New Keyless Locks From Yale Round Out Your Connected Home

The modern, connected home starts at the front door, and that's where the new lineup from Yale makes their presence felt. The Key Free B1L and T1L offer a clean, modern look to your home, even letting you ditch the house key. Via a touch screen or keypad, your front entry will be both secure and futuristic.

Yale's two new keyless offerings have immediate security benefits due to the fact there is no keyhole. No place for a key means no place for a lock-pick tool. Sans the ability to pick the lock, would-be burglars will hopefully be scared off.

The deadbolts are also very stylish, with what Yale says is "the smallest residential keypad on a lock of this type." Jason Williams, General Manager, Yale Residential says "Since our introduction last year of the industry's first key free products we've seen strong consumer demand for these locks. Consumers recognize the enhanced security that comes with the absence of a cylinder, and because of that strong acceptance we've expanded our line with these new, sleeker cylinder-less models priced to appeal to an even broader market."

That market will include connected home enthusiasts, where both new offerings from Yale make use of Z-Wave to connect to your existing platform. Though they don't name it specifically, the new Wink system — which utilizes Z-Wave — is in play, here. Yale notes their new locks work with alarm.com's system, as well as Interlogix and Qolsys.

When linked to your WiFi network, the two keyless door locks will alert you via SMS or email when the battery gets low, too. If the battery happens to run dry, you can hook up a 9V battery to gain access, but that charge is only good for one shot. The touchpad B1L is available this month from "leading industry wholesalers and online retailers." The touchscreen T1L (which we've not seen yet) will be on offer starting in August.