Last updated January 22, 2023.
I've wanted a smart lock for three years, but living in an apartment comes with its restrictions. Luckily, there's Sesame.
The Sesame smart lock, resting above our doorknob. We plan on getting a different doorknob to accommodate the Sesame's size.
Sesame retrofits any kind of door lock — even our mortise-style one! — to become smart, without having to unscrew or replace anything. It's a godsend for people like me, who have a landlord that doesn't take kindly to apartment modifications.
Granted, I did need to do some troubleshooting to get it to work with our door. Like many doors, ours required you to push it to lock. The solution was a bit unorthodox, but it works: I had to make the doorjamb slanted. See below for what I mean:
Originally this doorjamb was vertically aligned, but I put it at an angle to make unlocking and locking easier.
Notice the top part of the jamb leans inward, while the bottom leans outward. Since the bottom is where the knob meets the jamb, that means the knob catches it while the latch, farther up, has a little bit of clearance and doesn't fully catch the jamb. This is key to ensuring that the lock doesn't require any push/pull.
Once I cleared that hurdle, everything else was easy. As others have said, the Sesame is a solidly built product, and it even stuck on the door after I removed it multiple times (it adheres through 3M tape).
You can get a Sesame of your own here: https://candyhouse.co/. The final step in fully smart-ifying my lock, though, will be to enhance my apartment's buzzer. Luckily, there's a product for that, too: https://www.nello.io/.
I'll have another review/installation tutorial when I get my hands on Nello. Until then!