Smart Lock - Bluetooth Key Box

A fingerprint key safe you bolt to the wall or hang on a gate, opened by fingerprint, code, IC card or the Tuya app. Inside it are the ordinary keys to the house. It is the answer to a problem that has no good answer otherwise: how do you let somebody in when you are not there and you are not willing to hand over a key you can never get back?

• What a fingerprint key safe is actually for
• Four ways to open it
• Where you can put it
• The cheapest way to solve the key problem

The cleaner, the plumber, the guest arriving on a late flight, the family member who lost theirs. You give a code that stops working on Tuesday, they take the key, they put it back. No cutting new keys, no changing the locks afterwards.

It takes 150 codes, up to 16 digits each, and generates time limited codes in the app. The fingerprint reader opens it in under a second. The body is zinc alloy with a stainless steel shackle, and it is waterproof, working from -25 to 55 degrees, which is what lets it live on an outside wall.

It is Bluetooth, with about 10 metres of range. To make codes while you are away from the box, add the Tuya Bluetooth Hub, which we sell separately. Four AAA batteries run it, and there is a micro USB port on the body for emergency power.

What a fingerprint key safe is actually for

A fingerprint key safe answers a problem that has no other clean answer: letting somebody in when you are not there, without handing over a key you can never get back. The cleaner, the plumber, the guest on a late flight, the relative who lost theirs. You give a code that stops working on Tuesday. They take the key, use it, put it back. No cutting new keys afterwards and no changing the locks.

Inside the box are your ordinary house keys, so nothing about the door itself changes. That makes it the cheapest way to get remote access to a door you cannot or would rather not replace, including a rented one.

Four ways to open it

Fingerprint, code, IC card or the Tuya app. The semiconductor reader opens it in under a second. It holds 150 code groups of up to 16 digits, and the app generates time limited and dynamic codes, which is the part that matters when you are handing access to somebody once.

Where you can put it

The body is zinc alloy with a stainless steel shackle, so it either bolts flat to a wall or hangs from a gate or a railing. It is waterproof and rated from -25 to 55 degrees C, which is what lets it live on an outside wall rather than in a porch.

It is a Bluetooth device with roughly 10 metres of range, so codes are normally made with your phone beside it. To create or cancel a code while you are away from the box, add the Tuya Bluetooth Hub, which we sell separately. Four AAA batteries run it, and a micro USB port on the body takes emergency power if they die with the keys still inside.

The cheapest way to solve the key problem

You are not changing the door, which is why this costs a fraction of a lock. The house keys go in the box, the box goes on the wall, and the person who needs them gets a code that expires. Landlords and short-let owners buy these in pairs.

Bluetooth reaches about ten metres, so if you want to issue a code while you are across town, add the Tuya hub. Otherwise your phone at the box is enough. More in smart locks; the app is at tuya.com.