The Danalock ($179) from Danish home automation manufacturer Poly-Control is the latest entrant to the smart lock arena. As with the August Smart Lock, the Danalock is a puck-shaped Bluetooth lock that mounts on the inside of your door and can be controlled with iOS and Android devices. Unlike the August lock, the Danalock also supports Z-Wave wireless technology, which means it can be paired with a compatible home automation hub to control it remotely and have it interact with other digital home devices. That said, the Danalock's performance, reliability issues, and unintuitive app make it hard to recommend, despite its wireless flexibility and (relatively) reasonable price.
Design and Features
At first glance, the Danalock ( at Amazon) bears a striking resemblance to the August Smart Lock. Both are stylishly designed, puck-shaped cylinders made from anodized aluminum, although at 3.1 by 1.9 inches (HD) the Danalock is a tad smaller. The removable glossy black face plate is translucent and has a depression in the center that acts as a button for use when setting up the lock. Behind the plate are LEDs that glow green when the lock is opening and red when it is closing. There are also four CR123A Lithium batteries and three screws that attach the lock to the mounting plate. The lock comes with two tailpiece adapters and a universal mounting plate.
Poly-Control Danalock (BTZU100SC)The Danalock has apps for iOS 7.1 and Android 4.4 KitKat devices, and a Web portal for managing locks, connections, users, and smartphones. The app opens to a Keychain page that has a Lock button and an Unlock button for each installed lock. When the app is connected to the lock, both buttons are partially illuminated. The Unlock button is green and the Lock button is red, but since they're both illuminated, there's no way to tell if the lock is engaged or not. When the Bluetooth connection is lost, both buttons are grayed out. The August lock uses a much more user-friendly approach: You either see a big green circle indicating an open lock or a big red circle indicating a closed lock.
Swiping the lock status bar to the right brings you to a page where you can create user keys, configure the lock, and view lock activity logs. Temporary user keys are created by entering a starting date and time and an ending date and time, or you can leave those boxes blank to create a permanent key. Shared keys are sent via text, email, or the Danalock server and include a link to download the app. The configuration page provides settings for lock motor speed, turning degrees, power saving mode, and how much time before the Auto-Lock feature kicks in. It also has Bluetooth antenna range settings and lets you enable/disable the iBeacon function. You can also check the lock's battery life and set a low battery alarm level.
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Tapping the three bars in the upper left corner brings you to a page where you can change app settings, install a new lock, browse help files, and update user keys. In App Settings you can enable features such as Auto-Unlock, which uses your phone's geo-location services to automatically unlock your door when you arrive home, and the Knock-to-Unlock feature, which lets you unlock the door by tapping gently on your smartphone screen.
With the Web dashboard you can view a list of users, locks, and authorized smart devices and manage how they connect to each other. It also lets you create, edit, and delete users, create groups, and assign group rights.
Installation and Performance
The Danalock is easy to install. As with the August lock, it uses most of the hardware from your existing lock; all it replaces is the interior thumb-turn mechanism. To start, I removed the two bolts that attach my thumb-turn to the exterior keyed cylinder and removed the thumb-turn. I chose the correct tailpiece adapter for my lock, slid it onto the tailpiece, and lined up the mounting plate so that the tailpiece and bolts had clearance. After attaching the plate I lined up the lock and secured it to the plate using the three provided screws. This part of the installation took less than ten minutes.
Next, I downloaded the app and created an account with a username, password, and email address. I pressed the button on the center of the lock and held it for around 10 seconds. At this point the lock was supposed to beep three times, but it never did. However, when I opened the app and tapped Install New Lock, my Danalock was listed. I pressed the Install button and was asked to assign a name to the lock. After tapping the Refresh button, the lock installation was complete.
Poly-Control Danalock (BTZU100SC)
Performance was disappointing on several fronts. When I first installed the app on my KitKat-powered Android phone, I was able to lock and unlock my front door without issue, but after a minute or two the app froze and had to be restarted. This happened numerous times after unlocking the lock; most of the time I was able to get the app going again by switching to the App Settings screen and then back to the Keychain screen, but on several occasions I had to power down the device and restart it. I also had trouble maintaining a connection to the lock; a minute or two after launching the app, the Lock and Unlock buttons would go dark and would not work until I restarted the app. I uninstalled and reinstalled the app several times, but the issues remained. Moreover, the Auto-Unlock and Knock-to-Unlock features did not work at all on the Android phone.
Next, I installed the app on my iPod touch and iPad mini devices. The app would not run at all on the iPod touch; all I got was a black screen. However, it did work on the iPad mini. This time I had none of the connectivity and freezing issues that I had with the Android device, but the Knock-to-Unlock feature still refused to work. I did experience the same five-second Bluetooth lag that I experienced with the August Smart Lock, but otherwise the Lock and Unlock buttons and the Auto-Unlock feature worked flawlessly.
My biggest concern with the Danalock has to do with unplanned openings. On five occasions the lock disengaged (unlocked) for no reason. Four of these openings occurred after 11 p.m. and one occurred at 6:35 a.m. Fortunately, the Auto-Lock feature kicked in and relocked the door, but even one instance of an unplanned opening is unacceptable. I suspect the Auto-Unlock feature was the culprit here, as it was enabled when these events occurred. I had no further unplanned openings after disabling this feature on my iPad. To be fair, Poly-Control does suggest that you disable Auto-Unlock when you are home, but if this feature can't be trusted to not unlock your door in the middle of the night, then it should be permanently disabled or removed altogether. It's important to note I had no such issue with the August Smart Lock's Auto-Unlock feature.
Finally, when turning the cylinder to lock and unlock the door manually, the action was very stiff and felt as if I was working against the lock's motor. I tried loosening the mounting plate a bit, but the lock remained stubborn and hard to turn. The August lock, on the other hand, was much smoother and easier to turn when used manually.
Conclusions
The Danalock is a good idea that needs work. It's easy enough to install and it offers both Bluetooth and Z-Wave wireless connectivity, but it doesn't always work as it should and the app leaves you guessing as to whether or not the lock is engaged. I was unable to get the Knock-to-Unlock feature to work on either app, and the Auto-Unlock feature would not work at all on the Android app. Unplanned openings are a major safety concern, and the lock's inability to maintain a reliable Bluetooth connection with my Android phone had me reaching for my keys.
The folks at Poly-Control are aware of the Android issues and are working on an update that should resolve most of them, but until then Android users should steer clear of this smart lock. If you're an iOS user, you may want to disable Auto-Unlock until that bug is worked out as well. For reliable performance, solid build quality, and an intuitive app, the August Smart Lock is your best bet and remains our Editors' Choice for connected door locks.
The Danalock is a Bluetooth and Z-Wave enabled smart lock that's attractive and easy to install, but suffers from inconsistent performance and a poorly designed app.
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