The last thing you want to hear when you’re using a machine is some kind of grinding noise. As you’re reading that, you’re probably envisioning the sound of a car engine turning and turning and not starting or a washing machine making a loud noise that you know can’t be good. If you hear that grinding, you know something is wrong. The same goes for a smart door lock. Having to fit in a smart door lock where an existing deadbolt was can be tricky.

You can take the old one out, replace it with the new one, and then turn on the new smart lock to hear a grinding noise and realize that the holes for the deadbolt plate and the deadbolt lock don’t line up. If you’ve heard this unfortunate noise before, you know that it can mean a lot of adjusting to get it quite right. But installing the Aqara U50 smart door lock was incredibly simple and almost guaranteed that this wouldn’t be an issue.

I’ve been testing out the Aqara U50 smart lock for a few weeks now. It has a unique style and can be used in many ways. But is it worth you upgrading your regular deadbolt for? Let’s find out.

Price, availability, and specs

The Aqara U50 smart lock retails for $150, and is sold by Amazon. It comes in a matte black finish only and weighs 3.42 pounds. It’s 5.31″ x 2.91″ x 3.46″, so it will likely take up more space than your previous deadbolt did.

The U50 is powered by four AA batteries and includes a number of options for installing it to your liking, including extra screws, a tool to take the battery cover and knob off, physical keys if you want to unlock it manually from inside, and more. The keypad is how you are able to enter from the outside and you can unlock the door using the turning mechanism from the inside.

What I liked about the Aqara U50 Smart Lock

Multiple people can set their own code

Installing the Aqara U50 smart lock proved to be easier than I expected. Opening up the box, there were a bunch of parts that were added, including four different deadbolt plates. But I came to realize that you can choose the one that best fits your door, which adds to the ease of the installation. The directions in the user manual, which you have to scan a QR code on the box for, jump into installing the deadbolt first. I removed my old one and installed the new one with ease. The keypad was next, which took some time because of having to hold it steady on one end and screwing through the door hole with the other.

Once I was able to get that in, it was time to install the first deadbolt plate on the door. I chose the rounder one because I wanted to make sure that the shape fit the deadbolt well enough that it wouldn’t catch it when it was being locked and unlocked. I succeeded in that aspect and then installed the round one in the door frame. I then installed the indoor part of the lock, taking off the back cover with the included tool and using the mounting plate to lock it in place. Once that was done, I closed the door and tried to lock it and realized that it was not lining up with the deadbolt plate in the frame. Taking the different shaped plate, which had a much longer opening, I swapped out the one on the door and the one on the door frame. Trying it again, the locking mechanism glided in without any issue.

After that, I just had to pop in four AA batteries and the Aqara U50 sprung to life, locking and unlocking itself and telling me to download the Aqara app to finish calibration. Having already had the app from my reviews of the Aqara Motion and Light Sensor P2 and other devices, I quickly integrated it into my app and after a few steps it was ready to be opened and closed with my phone. A nice feature in the Aqara app is that anybody with an Aqara app that installs the lock on their app can create their own code and use that to unlock the door from the outside keypad.

Being able to open the app when I wasn’t at the house and seeing the status of the door was good for peace of mind. The ability to remotely lock the door is also reassuring. After using it for a while, it became easier and easier to type in the code on the keypad or just open the app as I was walking up to the door and unlock it from my phone. Locking the door from the inside is simple because of how smooth the lock turns.

What I Didn’t Like About the Aqara U50 Smart Lock

The design of the U50 isn’t exactly what I would call chic. It’s bulky and takes up a lot of room on your door. The matte black finish is nice enough but it looks like a very large unit. One issue during installation is that the directions are a bit misleading in the fact that the descriptions are short and it relies on pictures to add context to them. I did miss a step because it didn’t say to install something before doing another step. But I figured it out eventually.

My biggest pet peeve of this and many smart home devices is the need for bridges to integrate them into smart home ecosystem. It can integrate into many of them, such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, and IFTTT. But in order to integrate into HomeKit, you need to have an iPad or an Apple HomePod to make it work. Once it is connected to HomeKit, you can unlock the door by waving your iPhone or Apple Watch in front of it.

It’s even more expensive if you want to integrate it with Google Home or Amazon Alexa as you have to purchase an Aqara hub to run it, such as the Aqara Hub M3. You aren’t able to sync this to your Google Nest speaker or Echo Show without running it through an Aqara hub, limiting how much you can actually do with the smart lock. While most people will be happy enough to just use the keypad or lock or unlock the door with their phone, it’s that need for an extra device to see it reach its full potential that may drive some away.

Should You Buy the Aqara U50 Smart Lock?

The Aqara U50 Smart Lock will work in many doors and isn’t very difficult to install. If you’re okay with the hefty design, the keypad lights up nicely and the lock moves smoothly. It’s easy to unlock or lock from the inside as well. Multiple people can make their own codes and it can be armed through the Aqara app or in connection with a smart home ecosystem. For its price, the Aqara U50 is a solid purchase.