U200 vs Danalock v3 Homekit

Aqara Products
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Thinking of migrating from Salto’s Danalock that has been a mild disappointment for 4 years since installing it to Aqara U200. The hope would be to improve reliability (often gets jammed when doors get strained because of weather), speed of response (often takes 10 seconds for homekit request to reach apple tv which then triggers the lock) and to add the new Apple Home Key convenience with Apple Watch etc. Has anyone done the switch, was it worth it? Aqara seems pretty bulky in comparison…

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My experience with the U200 has been flawless. even triggering automations from other sources (buttons from different brands, dashboard, voices) the lock activates almost instantly. at its worst the delay has never been more than a couple of seconds. unlocking with homekey was the biggest selling point and it works as advertised.

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Thanks for sharing, sounds encouraging! And the aesthetics of the big housing hasn’t been a concern?

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only at first. but once you are used to, it blends in the door and we are not really opening the doors manually anymore.

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Makes sense, thanks. Today is Amazon Prime Days promo, I think I’m almost ready to pull the trigger :sweat_smile:

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Changed from Danalock v3 zwave to Aqara 200 kit.
Aqara is little slower but much more quiet. I liked Danalock twist assist untill they ended this feature.

Danalock

pros+
Faster
Smaller
GPS based auto unlock
cons
More expensive
Batteries are expensive 4x cr123 twice a year
No fingerprint reader
No NFC reader
No apple home key

Aqara U200 kit
Kid grow up and started to go school, but i dont want to give her a door key. Because if she loses it, it’s 60€+shipping, sobfingerprint reader was main reason to change.

Pros.

  1. Rechargable battery
  2. If needed 4x AA battery support (cheap)
  3. Fingerprint reader
  4. NFC reader (one NFC chip was with lock) 4 extra 5. chips was under 20€ (cheaper than extra key)
  5. PIN code open
  6. Apple Home Key

Cons.

  1. You need to be by the lock to add new user or change PIN codes
  2. Cant temporarly block user not by the lock, not remote. You need to delete user
  3. No GPS based/auto unlock
  4. “Twist assist” is slow and not really usable and time to time starts to unlock in silent mode (very very very slow) so i made button +automation to unlock from inside

Overall, i like aqara stuff and aqara lock but i bought acara hub to be able add users remote and it’s still not possible. But i like it anyway. Never go back to Danalock like it is today

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Thank you Henry, super relevant! Ordering it today, will let you know how it works out.

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Exceeded all my expectation, works super well! Only one thing: I was advised to not pair it with M100 hub but rather just have it joined my Homekit system via thread. I bought M100 later anyway but still hadn’t done the pairing. But since M100 is in the house, U200 often goes into “not responding” state in Homekit, i.e. falls of Apple’s thread network. Is that a thing? Should I reset everything and do it via M100 anyway? Having the lock responsive in Homekit is very important for my automations.