FINALLY! NO HUB REQUIRED Thread Smart Lock - Aqara U200 (2024)

Happy Saturday everyone! Matter is actually starting to Matter! BUY THE AQARA U200 HERE
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Oh my goodness I am so thankful a ran across your channel a long time ago now. I have learned so much from your videos while always being entertained. They keep getting better and better! Thanks for all you do!

I used to fit time locks on Safes and they had a system that allowed the person under duress to open the safe but all they needed to do was put a number in above or below the last digit to send a duress alarm but it still went through the countdown for whatever the time was set at and open to keep the staff safer.

Great video as always Paul, love your stuff. This will work for me as I have a similar door to yours. I’ve been watching your videos for a good few years now, and you were one of the very first I found, subscribed to and still watch. Keep the great content coming!!

I replaced my SwitchBot lock pro with this after watching your review and the unlock speed difference is huge, by the time I’ve moved my watch from the keypad to the door handle the door is unlocked, homekey support already puts this lock miles ahead of the SwitchBot lock but the speed of it really was the biggest surprise for me

Paul, I will let you off missing the obvious when is a door not a door (when it's a jar) joke 😂 I'm putting it down to lack of sleep due to the new arrival😂

paul blur your keys out please

"No hub required": Matter is starting to make a difference.
"Who in their right mind would carry around something in their front pocket...": Good point on keys. Sometimes folks look at a high-tech solution and raise issues with it that are exactly the same as any low-tech solutions.
"Apple phone or Apple watch": [sigh] What about Android? Ah well, I can use Home Assistant anyway.
"Use your own house key": Very good. I try to cut down on the number of keys I have to carry around and using the same key I already have helps a lot.
Thanks for the comparison between this and the SwitchBot lock. I always appreciate your thoroughness and especially appreciate it when you anticipate a question like this.
Thanks again for a great review. See you next Saturday.

Yes it's 10am on Saturday and you know what that means, Morning Paul 👋

But how does it integrate with home assistant? Via matter enabled zigbee dongle?
What features are missing in this case?

The return of the best tech nerd on the internet 😄

😂 love your videos! Also I may need to pick this up.

Morning, glad you took my advice on X lol. And spooky it's the office door!
Seriously, good to see you back.
Yale connexis already have proximity opening. But I have to have a small magnet for door position to work.

It just works!🎉

I love the "on the fly" joke :D

Another great video Paul.
I was wondering, what do insurance companies think to such smart locks that are placed on exterior doors?

Just for options, I have the Nuki lock, does most of the same features, is quick, is well built, also includes geo sensing, and is integrated into Home Assistant.

Exciting product - Really useful video as always, thanks Paul. Would this work if I already have a thumb turn instead of a keyhole on the inside of my front door? Or would it need to be converted back to standard key use first? Thanks!

Great video, but please give more advice on what doors these smart locks fit, I have tried SwitchBot lock but can’t fit it without making alterations same with nuki lock, so if possible bit more info

Great review thanks

I would really appreciate the install video. I do not actually have that this on key but on the knob. That I need to manually turn to unlock rods that ate in the floor and in the frame of the door. I am really curious If this setup can work. Massive aqara fan. Almost everything I have at home is aqara based.

Nice video. Concise and informative packed. Well done Aqara for making it a more sensible size. I wonder if they could add a magnet in tape like thickness to sort the ajar alert issue?

Lol at your Darth Vader impersonation sounding more like C3P0 than anything else! 😂

Nice video Paul. This Aqara lock looks awesome!

I have to lift the door handle before in can lock the door. Also when unlocking, there is an extra turn to then open the door. Guessing this will not work with doors like this, especially the latter without a key.
Seem to have issues with Aqara, as much as I like the tech. When the SD card in the hub fills up, things go wrong. Currently trying to sort out why camera motion notifications have stopped

I'll have you know I am subscribed and have been for ages. Don't come at me like that😂

Can Home Assistant (hip thrusts) lock and unlock? If so, the geofencing in HA could be used.

Thanks Paul. Happy Saturday.

Paul blur is a band. This is for a sexy algorithm

Great video!

Not seeing my name in the Patreon list helped me update my payment settings on several sites! Thanks for stroking my ego every week at the end of the video 😂 and great content!

Hi Paul, another cool vid, am i correct in thinking that this won't work for me as i can't have a key on the inside of my door & still unlock from the outside? Thanks

Great fun video as always. Maybe you could look at Tedee lock as well?

Good video. As with others, I wish you'd been able to address what the situation is with both locks and the lift handle doors that most of us have. At very least e need to know that it can alert if someone forgets to lift the handle. A lock that sits there silently unable to lock, or worse burns out its motor trying to lock an unlockable door is a non starter.

@jmr10 วันที่ผ่านมา ⁺¹

I like this better in general but would prefer a magnet sensor. That said I'm pretty happy with a simple combination style. I set some extra one time pins I keep in my password manager so I can give one out in an emergency. No need for all the cloud stuff. The cloud features were fun but I never found any of the cloud features useful day to day on my last lock.

Welcome back Paul

I am beta testing switchbot geofencing and it does work. The lock uses your Bluetooth to unlock. But uses location to prime the lock for high power scanning

I have a Nuki door lock. it does open on geo-fence in combination with BLE.

I'm curious how this thing would compare to August locks. I've been using August for years with great reliability, and it already has geofencing.

Happy Saturday Paul.

Great Video, as I'll be renting for next 5 years at least due to career, I'm definitely more inclined towards something like this. If/when I get one, more than likely going with the Aqara. Only thing kind of holding me back now is the house I live in, sometimes the doors need a little pressure to get the deadbolt to go in, since house is old, shifted, swelling from humidity etc., so feel like unlocking be fine, but getting it to lock remotely might be a challenge.

Can I use this as a keypad based lock even if I do not have a matter supported device like Apple, HomePod, Amazon, echo or Google Device?

Does homekey only work with an apple thread router like a homepod or Apple TV. It won't work with an echo thread router for example

Have you used the August smart lock? It’s much faster than both of them.

Great video again and hoping you are enjoying your leave. I'm guessing this has the same problem as the Switch bot one, ie needing independent locks each side or removable thumb turn,

Morning Sir, happy Saturday!

Hi Paul, great video. I have to use keys on both sides of my door to lock or open my door, will the aqara lock work for me? thanks

If I only have the U200 lock and Apple HomePod mini, does that allow me to have features that you mention require thread boarder router?
Can I have Apple home key using this connection method?

You said you can use your existing key, which will be great for some people. But can you disable the use of old keys if you completely want to deprecate them?

Yeah you nailed how I feel about the Switchbot Lock Pro. Yes it works and has a lot of unlock options which I love. But it doesn't give me that super snappy smart home experience that I got when I switched from cloud control to local. I have the Lock Pro and it bums me out when it takes a few seconds for the gears to turn, then it turns at a basic slow speed that's pretty standard for everything other than the U200.
I didn't know if I could resist getting the U200 since I already bought the Lock Pro. But I don't think I can. I want the satisfying feeling I would get with the U200 of unlocking and locking being super fast and responsive. I know I won't ever get that from the Lock Pro.

One question, here in the UK have double glazed doors where you have to lift the handle to engage the lock.
However as this is HomeKit compatible it’s an amazing thing, Aqara stuff is truely awesome

How many multilock points does the torque support?

This looks great. Have been looking for a matter/thread lock for ages. Shame most UK front doors use a night latch style lock and I’ve only seen Yale make that as a smart lock.

Yes. The trouble finger printer code 🧑‍💻 should be on all items.

What if you don't have a door like you? A door with a normal handle which has to be pulled up to be able to lock the door? Does it recognise that you've pulled the handle up?

A good Banging! Ha Ha!
Thanks Paul. Seems like a really good device.

Do these work on doors with the lift handles common in the UK?

Very interesting.
Have you tried to connect it with a door camera that has face recognition so that it recognises you and unlocks the door?

The nest Yale lock is very fast as well I would love if they came out with the version with fingerprint reader

Great video as always Paul! I had the original switchbot lock and it wasn't powerful enough to hold the latch back on my slam shut door. Does your thumb turn need a fair bit of pressure to hold the latch open? Looks like the aqara had no problems with it.

Curious how the outdoor unit handles weather. I currently have a Lockly device on my front door. I live in mid-usa and summers are lots of hot sunlight. As a result, the Lockly has suffered lots of weathering. The paint (looked like chrome when I first installed it) is flaking off, keypad numbers are much harder to read now too. I think I've had the lock for about 6-7 years now? Second issue I see with the Lockly - my wife and daughter have a hard time getting it to read their fingerprints to unlock it. It works fine for me. The NFC unlock would fix this problem.

did you make an installation video?

@dluik11 วันที่ผ่านมา ⁺²

Great vid - the SwitchBot lock can hold the latch for doors like mine that dont have a handle on the outside. Does anyone know if the u200 can do the same? The speed of this lock would tempt me to switch lol

Hopefully the next version of SwitchBot lock will be faster. Also, does anyone know how to get these smart locks to work with deadbolt locking that requires the handle to be lifted? Or are there deadbolt locks available that don’t require the handle to be lifted?

It finally happened! I am a John. But I am already subscribed

I have the Aqara Smart Lock U100, and we like it a lot. The batteries on mine last about 6 months, and they are easy to change while inside the house without tools. It has a voice alert on the lock as well as phone alerts saying the battery is low, so there's little chance it will be forgotten. I do keep my physical key with me just in case, but haven't needed it since we installed it.
There is one feature I was actually surprised didn't already exist in the app for it. I would like to set it to lock itself if it's been left unlocked for say, 10 minutes. If that could be set to have different behaviors at different times of day it would be even better. At night, it locks if left for 2 minutes.

You love your SCI-FI - as do I - "Interstellar"

Looks bice cheers

Does this have 2FA authentication? So you need a fingerprint and also a PIN code to unlock it.

Does it need the m3 hub for the advanced features or will any aqara hub work?

Can anyone recommend the yale cylinder compatible with this lock?

I do like the look of this and would more likely have been far easier to fit than my Loqed smart lock. This also has assisted twist, far easier than the Aqara, it also has two Bluetooth beacons so it knows which side of the door you are on. I get out of the car on the drive and it’s auto unlocking. Sadly Loqed have gone down the pan, but thankfully been bailed out by Shelly!
As usual Paul, great video, great information and great japes along the way! F the haters man 👍

So Dutch doors work with ehhhh well you need to turn it with a bit of force to open and then it turns back with a bit of a spring if you know what I mean. Does this work for those as well?

This does look a lot smarter, not sure it would work on my front door due to it not always fully clicking into place when the handle is lifted!!

Im having a maddening time with the SwitchBot universal remote. Found out i needed to buy an additional hub. Got that. Then the madness really kicked in to high gear.

I think the speed will depend on what type of lock you have. My lock only needs a 1/4 turn to unlock it, not the multiple spins, so the speed is not so much of an issue as the 1/4 turn happens quickly anyway. Nice to see a thread based lock though. Hope more of these come out as they are more reliable and secure than bluetooth based locks . I still am concerned about anything chineseum these days though due to security issues.

Does it work in Australia?

That was hilarious 😂

Right on. So, I'm set to buy but one question: can the inner-door peicw be mounted inverted, my door is a diva.
Also, you look amazingly rested for you guys having a kiddo, whats the secret? 😂😂😂😂😅

August door locks can do that Geo fencing

Finally, the video what I was waiting for. What if I want to use the magnet to insure that the lock knows the door is locked, is it going to recognize the magnet?

Happy Hibbertday 😁

Ring currently have some discounts on their cameras on Amazon. I'm not falling for them myself again.
I bought their Ring Stick Up Cam. I tried to stick it up but with the width and the flat top means I couldn't unpucker enough to get it in. I tried everything. Offering it up and falling it just hurt.
Why would they call it a ring stick up camera!

does this lock really has the Ultra Wideband chip required to unlock by itself when an iphone is closed by?

Aqara makes a hubless door lock.
Wyze: hold my beer.

You said that the Switchbot Lock Pro takes a long time to respond, but everything Switchbot does takes a long time to respond. This is why my Hub 2 is just made a screen to display the temperature.

So I’ve got a typical Uk door, looks very much like your door with I think it’s a euro lock. Basically to open the door, even when it’s not fully locked you need to push the door to open it. I assume this wouldn’t work?

I’m waiting for a lock AND door bell 🎉

I don't know if this is possible or not, I see that you put urls and discount codes for UK and US but would you have them for Canada? Congratulations on your first child. You are not n for a lot of firsts. Love your channel. Keep up the good work.

Do you need a apple hub to use apple home key ?

Hi Paul, I really like your videos and tests. Thanks for that.
Unfortunately I have to disagree with your statement „no hub required“ There are several functions that don‘t work with homekit or homeassistant if you don‘t have an Aqara hub.
For example there is no way to use a pin when opening via Homekit or Homeassistant. Secondly I cannot get a state „door open“ via matter.
The fact that there is no third state for open without pulling the latch.
I really like the lock but there are those essential things missing.
Cheers

Unfortunately doesn’t work on our apartment door 😢 This thing is so cool.

In the future? I guess the future came last year, because Yale has that feature on their deadbolt. I can even set up HA to do geofencing to unlock the door. And I can do the whole "Temp PIN for guests or workers". Yale's deadbolt works off wifi (with a wifi module) or bluetooth. It's also cheaper than the Aqara lock.

TH-cam lies! I AM subscribed.... 🤣

EU viewer here. Still on Linus Yale, I'll might try it someday when it gets more attention

Oooh just need to sneak one or two of these past the mrs

Geo fencing for unlock is sadly not something I'd recommend unless they take into account location drifting, the locking part would be great but with a multi point lock it becomes useless sadly. Really hope someone makes a multi point lock one soon, that works with home assistant I'd buy that straight away

Lock pro has the gyroscope also, magnet is optional.

Majority of the features (including Geofence) are already in Nuki for more than 3 years.

But Paul, is the Aqara faster than that Switchbot?