Hacker News Reader

Comment by silisili | Hacker News Reader

I thought about doing it a while back, but then looked over at the 8ft of windows right next to the door. Seems silly to spend effort on the door when the windows are just as kickable.

All of that said, just bought a Kwikset Halo and it came with extra long screws, for anyone curious. I'm pretty happy with it.

View on HN

At least you can force a burglar to crawl through glass. I've had burglars spend over two minutes exposed while trying to pry open my windows instead of just smashing the glass.

(If you mean windows that go down to your floor, yeah fair enough. Screws are still cheap and easy though)

My parents' home was burglarized once by incompetent amateurs who broke a window door and cut themselves in the process. I came there that weekend to check on things and discovered a mass of coagulated blood on the floor. I'd rather they had bashed in a door instead.

You can get aftermarket security film applied to windows that makes it very difficult to bust through. This saved my office from a burglary.

Any good smart lock recommendations that wired instead of wireless?

Sorry, I don't. I leaned Kwikset because of their smartkey system. You can rekey the lock to match your existing home keys. I'm not sure if any other brand does that, but it was so simple to do I'm a Kwikset guy now(even their newer dumb locks have this, too).

Schlage makes z-wave locks that are traditional schlage locks in every other way, including the key. I had all mine keyed to match by my local locksmith.

Another upside to the newer versions of the Kwikset smartkey systems: they are moderately difficult to force open, even for a pro, if they are trying to be remotely discreet - I locked myself out, deadbolt and doorknob, and it took a professional locksmith more than 10 minutes to get my front door open. Obviously drills and/or bashing nullify all of this, but I’m happy to have a secure lock.

Not wired, but I recommend the schlage z-wave deadbolts. No wifi madness, so if you want to access them remotely (I do), you have to set up some kind of home automation server and then VPN to it. No cloud for me, and encrypted z-wave is secure enough. If someone really wants in, they'll smash the window next to my front door and reach through and turn the deadbolt. Nobody's going to bother trying to hack z-wave.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com