If you don't need a good lock, any smart lock will do. Just watch the videos by the Lockpicking Lawyer on YT. Those "smart" locks are rather horrible. For most, you don't even need lock picks.
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2026
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Tbh, all locks are horrible in the hands of an experienced picker...
And for the inexperienced picker, a window is much easier to defeat than a lock.
Yes, but opening a lock by just hitting it with a hammer or holding a magnet to it is a new kind of low.
The LPL has shown often enough that his skills are not needed in all cases.
honestly?
Just put a small locking mechanism on the door high up. Or just put a normal lock on it, put a nail in the wall up high where they don't reach it and hang the key on that nail.
Smartlock seems kind of overkill for this.
I like your first idea better. Why does your wife hate fun?
Lol, me too. She's jumpy. She'd wander in there forgetting about it and end up scared shitless when my ceiling fan starts whispering in Parseltongue.
I've used this handle before that sounds like it would suit your needs. Of course it also requires Zigbee or Z-wave connected to your HA setup if you want to log locking/unlocking in HA.
Yeah, I have the same on my office door.
Are these miscreants two-legged or four-legged?
2 legged, exceedingly inquisitive, a bit obsessive, and a little over 5' tall (1.5m).
At 1.5m they usually should be able to follow basic commands. Have you tried repeating at a higher volume setting?
They make maglocks that you could put in the corner of the doorframe. Then wire it to an esp32. Esphome to connect it and home assistant to control.
I use one for a liquor cupboard that auto locks if my wife and I both leave the house. (well our phones anyway)
Any smart lock should work on an interior door, you may have to drill a deadbolt but its the simplest solution. Switchbot and U-tec both make smart locks with fingerprints and excellent Home Assistant integration. Ubiquiti also sells magnetic latches you could install for access control if you're in their ecosystem.
If you can give up on Home Assistant integration/smart features, however, there are oodles of push-button and even fingerprint door (without other connectivity features) knobs out there. Most of them are terrible quality and not secure but that doesn't really matter to you and they are cheap.
The second part of your comment rings true for me. I guess I could just put a dumb lock on the door and use a simple motion sensor to let me know if someone is skulking around.
Why not just use a door sensor to tell when it's opened?
Sliding old school deadbolt at the top
That only works if you want to lock it from one side.
Presumably when they left their office.
You are allowed to have one on both sides of the door you know
I suppose, but that's not a fun or particularly attractive solution imho.
Neither is a single sliding deadbolt on one side
Well, yes, I would agree.
Probably the simplest solution if the assumption holds that the ones trying to be kept out are too short to reach. Although don't make the wife mad or you could get locked in from the outside...
Alternatively, assuming the door is only prepped with a door handle currently and you don't want to drill more holes into the door, just Google a cheap push button style lock that fits the existing hole. Looks like there's plenty of low security options around $20.
To be real...kind of all of them. All the "smart" locks you see for sale are WILDLY insecure at the consumer level.
You are correct that almost all of them focus on the deadbolt, but look at something like this. I kind of hate this company, but they make components as well as entire lock systems.
I have no idea if they work with HA or not, just giving you a jumping off point to familiarize yourself with the options and terminology to have a deeper search.