Honest Review of the SECURAM Touch Smart Deadbolt Lock

Now more than ever, it’s essential to secure the safety of your home. You never know who might be prowling about, or waiting to steal your things as soon as you’re gone. These are not new issues, though, and they don’t necessarily require a modern solution. Mechanical keys have been up to the task for at least a century.

But there are some inherent weaknesses to traditional keys that are worth taking into consideration. Primarily, they’re easy to copy. A handyman works on your house for a week, and returns your key at the end of that time. During that week, they’ve looked for valuables and made a copy of your key. A month or more later, your house gets robbed. The thief uses a key, comes and goes while you’re gone, and snags all your jewelry and electronics. If your Xbox hadn’t been missing, it might have been a week before you knew you’d been robbed. How could the thief have been so efficient?

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the handyman did it. The same can be true for any contractor, cleaner, dog walker, nanny, or anyone with a copy of your key. Even a trusted best friend may have a child with a drug problem, or an unscrupulous brother-in-law. The point is, for every copy of your key you give out, you take the risk of it being stolen or copied.

A modern smart lock can resolve most of these issues. We’re about to review the SECURAM Touch Smart Deadbolt Lock, which opens in five ways. You can use a fingerprint, a numeric passcode, a voice command, or an app. And yes, there’s a mechanical backup key, just in case of an emergency. But how well does it perform? Is it easy to use, or is it painful to set up? To find out, we had to put the Touch Smart Deadbolt Lock to the test. Now, we’ll tell you everything we learned about its functionality, its performance, and even its appearance.

Design & Aesthetics

The SECURAM Touch Smart Deadbolt Lock has a unique design. With its rectangular keypad sticking out and up from a round housing, it looks like the universal power button symbol. The housing is constructed from powder-coated stainless steel, and it’s attractive to look at. The faceplate is black, as is the keypad itself. This creates a sharp contrast, and the white lettering on the keypad is easy to read. On top of the keypad, you’ll see a circular black fingerprint reader, located for easy access.

On the inside of your home, the Touch Smart Deadbolt Lock is all steel, with a deadbolt latchkey at the middle. The only splash of color is a green and red toggle switch, which controls guest access. Other than that, there’s no interior cosmetic difference between this and any other deadbolt.

Installation is easy, provided your door is already pre-drilled. You can use a single Philips screwdriver to remove your old one and install your new one. The only requirement is that the door must be between 1 ⅜ and 2 inches in thickness. Since this encompasses pretty much all modern doors, you shouldn’t have any compatibility issues. The only major concern you’ll have is if your door isn’t pre-drilled. In that case, you’ll need a drill and a hole saw or jigsaw. Thankfully, SECURAM includes a template in the kit for creating your own holes. Keep in mind that this is a deadbolt only, and doesn’t include a knob; you’ll have to provide your own.

The Touch Smart Deadbolt Lock has a weather-resistance rating of IP54 for standing up to dust and rain. The “5” in this rating is in reference to dust resistance, which is fairly good. It can withstand pretty much anything you’ll see in the US, even very fine dust in very dry climates. The “4” refers to water-resistance, which is adequate. This lock can’t withstand submersion, and you shouldn’t spray it with the jet setting on your hose nozzle. That said, it’s capable of handling any amount of rain, even if the door itself is not under shelter. The electronic lock can also function under most temperature conditions, from 14 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Outside of that range, though, you’ll need to rely on the backup key.

For power, you’ll use a pair of CR123A batteries, which are included in the kit. They can last for as long as a full year, depending on usage. If you’re using a lot of wireless features, you can expect more along the lines of six months. Still, not bad! When the batteries get low, a warning light will illuminate to let you know it’s time to replace them. If you somehow manage to miss that, you can use a 9V battery by attaching it to the bottom of the lock. There’s an emergency connection there for plugging the battery right in. Alternatively, you can always use the mechanical key.

The lock and all parts are covered by a 12-month manufacturer’s warranty. This protects you from any defects in parts or labor. Any issues, and you can return it for a refund or replacement.

Lock Performance

There are five ways of unlocking the Touch Smart Deadbolt Lock: fingerprints, passcodes, keys, the app, and voice commands. Fingerprints are probably what comes to mind when you first think of a smart lock. After all, biometric padlocks have been around for years. The SECURAM fingerprint sensor works well. The reader is effective, and rarely registers a false negative. You shouldn’t ever have to touch the lock more than twice in order for it to open. You can also program several pairs of fingerprints in order to allow the whole family in and out.

The keypad controls are similarly easy to use. You can program up to 30 passcodes, and these codes are “spy-proof.” That means you can enter nonsense digits before and after your actual code. If someone is looking over your shoulder, they won’t know which digits are which.

No electronic lock is 100 percent reliable. Sensors can fail, circuits can short out, and even the best software can go haywire. For those situations, SECURAM includes a set of two physical keys that can be used as a backup. The keyhole is discreetly located on the bottom of the lock, so it’s out of sight and out of mind.

Via the SECURAM app, you’ll also have the ability to unlock your door remotely, even if you’re not at home. You can also connect your lock to your Alexa-enabled devices, and open it with voice commands. To take advantage of either of these last two options, you’ll need the Smart Hub. We’ll discuss that in a second.

One additional locking feature is that the Touch Smart Deadbolt Lock can be set to lock automatically. This function is disabled by default, but can be enabled with the app. You can set the delay time from 15 seconds to 300 seconds (5 minutes). This will ensure that your door is always locked behind you, even if you forgot to lock it yourself.

Connectivity and Extras

Disappointingly, the Touch Smart Deadbolt Lock is missing a lot of features right out of the box. The reason is that it doesn’t connect to your home WiFi network. To actually get the door lock online, you’ll need the SECURAM Smart Hub, which is sold separately. Most WiFi door locks come with a hub unit in the kit, and its absence was disappointing. We feel like SECURAM is charging extra for something that should be standard. It’s like a game console manufacturer selling a console without a controller.

Regardless, the hub itself is well-designed. It’s just over two and a half inches in diameter, and just over an inch and a half thick. It plugs into a power outlet, and sits out of sight, bridging the gap between your door lock and your network. The range of the wireless signal is 50 feet, which is quite good. You can put it a room or two over from your door if need be to stay in range of your router.

With the Smart Hub set up and your lock connected to the web, you can use app and voice controls. You can also get push alerts sent directly to your smartphone. These will let you know whenever your door is locked or unlocked. Because this might get annoying, push alerts are turned off by default. With the smart hub, you can also program, deactivate, and reactivate temporary visitor codes. This is one of the biggest benefits of a smart lock, and it’s disappointing that it requires a secondary purchase.

If you want a lot of smart features without having to buy a separate hub, consider the Lockly Secure Pro. It allows you to control your lock remotely, but without the need for any other purchase. The downside is that the wireless signal is relatively short in range.

Final Verdict

The SECURAM Touch Smart Deadbolt Lock is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, we really liked the physical design. It’s attractive to look at, and doesn’t appear clunky like many smart locks. Not only that, but it’s sturdy. It feels like an actual piece of hardware, not a plastic piece of electronics. We also appreciated the lock’s excellent performance. The fingerprint reader is highly accurate, and the number pad allows for up to 30 passwords. Not only that, but the battery life is long, and the 9-volt and mechanical backups are well thought-out.

Unfortunately, this lock won’t actually connect to the web unless you buy the Smart Hub. This would be understandable if the Touch Smart Deadbolt Lock itself were cheap, but it’s not. It’s a full-priced smart lock that doesn’t actually come with online controls. There’s plenty to like here. But be prepared to pay extra if you want to be able to use all the deadbolt’s features.