Smart locks and a key for the neighbor: codes, batteries, and who gets in

The front door is a fixture problem. Keys get dropped, codes get forgotten, batteries die, and someone still has to get in: you, a neighbor, a paid helper, a plumber who cannot wait for a shipped fob.

A smart lock is a deadbolt with extra ways to turn it. It is not a remodel, and it is not a diagnosis. If wet or full hands are the daily fight, start with lever handles on the interior doors. You’re looking at the exterior cylinder.

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Angi’s 2026 lock-replacement page puts professional work at $60 to $350 per lock, average $150. Smart locks on that hardware table are $150 to $400.

Their locksmith page puts most visits at $107 to $242, new lock installation $100 to $300, smart-lock setup $100 to $200, rekeying $50 to $130 per lock, and a spare key $2 to $20. After-hours adds $50 to $150. Those are labor bands. The box on the door is extra.

Angi: lock replacement cost, 2026

Angi: locksmith cost, 2026

Schlage’s own support page is blunt: keep the backup key. Keypad and smart locks run on batteries. If the electronics fail and you tossed the key, you are hiring a locksmith, and the warranty does not cover “we lost the key that came in the box.”

Schlage: should I keep my key for a keypad or smart lock?

Key, keypad, or a lock that texts you

A spare key and a person who will use it

Duplicate the existing deadbolt ($2 to $20 at Angi), give one to a neighbor you actually trust, and put another in a lockbox you control, not under the mat.

This is the whole job when the current cylinder still works and the only problem is who can let the dog out. No app. No batteries on the door.

A keypad deadbolt that still takes a key

Physical buttons, codes you can punch in the dark, a metal key in the cylinder. No Wi-Fi required. Schlage’s BE365-class lock is this product: up to 19 user codes, silicone-coated numbers that light when pressed, one 9-volt battery, Grade 2 / AAA residential rating on the listing, and a key backup.

Angi keypad hardware is $80 to $250. Locksmith setup, if you hire it, is the $100 to $200 smart-lock line or the $100 to $300 new-lock line, not a carpenter opening the jamb.

A Wi-Fi smart lock, plus the same key

Remote unlock from a phone, codes for helpers, a log of who came in, and a cylinder that still turns when the router is dead.

Schlage Encode connects to home Wi-Fi with no extra hub, manages codes in the app (the Camelot Encode listing says up to 100), uses four AA batteries, and includes one physical backup key.

Angi smart-lock hardware is $150 to $400. Confirm the door thickness (1-3/8 to 1-3/4 inches) and backset (2-3/8 or 2-3/4 inches) before you click.

If one bid is $20 for two keys and another is $400 for a Wi-Fi deadbolt with no spare, they are not arguing markup. The cheap one is access. The expensive one is electronics without a fallback.

Why the neighbor still needs a key

Codes are great until the person at the door cannot see the pad, the batteries are dead, or the app wants the house Wi-Fi that went out with the storm. A metal key in a cylinder works when the keypad is dark. Schlage says so, and they made the lock.

Give the neighbor the mechanical key, not your phone login. A code you can revoke is better for a paid helper you might fire next month. A neighbor who has lived next door for twenty years can hold a key in a drawer. Don’t text the master code to a group chat.

A lockbox on the knob is a third path when you don’t want a person holding metal. Master Lock’s 5400D is an over-the-knob box with a set-your-own 4-digit combination and room for several house keys. It is weather-covered, not invisible.

Anyone who watches you open it learns the combo. Change the combo when a job ends. Don’t use the same four digits as the door keypad.

Master Lock: 5400D portable lock box

Hide-a-key rocks and mats are how locksmiths get in after you. If the spare is outside, it lives in a box you chose, with a combo you can change.

Keypad without Wi-Fi, or a lock that texts you?

Keypad only

You punch a code. The lock does not need the internet. Helpers get their own four-digit code. You delete the plumber’s code when the sink is done. The house still works in a blackout because the pad is on a 9-volt in the door, and the key still turns.

This is the usual aging-in-place buy: fewer keys to fumble, no new app to learn, a neighbor code you can write on a card.

Wi-Fi deadbolt

You can unlock from another city if a helper is stuck outside. You can see that the door locked at 9 p.m. You also bought batteries, an app, and a router. Encode’s listing: four AAs, about six months in typical use, low-battery warning on the pad and in the app, one backup key.

If that key is in a junk drawer in another state, you are back to Angi’s lockout band of $75 to $200, plus after-hours if it is 11 p.m.

Don’t buy a key-free slim model for this house. If the listing brags that there is no cylinder, the neighbor has nothing to turn when the battery is dead. Schlage’s warranty note is for locks that included a key. A lock that never had one is a different bet.

Fingerprint readers sound tidy and fail on dry or cold hands. A large backlit keypad or physical buttons are the fixture that matches levers: you can work them with the side of a finger, not a precise pinch.

Thickness, backset, and the hole

Measure before you order, the same way you measure for a lever. Standard residential doors are 1-3/8 to 1-3/4 inches thick, 2-1/8 inch bore, backset 2-3/8 or 2-3/4 inches. Encode and BE365 listings both claim that prep.

A 1920 mortise with a tall faceplate is a locksmith or a carpenter, not a screwdriver Saturday. If the door does not latch because it sagged, fix the hinges first. A smart deadbolt on a door that misses the strike still sticks.

Clear width is a different job. If a walker has to pass, measure the opening with the door at 90 degrees. The doorway width page is that tape. A new lock does not invent two inches of passage.

Interior doors still want levers. Don’t put a Wi-Fi deadbolt on the bathroom.

Master code, neighbor code, a metal key

Keep the codes on a paper list in the house, not only in the app.

You (and a spouse)

Master or primary code. Also hold one metal key.

Neighbor

Either a metal key in their drawer, or a code that is not the master. Tell them where the lockbox is if that is the plan.

Paid helper

Unique code, hours if the lock supports schedules. Delete it when the job ends. Don’t reuse last year’s code.

One-time trades

Temporary code that dies at sunset. If the lock cannot do that, the lockbox combo that you change after they leave is the workaround.

Revoke access the day someone should not have it. Rekeying the old cylinder is Angi’s $50 to $130. Replacing a smart lock because you cannot delete a code is the $150 to $400 hardware line again. Buy a lock that lets you delete codes at the pad or in the app without a truck.

Batteries, blackouts, and the 2 a.m. lockout

Smart and keypad locks are battery devices on the door. They don’t use house current. A grid outage does not kill a fresh 9-volt. A dead 9-volt does.

Replace batteries when the lock beeps or the app nags, not after the pad goes dark. Keep a spare 9-volt or a card of AAs in the junk drawer that is not in another city.

If you are locked out with a dead pad, use the metal key. That is why it exists. If the key is with the neighbor, call them. If the key is in the lockbox, use the combo. If none of that works, you are in Angi’s home-lockout band, $75 to $200, more after hours.

Don’t keep punching a dark keypad. You will not invent electrons.

Auto-lock is a feature that will lock you on the porch with groceries if the delay is short. Set it long, or off, until everyone who lives here can work the pad with the door open.

Keypad, Wi-Fi, or a rekey?

What are they putting on the door? A keypad only, a Wi-Fi deadbolt, or a rekey of the lock you already have. You want a model number, not “smart lock.”

Does a metal key still work when the batteries are dead? How many keys do you get?

Will it fit this door? Thickness, distance from the edge to the hole, and whether this is a tall old lock or a metal door (that’s extra).

How many codes can you set, who can delete them, and do you need a hub for Wi-Fi?

What’s labor? Angi puts smart-lock setup at $100 to $200, a new lock at $100 to $300, programming at $30 to $100 extra, after-hours $50 to $150.

If the door doesn’t latch now, is the strike plate in this bid, or a surprise later?

If you can already swap a lever, you can often swap a deadbolt that uses the same hole. Stop when the faceplate is tall, the door is steel with odd holes, or you want the new lock keyed to the rest of the house.

Who needs a key when you’re out?

Count who needs to get in when you are not home: neighbor, helper, you after a lost key.

Do those people get a metal key, a code, or a lockbox combo?

If the current deadbolt works, duplicate keys this week ($2 to $20) and hand one to the neighbor before you shop electronics.

If codes would help, buy a keypad with a cylinder, not a key-free slim lock. Measure thickness and backset first.

Add Wi-Fi only if someone off-site actually needs to unlock the door. Keep the key anyway.

If the cheap listing has no keyway, treat it as incomplete for this house.

A code is how a helper gets in without a copy of your house key. A metal key with the neighbor is how you get in when the pad is dark. Buy both on purpose.