life is brilliant and not once has it failed to work.

I love u-tec ultraloq

Is there any risk of not being able to escape during a fire?

Be careful if you purchase an August lock second-hand. If the previous owner doesn't relinquish the lock, its useless. Their customer service sucks when it comes to this.

Why don’t you just turn on auto unlock geofencing and just increase the amount of time before auto lock to give you time to get to the door? Say 10 minutes. Mine is set to 30 in case I’m coming in or out.

Battery eaters are a no go for me.

The battery is expensive… I would rather stick with 3rd gen with extra August connect, and my next smart lock would not be August because I am not sure what they are thinking with the special type of battery for the latest generation.

No mention of Apple's Home Key when talking about NFC? Straight after talking about home kit? That is a huge miss. The reason this is a failed product is because it's using slower older protocols and is not seemingly going to update to include things like Home Key. Or Matter etc.

This guy aside: can anyone advise IF I change the password for the August app, will the person I’ve lent my second phone to continue to be able to use the lock. I don’t want that person in my house. I only lent him the phone.

Not all Smart devices work well with IOS

I'd be more worried if i accidently left my phone and keys inside of my home and got auto locked out..then what?

just buy Eufy Smart Lock instead. Much better than August

so many knockoff batteries on Amazon. UHG hate buying on there. I just go to Costco now for them.

6-8 weeks of batery life? F*** that….

The batteries are a show stopper for me. Not only are they non rechargeable but of a strange kind quote difficult to find and at a higher cost. What a bad design decision in their part.

NFC is exploitable , it's been flagged for security reasons

☺️ Promo>SM!!

Doesn’t sound like such a great Lock

No way I’m buying this. batteries are a major problem

I bought this lock. It’s absolutely terrible. No apple home key and the app is absolutely terrible. It hardly works

Too expensive... there are much better solutions at a quarter of the price....

The battery life is ridiculously bad

August lock 4th gen sucks. The Wi-Fi drains the batttery in 3 weeks. Plus he struggles to hold the Wi-Fi connection. Found the Level Lock much better

The only thing worse than the product is the customer service. If you're outside North America I would look at other options. The battery life doesn't live anywhere near up to what's advertised and the customer service is infruating. The internet is littered with complaints and issues about the battery life and the company seems in denial. There answer was to offer to sell me more product at a discount as a potential remedy! Thanks, but no thanks.

This lock is an absolute piece of crap! just connects to 2.4 GHz which is a pain in the rear! Had to separate my mesh system in 5G and 2.4 just to install it! Probably gonna get rid of it in a week

Hard pass. Too much hassle

God forbid you have to reach for your keys or wait.. Jesus these cons are just you being lazy and you’d be nuts not to have a key still for your locks

Worst product ever, I locked my self inside once. Plus stupid robot customer service ever

Pretty horrible product not happy with mine and it’s complete true what the poster mentioned Avoid

Does this cost you monthly? What gen would you recommend? My house has been robbed like 40/50 times, I think the person has a ring of kets cause I have changed my locks about 5 times already and I am still getting hit, I have a bunch of cameras I want one that notify's me every time it is unlocked. Thanks in advance