I don’t write reviews often, but after installing and using this lock I am thoroughly impressed and feel this warrants a review. For starters I was looking at locks from Kwikset and August, but they were extremely bulky with no style. It was also apparent with those that it was a smart lock which can be a security concern as an easy lock to pick. Coming across Level, it was the sleekest design out there and looked exactly like a traditional/non-smart lock. Here’s a few pros and cons Pros: - Sleek and discrete, it looks good - Super easy installation - Super easy app setup as well - Integrates with Apple home (as long as you have an iPad or Apple TV, you can use that as your home hub) - Touch feature to lock is awesome - Distinct noise for opening/closing - Can be used with Apple shortcuts as long as it’s set up with Apple home - App is very intuitive and simple, I actually rarely use it since everything is done though Apple home Cons: - The Touch Unlock that uses location services is useless since it needs to access your location 24/7 and I couldn’t really get it to work - To work with Alexa you need a sidewalk device Overall I’m extremely impressed with this lock, it came with 2 physical keys but after a few weeks I don’t even use it. When leaving I simply hold my finger on the lock and I know it’s locked after the chime (as well as a phone notification), when getting home I simply take out my phone walking up to my door and use my Apple shortcut to unlock it. The cons are not really cons, as the touch to unlock feature is cool in theory but probably easier to just unlock using your phone anyway. Long story short if you want a sleek/low profile smart lock that is easy to use and install, I’d highly recommend this.

I had really high hopes for this product. I was excited for a lock that I could control with my phone and also still have the option of using a key. But it just didn’t deliver at that level. Installation was simple, and mechanically the lock functioned very well. Smooth glide, not noisy, and looks great. However, out of the box the key cards did not work. (To Level Lock’s credit, I was sent new cards immediately.) The lock/unlock function with phone or touch was inconsistent. One time it would lock, but than not unlock. Or it would lock/unlock for one user, but not another. It worked with my phone, not for my wife’s phone, next time, worked for my wife, but this time not for me. Then came the next ding; 10 days after install, with no warning messages, door would not unlock, notification of “Dead Battery”. It went from working, to not working without any warning that the battery life was at its end. Fortunately, I had access to the house through the garage. (Again to Level Lock’s credit, customer service reacted very quickly to my complaint. I sent them requested info and photos, and they very quickly responded and notified me they would send new batteries.) The Final straw; Wife took out the recycling, door locked behind her when she shut the door. No keys, no phone, no reaction to touch…no way to open the door! I really wanted this lock to live up to its advertising. I liked the simplified idea of having control over my phone, but after a few weeks of being frustrated by its functionality, decided to remove it and put the old lock back in. Don’t know if I just got a bad unit, or if it just needs some bugs worked out, but I was done being locked out of my home. Level Lock Customer Service - 5 STARS ALL DAY LONG! Level Lock product - Sorry I just can’t give it more than 1 STAR. Been a very frustrating trial period.

Now that I'm a homeowner, I've always been interested in how I can use technology to my advantage around the house. I searched far and wide for a smart lock that would fit our needs without taking over the door, or come with a steep learning curve... any learning curve beyond turning a knob or using a physical key can be a bit much. I was stopped in my tracks when I found the Level Lock Touch. It solved all the specific needs I had and looked great as well. Natively supporting Apple HomeKit was a HUGE plus for me! Many smart locks just don't support HomeKit. It's the size of a standard deadbolt that you'd find on any normal entry door. A lot of smart door locks are noticeable because of the massive presence they can have on the front and back of your door. This one doesn't take up any additional space. The smarts are all built within the standard space of a deadbolt and the battery is even cleverly hidden within the bolt itself. I was skeptical at first that this deadbolt would be as strong as others, but it turns out just about ever deadbolt is hollow inside the actual bolt itself. At least this one contains a battery too! More solid than others, based on that alone. Installation was easy... I do wish it would work with certain trim plates. That's the ONLY reason I gave "Easy To Install" 4 out of 5 stars. It looks fine without a trim plate, though I would like the option. The lock has been flawless with integration into Apple HomeKit, one of the most secure smart home platforms. Asking Siri to lock/unlock works well and when we need it. It's also great to be able to walk out and merely touch the lock to lock it - without having to grab my keys. Inside, it's just a simple twist of the knob, or again, just ask Siri. You can even send guest invites to family/friends that may need access to your house. It's really quite flexible and I always know if my door is locked or not. Level Lock's technical support is fast and responsive. They're always looking into ways to improve their product, and it's nice to see Apple throwing their support behind this product as well, highlighting it on their HomeKit product page. If you get this lock, and you appreciate svelt smart technology that doesn't detract from the style and function of your existing home features, you won't be disappointed.

I purchased 4 of these locks for my home. I had to upgrade my ring video doorbell to a pro version as that’s the only way to bridge the locks to your WiFi and have remote access to lock and unlock your doors while away. Otherwise the locks connect via Bluetooth and you have to be right up on the lock to connect and function the lock. Even when you use the range boost feature. The 2 locks that I can get connected to my WiFi through the ring doorbell and Amazon sidewalk lose connection frequently so they are unreliable in a remote situation. I’ve spent time on the line with their support but it’s time consuming and not easy to fix. It’s still not fixed and level blames ring and ring blames level. I’m disappointed after spending over $1500 on all the locks in general but I can somewhat rely on the Bluetooth connection. I also had to do some woodwork to retro fit the locks during installation. Another lock on my garage gets hung up when locking and unlocking. I’ve readjusted it about 30 times before i got it right. The touch feature works 50% of the time. The software is not sophisticated enough for multiple locks. You would avoid a lot of my issues if you only needed 1 lock and never plan to have multiple level locks in your home. They are nice looking deadbolts. You honestly would never know they are smart locks. Lastly if you have multiple locks and you want to have 1 key to operate them all, you will need to spend about $500 on a locksmith to do it. They do not have smart technology for hard coding keys. You have to remove all the pins and rekey the lock the old fashioned way. I love technology and my smart home. My old August locks were way more reliable in a remote situation.

UPDATED 12/21/22 Pros: -Touch to LOCK works reliably. (Touch to UNLOCK does not. See cons below.) Makes it easy to quickly lock the door without your phone or the key when exiting the home. -Works with homekit. So you can ask Siri to unlock the door and, after maybe a 5 second delay, she will. Probably the quickest way to unlock the door is with "touch to unlock", but that hasn't worked reliably for me. Second quickest way is probably the physical key. Third quickest way is NFC keycard (slight delay after holding up the card). Fourth quickest would be taking out your phone, swiping down for control center, and then tapping your homekit shortcut for the lock to unlock it through homekit. -Remote lock and unlock via the Level App or homekit seem to work reliably. -It is handy to be able to create "guest passes" using the level app, that allow you to send a code to a relative that will give them the ability to unlock the door. Used it with my sister when they were planning to visit and arrive at a time when I couldn't be home. -Level has good customer support and stands by their products and takes action to ensure customer satisfaction. -small and unobtrusive design make it a “stealth” smart lock Cons: 1) TOUCH TO UNLOCK IS UNRELIABLE. DO NOT EXPECT IT TO WORK AS ADVERTISED. The touch to unlock feature worked ~75% of the time between purchase in Feb 2022 and Sep 2022, and then the feature stopped working entirely in September 2022 and hasn't worked reliably since (for both my wife and myself). The problem seemed correlated with an iOS update installed at the time on my iPhone, but after multiple iOS and Level software/firmware updates since September 2022, the behavior is the same: Touch to Unlock only works if I pull out my phone and open the Level app, and watch as the text indicator in the app goes from "touch to unlock not ready" to "touch to unlock ready". After that I can touch the lock and it will indeed unlock, but of course having to pull out your phone completely eliminates the value of touch to unlock. It's not the touch sensor that is the problem (the touch to LOCK feature works reliably every time), it is the fact that the Level app needs to track your location relative to a geofence and needs to run in the background on your phone in order to indicate to the lock that it is safe to enable "touch to unlock". Somehow that is not happening in the background anymore, reportedly due to Apple iOS and Android updates that are out of Level’s control, and so you need to open the Level App for it to update your location and enable touch to unlock. Level Support gave me trouble-shooting tips to try (enable background app refresh, enable precise geolocation in iOS settings, "boost range" in Level app", etc.). But Support ended up telling me the following (copy-pasted verbatim from support email): "My Engineer was able to confirm that based on the telemetry of your lock you are currently being impacted by operational delays. Apple has introduced changes in recent OS updates that affect how apps like ours are able to operate in the background. The result of these changes is a delay in the response of the Touch-to-Unlock feature. Our engineering teams are already aware of this and are working on updates to address it and improve functionality. At this time there is not currently an ETA for when these updates will be released, but rest assured it is a top priority." I called Level Support again recently to initiate a warranty refund request, and as a last ditch effort to get it working they gave me instructions for a factory reset of the lock, which involves removing the lock from the app, removing it from homekit, physically disassembling it to access a reset button on the motor. then I'll have to re-add the lock to Level, and re-add it to homekit, re-add my wife's as a user, re-add my kids' NFC key cards, then spend another 24-hour cycle where I leave the geofence and return to test whether the touch to unlock starts working again. After doing this I noticed a slight improvement. Now, touch to unlock would usually work (say more than 50% of the time), but only after waiting patiently and touching the lock repeatedly for at least 10+ seconds while standing at the door. This was better since I no longer had to take out my phone, but still not the 75%+ (without delay) functionality I was experiencing before September. And my wife would rarely have the patience to stand there and tap for ten seconds, and ended up pulling out her phone anyway. After some discussion and seeing that I’d applied the troubleshooting in good faith, Level agreed to take my level touch back since it was not functioning as originally advertised, and shipped me a Level Lock+ as replacement, which more than satisfied me. This is why I still recommend them, because they went out of their way to try and help me get the lock working as advertised, and when it still didn’t work 100% they put their money where their mouth was and offered me an upgraded replacement. They also were proactive about following up with me to check whether my troubleshooting attempts worked. In summary: -If the touch to unlock functionality is important to you, keep in mind that it may not work reliably and even if it does at first it may stop working due to iOS or Android updates that are out of Level’s control. 2) NFC key cards randomly stop working. I gave my kids the two NFC keycards included with the lock after setting them up on the lock and testing them. The key cards worked reliably for about two months, and then suddenly stopped working. (Luckily I'd given my kids backup physical keys so they could still use the lock if it didn't work.) I went into the Level app and "removed" the two NFC keycards, and then re-added them. Now they both work again. But the lesson is clear: don't count on the NFC keycards to work reliably. Always have a physical key in your pocket as backup.

Let's start off by acknowledging that this is a good looking lock. Slim, elegant, understated. Words I never thought I'd use when talking about a lock. It doesn't go out of its way to announce that it's a smart lock as others do with their prominent keypads, or bulky battery enclosures. It just looks like a nice lock. So you might be tempted to overlook a few ... quirks. But you know what they say. Beauty is fleeting. Instead you need to find a smart lock that will be there for you. That you can depend on. This is not that lock. You might read that this is a touch activated lock, and imagine that this is going to work like your new car. Where you walk up to touch the door handle while your "key" (phone) stays in your pocket. And it reliably unlocks. It does not do this. In reality, you walk up to your door carrying your assortment of bags, groceries, and squirming, shoeless children. You touch the handle, and ... nothing. You're not sure if you touched it correctly so you try again. You probably took too long to reach the door. Did you know that from the moment you arrive home, you have (at most) 5 minutes to reach the door before touch to unlock is disabled? Too bad if you spent at least that much time unbuckling buckles, zipping up zippers, velcroing velcro, all while explaining that "we will be walking up to the door now, and that the street is not in the direction of the door, and the neighbor's yard is ALSO not in the direction of the door, and that, yes that is a very nice stick but we don't use it to hit your brother..." Now you have to put down those bags (or children) to dig out your phone, unlock it, find the app, and press a button while it slowly unlocks. A key would have been faster and convenient. But we're not done. Because maybe you have some other things to bring in. No big deal, the door is unlocked. And you're used to doors staying unlocked until you lock them. So you step out, start walking to the car, only to hear your "smart" lock lock itself behind you. You don't have auto lock turned on. You don't have any HomeKit routines set up. It did nothing when you touched it previously, now there was a gentle breeze and it locks? Is it payback for cursing at it a few minutes ago? Or maybe you left the door ajar while everyone cleared the entryway. Now that there's some space you give it a good shove to shut it behind you, only to wince as the extended deadbolt slams into the doorway trim. Because, I don't know, I guess the lock was so excited about the idea of locking that it finished before the door had even really started to close? Now you're frustrated, and the lock is probably a little embarrassed. No one is really satisfied with the experience. Least of all YOUR spouse, a gentle, kind, patient person. Who (I assume) knits whimsical sweaters for cute woodland creatures who come eagerly when called. But who already hates the lock with an intensity far greater than the love they ever felt for you, probably because of that ONE time spent waiting in the cold as the lock jammed repeatedly while you tried unlocking it using the app. Or, you know, all of those other times the same thing happened. And so you realize that you have to make a decision. Ditch the smart lock that you spent way too much on? Or wake up tomorrow to find the lock torn from the door and half of it left on the bed, godfather style, with your spouse nowhere to be found. So in summary, the lock looks good. App and installation aren't bad. Might destroy your marriage. *** Oh, it looks like there's a firmware update. Maybe this will fix the lock for real this... [loud, terrible sounds of wood and metal being ripped apart] If the new firmware helps I'll update the review.

I never make the time to write reviews, but thought I'd share some honest feedback to everyone as my wife, 2 young kids and myself are AMAZED with the simplicity, stunning design of course, the tech. We usually leave the home or finally lay in bed upstairs and ask ourselves "did we lock the front door"? This genius lil' device solves for that -especially with the HomeKit and Alexa integration for when not at home. It comes with 2 actual keys, 2 keycards and we also purchased the keypad which is very slick and high quality. You can create passes for specific people, customize the code very easily in the app, and everything works flawlessly. Everything just works -just like my iPhone, or my Tesla. It's super high quality and the peace-of-mind it brings to my family is price-less. Worth every penny. I wasn't expecting a lot because it's a 'lock' - how cool can a lock actually be? But the fact my wife and kids think it's the coolest new device in our home, that says something right there. One of my friends who came over last night said it seems like the Tesla of Smart Locks. It really is beautiful designed and love the lil' chirp it makes when you lock/unlock the door on the outside. I'm still exploring all the functions, but thought it would be good to share initial impressions….just WOW. I was a little hesitant at first reading some of the reviews on here but the reality is; it's really a game-changer. I did a TON of research on all the other smart lock brands and hated how bulky they all looked. Our close friend purchased a smart lock from a different company and always complained to me that it never worked right and was a big waste of money. NOT Level - this is the real deal. Even the packaging is something to applaud. You can tell they perfected every detail to make this a flawless consumer experience. BRAVO to Level on getting it right!!! VERY HAPPY NEW CUSTOMER!!! :)

Short Review: The MAIN feature of this lock is the Touch to Unlock feature. It ONLY works 20% of the time. Customer support was no help either. At first they'll say this is a known issue and is being worked but no time frame is given on that update. Next, when you show them pictures of where the lock is installed, they will start to blame the location of the lock. I have mine installed in the door that connects to my garage. Simply put: Do NOT buy this lock. Detailed Version: The main reason you're looking at this lock is due to the convenience of just touching the lock to lock/unlock the door. On paper that does sound super convenient! But how about if the lock never unlocks for you? You are just standing in front of your door touching the lock over and over and over but nothing happens. Beyond frustrating and you start to question "Why did I buy this?". I reached out to Level support and at first they actually acknowledged the issue as a known problem. Great! When will the main feature of this lock be fixed? Nicole over at customer support has no idea so she let me know she would follow up later with the engineering team that's working on the firmware update. Ok that's fair! She initially blamed Apple's iOS and how it handles background operations request from apps so thus the randomness of the unlocking. Understandable. How Apple or even Google updates their Operating System is out of Level's control. Both Nicole and the engineering team follow up with me and this is where it all goes downhill. They suggest that the lock needs time for it to get ready for the Touch to Unlock feature to kick in. This MIGHT be true as sometimes I am standing at my door 15-20 seconds before it actually unlocks. 20 seconds might seem short just saying it but actually standing in front of your door for that long is ridiculous. Sometimes the feature just doesn't even work and you have to pull out your phone/key/card to unlock! Isn't everyone buying this lock expecting to just walk up to the lock and be able to unlock it without a waiting period? I sure thought so. And this whole thing about having to wait with a buffer is all nonsense because of the 20% of the time that it DOES work. I am simply walking up to it and touching/unlocking the lock and it works. Where was the buffer in those times? They then request pictures of where the lock is installed. They immediately say I have the lock installed in a wrong room and that the lock is only meant for entry way doors. I have mine installed in the doorway after getting in through the garage door. I believe they mean they only expect this lock to be installed on the outer perimeters of your home. Like the main entry door way for example. If that's the case, shouldn't this be way more clear in their marketing or product descriptions? Also, why did support pivot from the whole "this is a known issue and is being worked on" to "you installed it in the wrong room"? They sure do make it sound the lock would work PERFECTLY if I just fixed all the issues they mentioned. Not ONCE in the follow up did the engineering team even mention a firmware update. Basically all the blame is put on me and the room I chose to install the lock and what operating system is on my phone. Stay far away from any product that Level releases.

So I was a little disappointed right off the bat when I learned that on the level lock+ have home key and this lock just had homekit (I feel like that should be clearer on the packaging- I like that I could unlock my door from power reserve mode or my watch, not an app, level lock doesn't even have an app, you integrate it into apple home and unlock from there... it all felt like so many steps compared to tapping your wrist on the deadbolt). Unfortunately, there are no apple home key locks in stocks on amazon (and I have a rather large store credit on Amazon, so I'm not buying elsewhere). I believe as of the time of this relieve, there are only 3 smart lock products that use home key, I don't take this into my ranking of this product one way or another, but that needs to expand... Maybe matter will be the turning point. Not looking like a smart lock probably pleases HOAs and gets spouse approval, but that's about it. Honestly, if I had a garage, I wouldn't likely be considering this product. I originally had a Kwikset lock that you could type in the codes outside and slot in a card it you wanted Zigbee or Z-Wave (I have a Z-Wave card), but my wife lose the lock part when we moved into a rental with no deadbolt (eventually, we nagged them into a deadbolt) and my Wink hub went subscription (I still have the Z-wave card). I read that you can hack Wink 1 hubs, but I was never great at microsoldering and I have brain surgery 2/1/2021 that left me with a tremor in my right (previously dominant) hand (well side), so unless there is an OTA, it's bricked for all intents and purposes.. If don't you the lock often (batteries after all, and smaller ones) and you really care about aesthetics, and you want home kit, but do not care about home key, they lock may be for you (they also make one that uses the same key and is even less to replace- if you are a renter- keep everything (a plastic bag under you sink, taped up- landlords can be... rude, they could dock your security deposit for leaving this AND and a piece and nice hardware. You will need an Apple TV or Apple HomePod as a bridge (I got a HomePod Mini from under $90 from Sams, new). Although, it took a while, but so has Amazon. Basic features will work without it, but they are lack luster.

I’ve come to the conclusion none of the consumer grade smart locks are as dependable as they should be. The lock was installed correctly and must be to work as it should. This can take some work, but that’s to be expected. A lock needs to work all of the time. I’ve had this lock and keypad for about 18 months. The theme here is that “It’s always something.” Different aspects of the lock are just continually erratic. I do technology professionally and this purchase, as I look back on it, was a mistake. If I have to carry a physical key with me as a fallback, why even have an electronic lock? The app never seems to have been tested adequately before release. I’ve been locked out of my house once because of this lock. I was checking the battery health of the lock (and keypad) EVERY DAY. On the day I was locked out of my house, the app reported that the lock battery health was “Healthy. Upon arriving at home, the lock would not unlock. I checked the battery health and it was “Unknown.” In other words, you’re locked out of your house. When I reported this, the response was that I wasn’t checking the battery health correctly and that I needed to go thought some steps prior to checking the battery health section. So, the problem was me and not the lock. Well, if I open the app and I check the battery health section and it says “Healthy,” then I have to assume it’s “Healthy.” If the app is misreporting the battery health, the issue is with app, not with me. They sent me several new batteries because of the issue. I’d rather have bought my own batteries (and already had extras on hand (inside the house!) rather than being locked out of my house. In the process of telling me that I didn’t have enough sense to check the battery health correctly, the support engineer advised me of all of the lock events that they could see in their system. This made me very uncomfortable. I’m fully aware of the privacy aspects of the lock. I always read the app privacy section of all apps. But, in hindsight, I consider this much data collection to be disquieting. I’ve read lots of information on all of the consumer grade smart locks and I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that none of them are fully baked. It’s that “It’s always something” thing with all of them. After spending quite a bit of money for the lock, I would never do it again. As ridiculous as it sounds in 2023, I don’t think I want any of the consumer grade smart locks. I’ve got quite a bit of experience with Schlage electronic keypad locks. I’m sure the other known brands are as good. They don’t work erratically, they are relatively inexpensive, and you don’t get locked out of your house. If the battery is getting low, you know it in plenty of time. Just my advice . . .