Biometric door lock systems, high-tech electronic locking devices that use voice, retina patterns or fingerprints to identify people before granting access, first found mass-market use in the automobile industry. Cars that only started up after successful biometric scans were seen to be practical and secure.
The homeowners market has been a natural fit for biometric locks. Systems that have worked well on automobiles have been modified to go on front doors, back doors and garage doors in homes to help homeowners restrict who got to get in or leave. These door locks are considered more secure than traditional mechanical locks – a fact that is recognized by home insurance companies. On quotes generated on services like homesecurity911.com, properly secured homes equipped with biometric door locking systems often receive lower quotes.
Are Biometric Door Locks Ready for Prime Time?
Well-designed fingerprint door locks and other biometric keyless entry systems offer excellent resistance to the efforts of burglars who pick locks and others who try to gain unauthorized entry.
Biometric Locks Can be a Good Idea!
The most obvious advantage of a keyless entry system is that you no longer need to worry about misplacing your key.
With traditional locks, people sometimes try to provide for the possibility that they could lock themselves out one day by trying to hide a spare key somewhere on the property. Often, they do this unimaginatively – a fact that burglars take advantage of. With a keyless entry system, the need for such risks disappears.
People sometimes need to give copies of their keys to roommates or romantic partners. Sometimes, when these relationships fall apart, they can never be sure if the other person has made a copy. They then simply end up spending a large sum of money on replacing all their locks to be safe. Fingerprint door locks make key sharing scenarios much simpler. Granting access to a new person or withdrawing it is as simple as adding or deleting a fingerprint on the system.
As High-tech as Fingerprint Door Locks are, They do Come with a Downside:
These locks are complex electronic devices that are as prone to failure as any electronic product is. They can stop working when they run out of battery power, too. Being locked out of your home by a dead battery can be a serious problem. If a battery failure or other electronic failure occurs before a door locks itself properly, it can result in doors that remain unlocked, as well.
As advanced as these systems are, fingerprint reading still isn’t a fully developed technology. Fingerprint door locks often have trouble recognizing some fingerprints consistently. You may find that some family members get through easily while others need to try several times. If you find yourself locked out, you may need to use an entry code or a regular passkey. Under poorly lit convictions, keying an entry code into an unlit keypad may be a problem – for children and the elderly, especially.
As for the passkey, you need to make sure that the lock you buy has a high quality mechanical bypass system. The manufacturers of some high-tech locks make the mistake of using very elementary mechanical bypass locks. Burglars, then, don’t need to use the fingerprint system, at all – they just need to pick the bypass lock.
Before You Install Fingerprint Door Locks:
It could be a good idea to do a trial run before you go to the trouble replacing your regular locks with fingerprint door locks. You could try installing one of these high-tech locks on a less-used door or try the technology out in another form. You could, for instance, try to buy a fingerprint lock-enabled safe for your home to see how well it works for your family.
This fingerprint door lock is quite impressive. I should try these one first in our basement door to see if it really works and best for our family. I love this idea because I usually forgot my keys so if I have one of these fingerprint door lock this would be awesome for me. Thanks for sharing.