Lock Pro with Matter - Satin Nickel

The Level Lock Pro with Matter is an amazing piece of engineering and design! This Invisible Smart Lock sits inside your deadbolt, only replacing only the existing latch and strike plate. No one will ever know you have a smart lock! This is my second Level product, as I also have the Level Bolt on a different door. The Level Lock Pro ads a key housing and interior paddle. These add electronic functionality to the exterior housing so you can use one of two included Key Fobs, plus Apple Home Keys, but since I’m an Android user I can’t test this. It also has a cool touch control to lock. Installation can take less than 10 minutes. Simply remove the existing deadbolt and strike plate. Insert the motor, add the inner and outer housings, then install the CR2 battery and like magic it just works! For me, the time-consuming task was removing putty from around the existing strike plate added by our home builder and needing to slightly trim the wood behind the strike plate, as the Level strike plate is thicker than a standard contractor-grade strike plate. On inserting the CR2 Battery, Matter-compatibility executed a notification on my Google Pixel phone to “Set Up Your Device”. I simply scanned the supplied QR Code and everything self-installed, with Google Home being the default platform. Even before installing the Level app, most everything worked within my Google Home ecosystem, including naming the bolt and controlling the lock less battery status. For security, you can’t unlock the bolt by a “Hey Google” voice command, but you can lock it. From within the Google Home app, you can remotely lock or unlock the bolt from anywhere. The packaging also claims compatibility with Apple Home, Amazon Alexa and SmartThings. I recommend also installing and registering the Level Home app. It adds firmware updating, calibration, sound level settings, battery status, Auto Lock options (setting a duration from 30 seconds to one hour to auto-lock my door after unlocking) and more. You can setup sharing and create a “Pass” e.g. setting temporary access for your visiting in-laws. You also can easily use your phone to configure the two Key Fobs. They lock and unlock the door just be tapping them to the front of the lock. The kit includes two keys, but I will be taking them to a locksmith to have the lock rekeyed to existing Kwikset keys as long as your existing keys are a 5-pin C-style cylinder. The Level Home app does not include its own Google Widget, but the Google Home Widget works just fine. I definitely recommend the Level Lock Pro with Matter!

I recently installed the Level Lock Pro in the silver finish, and I couldn't be happier with it. The installation was surprisingly simple and straightforward, taking only a short amount of time with clear instructions to follow. It fit perfectly into my existing deadbolt setup without changing the look of my door. Using it every day has been just as easy. Locking and unlocking the door is seamless, and the app is intuitive and reliable. I appreciate that it combines smart features with a clean, traditional appearance. If you're looking for a smart lock that's easy to install and even easier to use, the Level Lock Pro is an excellent choice and I have recommended to my neighbor who just bought one.

I’ve been using the lock for a week now and it works perfectly. The installation was super easy and straightforward. The lock itself looks really clean and I appreciate that it looks like any other lock with it electronics. It did take a few try’s to get it pairs with the app but once it was connected I had not issues. Being able to use your phone to unlock and lock the door is very convenient and being able to check the status of the lock from anywhere is a nice feature.

Installation steps are easy, but in the end it wasn't able to lock itself. It turned out that I could not tighten both security bolts all the way or it wouldn't lock. The support page says not to over tighten them, but I had to leave one of them actually loose. It took a lot of trial and error (which involved taking the knob on and off over and over), so of course at one point I dropped the knob and it's dinged now.

This is an updated review. I have had the lock for a week now. I initially had some problems with it as listed below, but now I have the Level Connect Wifi bridge, so I came back to update my review. My rating is staying at 3 stars, because the lock still isn't reliable. Tonight, the "touch to open" failed for both my wife and me. The Wifi bridge is nice because I can see the status of the lock when I'm not at home, but obviously it hasn't fixed all the issues. I'm into his for $430 now and it's still very much imperfect. I've learned to always have the physical key with me. Read on... Installation was a pain! I am very handy and tech-savvy, so I wasn't concerned, but I've had multiple issues. With the physical installation, the main problem I had is that there is a "long" and "short" setting for the bolt extension, and neither one worked well for me. With the "short" setting, the bolt piece was too close to the edge of the door and I couldn't physically connect the lock to it (they are two pieces that fit together with a "puzzle piece" shaped slot). With the "long" setting, the lock ended up being too close to the far side of the hole cutout and it wouldn't actually fit in the hole. I ended up having to make the hole larger. I have a very standard door, so I suspect this will be a problem for a lot of people. There should be a setting where the lock can be centered in the hole so the outer and inner pieces will cover the hole completely. These two pieces are not much larger than the hole, so after I enlarged the hole by about 1/8" and the lock still wasn't centered, I was left with a gap when I installed the inner and outer pieces. I had to buy some steel cover plates to hide the gap. Not a big deal, but I'm still wondering why this lock wouldn't fit a standard front door hole. Otherwise, I do like how it looks. The inner knob seems "mushy", though. When you turn it to lock or unlock the door, it never feels solid - it feels squishy. I don't really know why this is, but it's not a confidence-builder! Using the lock has been an adventure. I do not yet have a gateway installed to connect this to my home WiFi. I wanted a smart lock that didn't require this, but so far it doesn't seem to function consistently. The "touch to open" feature works, USUALLY (not always). The provided key fobs also SOMETIMES work. The "touch to lock" feature seems to work, but this morning, I touched it when I left the house and heard it lock, along with the confirmation chime. Then I came home and touched it again, and it LOCKED. So I guess it was unlocked the whole time I was gone? I don't know. There have been times when I have not been able to get it to do anything while I'm standing outside my house, and I've had to pull out my phone and use the app or the physical key to open the door (at least there is a physical key, which is something I like). I added my wife as an admin and installed the app on her phone, but my app never recognized that she accepted the invitation, so it listed her as Pending and then deleted her access altogether after a couple of days. Also, without any Wifi connection, the app has no idea if the door is locked or unlocked once you are out of Bluetooth range, so I reluctantly ordered the $79 bridge. I am hopeful this will solve some of the other issues (UPDATE: IT DID NOT), but I don't like the security risk of having my lock connected to the internet. Also, it's shocking that a $349 "smart lock" doesn't come with internet connectivity! I found it very difficult to get solid information about this lock before buying it. I used ChatGPT several times to help explain what capabilities it would have out of the box, and even so, it still doesn't do what I want it to. For example, I thought I would be able to use my Apple Watch to open it, but so far I have not been successful. Is the bridge required for this? I don't really know. So it has been a rough start! I will update this review after a few more weeks of using it and after installing the WiFi bridge.