Delaney ZW300 Touchscreen Smartlock 

By Jeff Deitz on Home And Personal Safety, Weekend warrior

Delaney ZW300 Smartlock Install and Review

Perhaps one of the most frequently used yet overlooked devices in the home today is the front door and its accompanying locks. The modern cylinder pin tumbler locks found in most homes have their origins dating back over 4000’ years.  While the locking mechanisms themselves have seen only minor changes since the early 1800’s, the newest trend is the invention of the electric and integrated smart lock.  One of the new entries into the market is the Delaney ZW300 Touchscreen Smart Lock. 

Compatibility and Installation  

The Delaney ZW300 Touchscreen Smartlock is ANSI grade 3 approved for residential installations.  It fits standard 2-1/8” bore deadbolt configurations on doors of 1-3/8” to 2” thickness.  Pictured is the ZW300 lock in Tuscany Bronze finish with a matching Delaney Hardware Kellington handset.  The ZW300 also comes in Satin Nickel or Polished Chrome finishes.  Basic hardware installation is similar to any standard deadbolt with a single addition step of installing 4 AA batteries. 

Electronic Lock Configuration 

Once the batteries are installed, the lock can be configured for up to 30 unique user codes of 4-8 digits a piece.  Configuration is simple and straightforward. The keypad illuminates when touched and is easy to see in direct midday sun.  The keypad can be configured to lock on a key press or set to auto lock on a timer after door closure.  Users just need to enter in their assigned code and press the unlock button in the lower right of the screen and the electric motor will slide the deadbolt open.  No key required. 

Smart features and Z-Wave Integration 

The Delaney ZW300 Touchscreen Smartlock is Z-wave Plus certified and uses the Z-wave platform to integrate with your smartphone.  Z-wave is the largest platform of integrated smart products with over 2,400 available.  These products use a shared low power radio band to create a hub based mesh network.  What this means is that Z-wave products are low consumers of power, play nice with other Z-wave products but require a hub of some kind to communicate with for integration with a smartphone.   

We tested with ZW300 Smartlock with another Delaney product, the Delaney Video Camera and Bridging Hub.  The Camera hub connects to your home Wi-Fi network and allows you to control the smart lock from the Delaney Smart Home app. Once connected, set-up and control of the smart lock is simple and straightforward.  This allowed me to lock and unlock my home front door remotely anywhere I could get an internet connection.   

The Delaney Smart Home app is designed to work with their camera hub and other Z-wave products.  But what if you don’t want to purchase the camera hub or desire a little more flexibility in automation features than the Delaney app can currently supply?  The good news is that the ZW300 can be paired with other Z-wave hubs.  I was successful in pairing the ZW300 with a Wink Hub 2.  I already had several Z-wave products running through this hub and didn’t want to add an additional hub and app to my smart home integration.  By doing this I was able to set up useful features like remotely unlocking the ZW300 based on my phones GPS signal.  Something I was unable to do in the Delaney Smart Home App. 

Overall Thoughts and Impressions 

The Delaney ZW300 is a very sleek and stylish keypad lock.  I was very impressed with the overall finish and quality of the lock itself.  The key tumbler was smooth and consistent.  The keypad itself is simple and easy to use, both in daylight and at night. The electric motor is strong and works well to overcome any excessive friction between the deadbolt and the strike plate. 

The smart lock features hinge on both the strengths and weaknesses of the Z-wave platform.  The ZW300 would be a seamless addition to any home with existing Z-wave products.  If this is your first smart product, the Delaney camera hub can serve as the new backbone of your growing smart home suite. The Delaney Smart App can be the one and only app used for simple smart home tasks but lacks some of the finesse and advanced features found in more mature 3rd party Z-wave hub controllers.  

If you currently have smart home products that rely on Wi-Fi (Apple Homekit) or Bluetooth, then you may be in for a headache to find an easy solution to integrate the ZW300 into your system.  As the ZW300 has Z-wave only, it requires a Z-wave hub to take advantage of its “smart” features.  This may be a nonstarter for some.    

For me, I am happy to welcome the ZW300 Touchscreen Smartlock to my ever evolving and growing smart home. It is the first product guests and family members interact with when entering my home and the ZW300 certainly doesn’t fail to impress. 

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About the author

Jeff Deitz

Jeff Deitz is a trained Mechanical and Systems Engineer but underwent a career change a decade ago to pursue a career in aviation. Jeff joined the Concord Carpenter team several years ago to assist with smart home automation and electronic integrations. After working with Rob on several projects, Jeff quickly gravitated to Tool Box Buzz’s Head 2 Head tests. Using his background as a systems test engineer he can frequently be found with a few other TBB crew members discussing the finer points of tool testing and designing the next Head 2 Head tool test.

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