Tapo DL100 review: A Wi-Fi smart lock for a whole lot less

Best prices today: TP-Link Tapo DL100

$ 59.99

Building well for its cheap routers, TP-Link quickly developed its TAPO range of intelligent household appliances at budgetary prices, and Tapo DL100 Smart Lock is a fabulous domestic security value.

You will find a lot of intelligent locks that look pretty, wrap more whipbang features and support more intelligent house ecosystems, but you will not find a $ 70 lock which is almost as good as Tapo DL100 of TP-Link.

Design and construction quality

Tapo DL100 is not flashy, but it does not seem cheap. The finish in black and art mixes well with most doors, and the keyboard shines slowly for night visibility. Although the case is plastic instead of metal, it does not feel fragile in hand.

Tapo DL100 is BHMA certified as a trade lock noted Ansi Grade 3, the lowest of the three commercial locking notes (the upper levels being grade 1 followed by the 2nd year). If you want a stronger lock, you will have to spend more money. You can read the notes Ansi Lock on the Ansi blog. We explain the residential locking standards of the BHMA on the previous link.

In terms of meteorization, the lock is noted a modest IP54, which, according to our IP code guide, means that it will not allow the dust of dust to cause failure, and that it can resist the spraying of water (but certainly not from a pressure laundry).

James Barber / Foundry

I do not know if I would use it for a beach house by the sea, but that should resist more typical environments. That said, many of the locks we have examined recently had the same water resistance ratings as this lock, but they were waterproof (having a 6 to 5 – like the first figure in their IP codes).

More specifications

The Tapo DL100 Smart Deadbolt offers both a digital pavement with physical buttons (this is not a touch screen) and a conventional key cylinder, and it can also be locked and unlocked with the Tapo application on your phone via Bluetooth, or – on once you have connected it to your Home Wi -Fi network (2.4Hz surface command.

The lock also supports SmartThings and Ifttt, but not Homekit d’Apple or, by extension, Apple’s reception key. There is also no support for thread or material, and the DL100 also does not provide the alternative means of unlocking it with a fingerprint. If it is an essential feature – consider the high -end Tapo DL110 model which has this functionality – plus an integrated doorbell; It is at a price of $ 150.

The lock operates on four AA batteries, which, according to TP-Link, should last 10 months using a Bluetooth connection. This complaint falls at seven months with the lock connected to the Wi-Fi, which I expect that most people opt, because it gives you distance access to the lock. If the batteries die while you are on the move, you can connect a smartphone or a portable battery to a USB-C port at the bottom of the lock

Installation and configuration

James Barber / Foundry

Physical installation should be child’s play for anyone replacing an existing dangerous bolt, and you don’t need any kind of hub or bridge to take advantage of all its features without having to register for a subscription or another service plan.

I replaced an existing impartial lock, and the entire process to remove the old bolt due to the opening of the DL100 box to move away from a completed project took less than fifteen minutes. If you need to cut at your door and assembly for installation, the process becomes much more complicated, as it would with any other dangerous bolt.

James Barber / Foundry

A Phillips head screwdriver was the only tool necessary for the project and, after installing the Tapo application on my phone and inserted the batteries into the lock, the DL100 connected via Bluetooth almost immediately. Your next steps will be to create a pin of 4 to 8 digits and add the lock to your Wi-Fi network. You can create up to 200 unique pin with different permission levels. You will also want to activate the lock / unlock parameter of the application if you want to be able to unlock the door remotely via the Internet.

The application also allows you to generate a unique code that customers, home cleaners, entrepreneurs, repair services and other people can use to obtain authorized access to your home. You can choose from the predefined hours (up to a full day) or define a personalized time window on a future date. An activity journal maintains the necklace of everyone’s comings and goings.

James Barber / Foundry

If you fear that someone discover your pin by watching you unlock the door, or by studying which figures on the spindle have revealing fingerprints, take advantage of the tapo pine code option. This allows you to press up to 20 random numbers, with your PIN code included in the sequence and / or after your spindle, and the lock will not take into account the other numbers but will unlock when it recognizes your spindle.

The limiter of attempting to unlock TP-Link Another security feature. It allows you to define the number of attempted unlocking missed before the locking freezes for a defined period: up to 5 minutes, by one minute increments). You can also define an automatic locking timer which will automatically reshape the door after passing a defined number of minutes after opening it: 15 or 30 seconds, or 1, 5 or 15 minutes.

Wi-Fi connectivity is a known battery pork, so you can program the lock to automatically deactivate its Wi-Fi adapter at night and fall only to Bluetooth connectivity. The lock will automatically reconnect at Wi-Fi at a time of your choice. It is a very cool feature.

So what is missing?

James Barber / Foundry

Here is what you do not get at the price of the $ 70 case: there is no recognition of fingerprints (again, TP-Link offers a more expensive lock than do Have this feature) and there is no geofencing support, so your phone cannot automatically lock the door when you leave the geocircl of your home or unlock the door when you return. The TAPO application does not send notifications on a user basis (“such or such has simply unlocked the door with their pin”).

I also sometimes had a delay during unlocking via the application on Wi-Fi, generally only a few seconds, but long enough to ask me if the message has passed. The vocal assistant commands worked well but sometimes required rehearsal. It could be more an Alexa problem than a tapo. I did not test the lock with Google Assistant.

If you want to use remote Wi-Fi features, you will need to configure a TAPO account in the TAPO application. It is to be expected if you want a long -distance access to a device, so keep in mind that you cannot have 100% in control of your connection if you want these features.

If you buy the Tapo DL100 Smart Deadbolt

At this price, the most obvious competitor of the DL100 is the Bolt Wyze Lock, the previous choice of Techhive for the best intelligent locking at budget prices. Wyze offers local Bluetooth control and fingerprint recognition, but not Wi-Fi connectivity. If remote access and voice assistants are priorities, Tapo DL100 is the clear winner.

Tapo DL100 is not flashy, but TP-Link has delivered one of the most complete intelligent locks that you can buy for less than $ 100. For this price, obtaining Wi-Fi access, real-time alerts, code and management without paying subscription is really impressive.

If you want premium features such as fingerprint recognition or Apple Homekit / Home Key support, you will have to spend more money – maybe much more. But at this price, the Tapo DL100 intelligent lock from the TP-Link is easy to recommend.

More in -depth reading: This review is part of the in -depth coverage of Techhive of the best intelligent locks.