The first smart door has landed at The Home Depot, and if you’re good with dropping at least $4,000 on your front door, then you can order one today. That price doesn’t include installation, though, and no matter how handy you are, this one needs the pros — including an electrician to wire it up.
First showcased at CES 2022, the Masonite M-PWR Smart Door is the first residential door to come with a Yale smart door lock and Ring video doorbell built in, but the big selling point is they are all powered by your home’s electrics, so there’s no need to worry about recharging or replacing batteries — a common issue with most smart locks and some video doorbells.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24850736/Masonite_M_Pwr_Now_Available_at_The_Home_Depot__6.jpg)
Image: Masonite
The fiberglass doors come in a few different styles and colors; pricing starts at $4,000 and goes north of $7,000. Other smart features include motion-activated lighting and a door state sensor so you can see if the door is open or closed using an app. There’s also an emergency backup battery — so you can still control the door’s electronics even if the power goes out.
Despite the hardware-side integration, you still need to use three separate apps to control the electronics: the Ring app for the video doorbell, the Yale app for the Yale Assure SL door lock, and the M-PWR app for the door itself (including the lighting and the door sensor).
The downside of dropping this much money on tech integrated into your home is that you won’t be swapping out your door every few years, yet Ring and Yale will come out with new locks and doorbells. The good news is the parts are replaceable. I spoke with Cory Sorice, SVP and chief innovation officer of Masonite International, in 2022 and he confirmed this, saying: “The door will last decades, but the tech won’t — so it’s designed to make upgrades over time.” However, presumably, they’d have to be designed for this door, and there aren’t many hardwired smart locks on the market right now.
While this is the first time you can buy the door off-the-shelf, it has been installed in new-construction homes since 2022, and it’s UL certified. I checked out a model at the CEDIA Expo last year (see my “hands-on” video above), and it’s got potential. The integrated aspect of the doorbell looks much sleeker than current options, and not having to swap out batteries on your door lock every 4 to 6 months appeals. I also really like the integrated lighting. But while new front doors are not cheap, you are paying a significant premium here over non-smart Masonite doors and installing a smart doorbell and lock yourself.
0 Comments