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If you rent your home, finding a smart lock can be a challenge since most models require that you replace your existing deadbolt. The $129.99 Yale Approach Lock With Wi-Fi, on the other hand, is easy to install over an existing deadbolt and works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. You can control it with your voice, set it to automatically lock or unlock when you leave or return, or pair it with an optional $69.99 keypad. We would’ve given it a higher rating, but we experienced a bug on one occasion in testing that rendered the lock completely unresponsive to both app and keypad controls. The more reliable August Wi-Fi Smart Lock remains our Editors’ Choice winner for retrofit smart locks and you can usually find it on sale for much less than its $249 list price.A Full Array of FeaturesThe Yale Approach Lock is designed to use the hardware of your existing lock. On the outside, nothing will change. The retrofit aspect makes it a particularly good fit for renters such as myself, since you don’t have to replace the main deadbolt and your existing key will still work. Any guest with a key can get in the same way they used to, or you can set them up with any number of Yale’s smart methods of entry.
You replace the interior thumb turn mechanism of your deadbolt with Yale’s Bluetooth-enabled hardware, and can then use the Yale Access app (for Android and iOS). You also get a Wi-Fi bridge that you can pair with the lock for true remote access from anywhere. The lock works with Amazon and Google smart home assistants, so you can open the door by issuing a voice command to a compatible smart speaker. Yale also offers a Bluetooth keypad that you can stick to a wall near your door, and you can grant guests access with a temporary or permanent code. The Yale Keypad costs $69.99 on its own, or you can buy it in a bundle with the lock for $179.99. For this review, Yale sent the bundle.
The Yale Approach Lock, Keypad, and my unaltered deadbolt (Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
You can program the Approach Lock to automatically lock after it’s been closed for a set amount of time, and give the Yale app access to your phone’s location to have it automatically unlock when you arrive home. The Yale Approach Lock doesn’t work with Apple HomeKit at the time of this writing, but Yale says that the lock will be compatible with the Matter smart home device interoperability standard down the road. With Matter turned on, you will be able to control your lock with Siri on your iPhone. The Yale Lock has Matter’s Thread signal built in, but it’s dormant for now. With Thread turned on, you can forgo using Yale’s own Wi-Fi bridge and connect the lock to the cloud through a compatible border router. Yale hasn’t stated a date when it expects to roll out Matter compatibility and turn on Thread.For comparison, the August Wi-Fi Smart Lock also has auto lock and unlock capabilities, and it works with Amazon, Google, and HomeKit out of the box. The August model lacks an optional keypad and Thread support, however. If you’re able to replace your lock hardware, the $249 Ultraloq U-Bolt Pro Wi-Fi offers a number of extra ways to unlock your door such as a fingerprint scanner, though it lacks HomeKit compatibility.Design and InstallationInstalling the Yale Approach lock only took me a few minutes and I’m not particularly handy. In the box, Yale includes the lock itself, the aforementioned Wi-Fi adapter, a quick start guide, adhesive tape, door adapters of various shapes and sizes, an optional DoorSense piece to track when your door is open and closed, and four AA batteries already installed (which should power it for up to 12 months with ordinary use). You’ll need to have a Phillips-head screwdriver on hand to complete the process. I tested the Black Suede model, but Yale also offers the Approach Lock in Silver. The oblong interior structure looks simple: A Yale logo sits at the top, and the thumb turn mechanism resides below with an indicator light ring surrounding it. Press the hidden button on the bottom of the enclosure to remove the outer housing and access the batteries. Altogether, the lock weighs a pound and measures 5.6 by 2.6 by 1.6 inches (HWD).Before attaching the lock to your door, download the app, create a Yale account if you’re new to the brand, and visit the setup menu in the upper left corner. You’ll add the device via the QR code found both on the quick start guide and inside the lock’s enclosure. Then, the app will walk you through the installation step by step, including short, illustrative videos. The process is intuitive. Use the included tape to secure the exterior of the lock, then unscrew your existing interior thumb turn mechanism and backplate. Press the button on the Yale lock to remove the cover from the mounting plate, and use the same screws that attached your old thumb turn to secure this mounting plate in place. Make sure the tailpiece is centered into the hole for it as you work, and then you’ll pick an adapter from Yale’s given selection based on the diagrams shown in the app.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
Once all of that is in place, you can remove the piece of plastic wedged behind the batteries to activate the lock. Then, put the cover back on the mounting plate and make sure the lock turns. I had to loosen my screws a bit as directed by the app after it felt stuck at first. Next, you can install the small, oblong DoorSense (optional) on an inner wall, aligned with the Yale logo of the lock. This step took just moments. You simply remove the adhesive back, stick it on an appropriate spot, and screw the top and bottom screws already in the sensor into your drywall. The DoorSense has a cover that snaps in place when you’re done. Yale also offers a more involved procedure for a flush mounting of the sensor if you wish.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
At this point, use the app to register and name your lock, and it’ll walk you through calibration. You’ll open and close your door, as well as lock and unlock your deadbolt while it gathers information about which position is which. During the physical installation, my only frustrations came from needing a smaller Phillips head for the screws on the DoorSense, and the app resetting the installation walkthrough while I was looking for one and requiring me to restart it once I found a suitable tool. Setting up the Wi-Fi bridge was rockier. The process is simple in theory. Add the device via the app and scan the QR code, plug the bridge into an outlet within 10 feet of your lock, press the button on the bridge for five seconds to put it in pairing mode, connect the bridge to your Wi-Fi, and then connect it to your lock.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
In practice, the bridge continually couldn’t find my internet signal. The device requires a 2.4GHz signal, and my router does automatic band switching. I’ve never had a problem setting up other smart home devices that require a specific frequency, but with this lock, I had to manually create a guest network that stuck to the 2.4GHz band, but forgot to switch my phone to the same guest network. The app would give me an error, then run the process again and say the bridge was connected, though the pairing light kept blinking and it clearly wasn’t receiving a signal. With my phone on the guest network I created, the bridge finally connected to Wi-Fi, but I had to do a lot of finagling to get it to connect to the lock. To be fair, my apartment features an unusual arrangement where the outside door is through another door and down a private flight of stairs from the rest of the unit. That said, I know lots of apartment dwellers with uncommon floor plans, so I wish the bridge was a little better at finding the lock under non-ideal conditions. After trying multiple outlets and leaving my inner door open, the bridge and the lock connected, and did a good job of mostly staying connected after that initial handshake. A Yale rep tells me that you can physically remove the cover from the mounting plate and bring it right next to the bridge to help it make that first contact. You can avoid this extra step entirely with the August Wi-Fi Smart Lock as it has Wi-Fi built in, but you lose some battery life in the exchange. The August model uses two CR123 batteries, which you need to replace every three months or so.Elegant App DesignI appreciate the simple but helpful design of the Yale app with its illustrative videos, and that philosophy carries over once the lock is up and running. The main page shows a red or green circle indicating the lock’s status, with it spelled out just underneath. A tap on that circle toggles the lock. Tabs on the bottom show the lock’s activity history, let you grant guest access, and browse detailed settings.
(Credit: Yale/PCMag)
Tap the lock in the device settings menu to customize what alerts it sends. Within settings, you can also turn on and customize the timing of the auto-lock feature and enable and set the geofencing area for the auto-unlock feature. The latter tracks when you leave and then reenter a set perimeter based on your phone’s location and when it connects to your home’s Wi-Fi so it knows when to unlock the bolt and let you in.The settings menu in the upper left corner includes an option called Yale Works With. Tap this to find instructions for pairing the Yale Approach Lock to third-party platforms.
(Credit: Yale/PCMag)
For other platforms like Amazon or Google, you’ll be instructed to use the third-party app to link your Yale account to the relevant account. Once I did that using the Alexa and Google Home apps respectively, I could easily control the lock with both voice assistants. Note that both require you to set up a vocal pin to unlock the door as an extra security measure. A Finicky KeypadSetting up the Yale Keypad was easy, but controlling the lock with it wasn’t smooth. To set it up, add the device in the app, pair it to the lock, and stick the keypad to the exterior wall within eight feet of your lock using the two-sided adhesive backing. The keypad box also includes screws and anchors if you want an extra-secure mount, but the adhesive didn’t budge during my testing. The keypad is rated at IPX5, so it can withstand rain.I accidentally clicked past the prompt to create a pin at the end of the setup process and then had trouble figuring out how to make one as it’s not in the device settings menu. Instead, you create pins in the Guest List tab, where you can also readily revoke access as you desire.With the keypad in place, you can hold the top button with the Yale logo to lock your deadbolt. To unlock it, you’ll tap this same button to wake the keypad, then enter your code, and press the green check that appears in the bottom right corner to confirm. The green check can be hard to see in direct sunlight, but it’s not hard to hit once you know it’s there. That said, numbers on the touch screen don’t always read my presses properly, and they can take a beat longer than expected to wake up after tapping the button at the top.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
I believe the trick with the keypad rests in the realm of gentle touches. I was able to open my door after an attempt or two on most occasions. However, one time I was stressed and hurrying as I was carrying a crate with my two mewling cats impatient to be free after their trip to the vet. On that occasion, I nearly smashed the keypad in pieces, as I could not get the numbers to read correctly despite multiple attempts. Like the lock itself, the keypad is battery operated, and the buttons are likely designed to efficiently use power. That’s certainly why the keypad requires a wake-up button in the first place. The keypad batteries are said to last up to seven months under normal use, though I would gladly trade some battery life for slightly more responsive or tactile buttons. Responsive Performance, With a FumbleI found the Yale Approach Lock itself to be generally responsive to commands, whether I issued them through the app, a voice assistant, or the keypad. Notifications were delivered promptly. Voice commands sometimes needed to process for a few seconds, but if I gave an order to my smart speaker in the living room, it would complete the unlock well before I could reach the front entryway. I set it to automatically lock after 90 seconds, and it did so reliably. The auto-unlock feature also worked as intended. It successfully waited until I was within the established boundary to unlock the door, and it never accidentally unlocked at the wrong time. Turning off my phone at night also didn’t trigger any problems.I did encounter an issue if I took too long to unload my car. On a couple of occasions, I didn’t actually reach my door between the time it unlocked for my arrival and when the auto-lock kicked in 90 seconds later. That’s easily fixed by expanding the auto-lock time, but I wish there was a smarter workaround as well, such as an option to set two different times depending on whether the door was ever opened after that first automatic unlock. Otherwise, the lock worked fine until the one night when it didn’t work at all. Part of the benefit of a smart lock is being able to leave your keys behind when you’re out and about. I weighed doing just that before a dinner out, and if I had, I would have needed a locksmith upon my return. On that occasion, the Yale Approach Lock didn’t respond to any attempts to open it. I tried the keypad and the app multiple times. Both consistently gave me a positive signal that they had unlocked the door, but the deadbolt didn’t budge. After unlocking my door with my key, I tried the voice assistants. Again, they confirmed the command but no response occurred from the lock itself. The next morning, the app finally realized the lock wasn’t responding the way it should and suggested recalibration. I tried that to no avail. Finally, I pulled off the cover, removed a battery and put it back in, and the lock started responding again.
Press the button on the bottom to remove the lock’s cover (Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
This is obviously a pain under any circumstance, but it could cause real problems. Besides the risk of getting locked out, the app didn’t immediately recognize that the lock wasn’t responding correctly. So someone could lock the door at night, see it confirmed in the app, and then shut the app and go to bed or leave, not knowing the door was still unlocked with the app showing no signs of a malfunction. I reached out to Yale for comment, and a rep assured me over email that, “This is a very unusual and rare occurrence. Yale takes a user’s ability to have reliable access to their home very seriously.” It is possible I just have a faulty unit. I’ve been unable to replicate the problem, and I can’t confirm a cause or a defect. I’ve noticed the same problem mentioned in user reviews on Reddit and the company’s site, so the issue isn’t totally unique, but it could indeed be rare. Regardless, it’s probably worth hiding a backup key nearby if you want to go keyless while you use this lock.Verdict: A Renter-Friendly Smart Lock With Features and FlawsThe Yale Approach Lock With Wi-Fi offers a competitive set of features at an attractive price. That said, it could be easier to set up, and it became completely unresponsive to both app and keypad commands in testing. This only happened once and it could have been a fluke, but that fluke could cause a big headache if it happens to you. Because of this, the older and more reliable August Wi-Fi Lock remains our Editors’ Choice for retrofit smart locks, while the Ultraloq U-Bolt Pro Wi-Fi Smart Lock is our top pick if you can replace your existing deadbolt.
Yale Approach Lock With Wi-Fi
The Bottom Line
The Yale Approach Lock has the potential to be a great retrofit smart lock, but some performance issues limit its ability to provide true peace of mind.
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