Yale Assure Lock 2 review: Great design, but a buggy app

Revamped and redesigned, Yale’s Assure Lock 2 is one of the best-looking smart locks on the market, and it’s also among the most flexible when it comes to third-party smart home support.

Unfortunately, Yale’s latest smart lock is relatively expensive, and the manufacturer’s refreshed app remains saddled with bugs and a confusing setup process.

We’re still recommending the Assure Lock 2, but the lackluster app keeps Yale’s latest lock from being a slam-dunk.

This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart locks.

Does the Yale Assure Lock 2 offer versions with keyholes and keypads?

The Assure Lock 2’s exterior escutcheon–a slim rectangular block smaller than a deck of playing cards–is particularly noteworthy, featuring rounded corners and an uncluttered glass display that conceals a touch-sensitive numeric keypad. 

I tested the keyless touchscreen version of the Yale Assure Lock 2, which sells for $260 when bundled with the optional Yale Wi-Fi Smart Module. A Bluetooth-only touchscreen model is available for $180 in both keyed and keyless flavors.

Yale

An alternate model with a physical push-button keypad is available for $160 (again, in both keyed and key-free versions), or $240 with the Wi-Fi module.

Three finish options–black, bronze, and nickel–are available for each design. All of the designs include a 9-volt emergency terminal recessed beneath the keypad.

Inside the house, the unit isn’t quite as sexy, offering a large black motor unit with a hefty thumbturn. 

What are the Yale Assure Lock 2’s battery requirements?

While most smart locks have their four AA batteries aligned all in a row, the Assure Lock 2 stacks the batteries on top of each other in sets of two. This makes the interior escutcheon a bit thicker, standing out from the door by about 2 inches, though the overall height and width (5 x 3 inches) of the unit is quite compact.

Yale hasn’t changed up the installation process much. An interior mounting plate attaches to the exterior escutcheon with two bolts; numerous sizes are included to accommodate different door thicknesses. The motor unit connects via a single cable, then screws on to the mounting plate. The two small screws used for the motor’s attachment are conveniently pre-installed in the housing unit so they can’t be lost. 

Yale

Near the thumbturn you’ll also find a “passage button,” another nice convenience. Press this button when the lock is open and it will temporarily disable any automatic locking timers you have set until the door is locked manually. 

The LED beneath the thumbturn is supposed to repeatedly flash pink when passage mode is enabled, but mine did not.

Does the Yale Assure Lock 2 come with its own app?

Yale has also switched up its software, which is now on its third mobile app incarnation: Yale Access. The good news is that little has changed since the last round of Yale apps. The bad news is that the app is still buggy and in need of polish. 

For example, the app crashed during a firmware update, then hung again during a simple PIN creation action. 

Sometimes, the app is slow to connect and to respond, even to basic commands, and it does a poor job of walking the user through setup. 

While the app imports your existing Yale account information, I found there was no way to delete an ancient (and long disposed of) lock that I had never removed from the app and which is now interminably stuck in “Connecting…” mode. 

Notably, the app didn’t prompt me to set up Wi-Fi for the lock, instead defaulting to a Bluetooth-only connection until I dug into the settings to find the Wi-Fi configuration routine (only 2.4GHz is supported). Nor did it ask me to set up a master PIN upon first use, again a bizarre situation that just doesn’t make any sense.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Does the Yale Assure Lock 2 support Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit?

Back on the plus side, the Yale Assure Lock 2 supports a wide range of third-party smart home platforms, including HomeKit, Alexa, and Google Assistant–that is, assuming you opted for the Assure Lock 2 that’s bundled with the Wi-Fi module. 

Support for Z-Wave and Matter are both coming soon, though you’ll need to swap out the existing Wi-Fi module at a later date to enable those protocols.

Without the module, the Assure Lock 2 only works with HomeKit, via Bluetooth.

The lock’s remaining features are standard but solid. An unlimited number of users and PINs can be added. Auto-locking can be set to kick in anywhere from 10 seconds to 30 minutes, and a geofencing auto-unlocking system is also included. An optional magnetic sensor included in the box lets you add door open/close sensing to the lock, so it won’t attempt to lock when ajar. And if you have any of the above noted smart home platforms, you can perform basic lock/unlock functions via voice.

All of the above worked fairly well in my testing, with the exception of the occasional app hiccup.

Is the Yale Assure Lock 2 worth the cash?

At $260 with all the bells and whistles, the Yale Assure 2 is not cheap, and even the most basic physical keypad model fetches a cool $160. Adding Matter support will cost another $80 for the new wireless module when it becomes available.

Yale also needs to spend more time squashing the bugs in the Yale Access app, as well as streamlining the setup process.

Nonetheless, the outstanding design plus the wide array of smart home support earns the Assure Lock 2 our recommendation.