A hand crank on Ring's $249 smart lock stands in for the hidden spare key

Jamie Siminoff, Ring's founder, ran into the problem while shopping for a lock for a vacation home. "I struggled because this particular house will get used very little, and I know the freaking battery will die on it," he said ^[5]. He also worried that visiting family or friends could get stuck outside a door with no power source ^[6].

TechCrunch notes that when smart locks offer a backup, it is usually something cumbersome, like a physical key hidden on the property ^[3]. Ring's answer is built into the thumb-turn. According to Engadget, a small motor and a supercapacitor reach around three volts after a few strong turns and run the lock at full function, with no low-power mode ^[23]. The Verge reported that Amazon did not specify how many turns it takes ^[7]. Once inside, the owner pulls the rechargeable pack and charges it as usual ^[8].

Siminoff's case for the lock is a claim about buyers. "I do think the power thing is a huge limiter of why people are not buying, and why they're not putting them in, and why they're worried about them," he said ^[14]. The reports do not include sales or survey data behind that view. He also conceded the lock may be comparable to others on the market ^[15]. On an ordinary day, owners will open it with a fingerprint, a backlit keypad, the Ring app or Alexa ^[9].

Ring expects the crank to be rare. Engadget called it a once-in-a-blue-moon event and relayed Siminoff's view that it suits buildings people don't visit regularly, such as remote cabins ^[12]. At a house that sits empty for months, the low-battery alert can go unread until someone arrives at a dead lock. The crank powers the fingerprint reader and keypad long enough to let that person in ^[23].

The lock is $249 ^[1]. Add the $149.99 Outdoor Cam 4K Plus and the pair costs $398.99 ^[17][21]. It uses a single-cylinder deadbolt and needs no extra wiring ^[18].

Two questions sort the buyers: how often the door is used, and whether the person most likely to find a dead battery is the one who gets the alert. For a daily-use door where the owner reads the alerts, the crank will mostly sit unused, so compare the lock with others on everyday entry ^[12][15]. Siminoff's vacation home is the rarely used door that its owner visits ^[5]. Cabins and rentals, rarely used doors that guests open, get the most from the crank. The open questions there are Sidewalk coverage and whether guests know the dial turns. Dog walkers and cleaners on a schedule make a busy door a matter of access settings more than power ^[19].

I think the lock is worth choosing for the two rarely used cases. The tradeoff is that the low-battery alert, which is supposed to keep the crank in reserve, depends on Sidewalk coverage at the property ^[13].