this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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My apartment “upgraded” us to digital locks and now we have to use an app to unlock our door. I was so pissed the entire time they were installing them. I don’t like the idea that the locks could run out of battery and keep us out, and I feel much more insecure in my apt. It also feels like our comings and goings can be spied on now. I hate this future.
The worst part of that is if your apartment management company gets phished then that person can now get into everyone’s apartment without setting off red flags to other residents since they can just unlock and walk right in.
Or some hacker decides to change the code...
Also annoying: you can't leave the house without your tracking device anymore :/
I installed something similar at my house, just a keypad, not app connected. It's awesome. But a key will still unlock it. They are wonderful if it's not connected to the Internet.
Yeah. Someday appliances will probably try to get us to buy their art of electric sheep too.
Electric locks are supposed to fail safe. So if they run out of battery, they should remain open, not closed.
That does not sound awesome either. I Leave the apartment locked up, return to find the front door wide open because the battery died while I was out getting milk.
My keypad lock has a regular lock as a backup... Why not just do that.
Because your house getting robbed is better than you being trapped inside when there's a fire.
But yes, a lock and key is better.
I have never look into this type of locks, but usually with non electric ones they have a way to open from inside without a key for that same reason. Any other way is dumb. So locked by default doesn't sound bad, if there is a way to open it mechanically from inside, like turning a knob or similar.
I once had a dorm room lock run out of battery. It is beyond annoying, I'm sorry for your loss.
I had the same thing happen. I also found out that's if I kicked the door hard enough the lock gave way rather than brake.
Hopefully you're looking at different place now
You can get number pad locks, no app just press the buttons. But yeah battery.
Hey if you ever have to kick your door in make sure to take one or two steps and firmly flatly plant your foot on the door as near to the handle/knob/latch as you can. Try to step into and kick through it in stride. You'll need as much of your weight thrown into the kick as you can. Remember how pissed you were while they were installing the new locks youll need that
Do not use your shoulder you will injure it
Beautiful!!
If only we had some physical object that could never run out of power, let's call it a "key"...
House insurance does not cover digital house lock
I seem to remember some lawsuits about that situation
If the battery goes out do to something like power outage or something else and it remain locked, that sounds like the perfect excuse to "accidentally" start a fire and then claim you were trapped in your home due to the door not unlocking. Bonus points for acting like it shook up your whole life because you lost a lot of your possessions because the complex/building/whatever decided to remove physical locks.
Extra bonus points if a power outage or whatever genuinely locks you in, a fire breaks out, and you get hurt. In that case, if you have renters insurance, you may not only receive payout for that, but also for suing them if the door remained locked while there was no power.
Fire regulations require a crash bar to be able to leave a building regardless of the lock