Answering one of the most frequently asked questions.

“What happens when the battery in my smart lock runs out?” definitely features in the most frequently asked questions from our clients.

And understandably so. No one wants to be in a situation where they’ve returned home only to find themselves locked out because the battery drained out.

Smart door locks are designed to give convenient access to your property using keyless access options like fingerprint, PIN codes, access cards or even facial recognition and we certainly don’t want to be worrying about changing batteries on our locks too often!

In a world of devices where we are constantly charging our phones and laptops, a smart door lock is one of the most energy efficient devices. The latest models are all designed to consume little or no power in the stand-by mode. Even the digital door viewer models, which have a higher battery consumption rate have an energy saving mode.

In a typical household, the minimum battery life of a smart door lock could be up to 6 months, before requiring a change.

That being said, smart locks from Philips, Oji smart locks and all of our digital cabinet locks come with a “low-battery” reminder which is triggered when the lock reaches a set lower threshold for the battery. Once the low battery alerts start to show up, the user still has quite a few operations worth of battery left, but we recommend not putting off the battery change for long. Battery change is quick and simple, with most door lock models using standard AA batteries, available at any supermarket.

Low battery alarms may notify the user with beeps, voice alerts, in-app notifications based on the smart lock brand, model and lock settings. It is important to either charge or replace the batteries at the earliest.

At this point, we would like to stress the importance of using good quality batteries, a full new pack instead of mixed brands, a mix of old and new or off-brand batteries. Read more on this topic on our earlier post here.

For those who may have put off changing the batteries for too long or simply are not able to change batteries for unavoidable reasons, like being away from the country, there’s the emergency key to the rescue. A simple, mechanical key that will unlock your door in spite of battery drainage.

The keyholes are cleverly concealed, keeping them out of plain sight. To be able to unlock using the back up or emergency key, we suggest that users store the key at a secure place, that’s not in the house. You may leave one in your drawer at work, with a trusted neighbor, in the car or with a friend, where you can access, it should the need arise.

Some models also feature external battery sources input, like a power bank or 9V battery. Once powered by the external power source, the lock can be unlocked and the batteries changed to new ones.

With multiple levels of alerts, back up unlocking options, emergency keys, external power supply there is a very small chance of getting locked out. In such a situation, Oji is here to provide guidance based on the situation. Contact us