Yale Smart Delivery Box is ready to battle porch pirates

Prime day Nearby and holiday gifting is around the corner. Even if you are a Scrooge who does not like Amazon deals, you are probably being given more packages in your home this year. Whether it is office supplies, groceries or another set of “comfort pants” (hey, no judgment here), you may be concerned about securing your delivery.

Today, Yale introduced a smart delivery box that works with Yale Access and August Home Apps, which normally control each brand’s respective smart locks and key voice assistants.

The Yale Smart Delivery Box comes in two styles, the $ 230 Brighton style and the $ 280 Kent style. Both include a Connect adapter to connect to your Wi-Fi network for smart home integration. Add a smart keypad for another $ 50. Yale partnered with Step2 company Kingsley Park to design and produce the box. You can identify step 2 with the rows of children’s placets, wagons and outdoor toys.

hands on

I gave several test runs to the smart delivery box at my own home before today’s release. I have only been a few days now and have not had any deliveries yet. Stay tuned for a full review of the system.

The design

The Yale Smart Delivery Box is available in two styles, Kent and Brighton. The Brighton model costs $ 230, while the Kent model costs $ 280. The two boxes look very similar, except for slightly different styling and construction. Yale classifies these first two models as “medium”, with more sizes and styles planned for future releases. A sensible “delivery” emerges in front of the plastic box, hoping that it is clear that delivery drivers should deposit their packages inside.

The Brighton box I received is lightweight, weighing just 14.8 pounds according to my bathroom scale. Yale suggests filling or filling the base with 40 pounds of sand for additional protection. I could easily move the Brighton model up and down my stairs, so it definitely makes sense to add some form of protection.

If you are interested in getting packages that need to be kept cool, such as groceries or medicines, then an separately insulated bag option is one that fits inside the box.

If you are already several steps ahead of me and are thinking about locking up small children in a box, then Yale is responsible for that unfortunate possibility. The smart lock mechanism includes an emergency release button inside the box for manually releasing. There are also several ventilation points to ensure a safe oxygen supply level.

Set-up

Setting a delivery box means setting up multiple devices in the Yale Access app. I connected Smart Lock via Bluetooth first, then connected Connect Bridge for Wi-Fi and voice assistant integration.

The Yale Access App process also works with the August app. If you already own August products, you do not need to download another app.

The smart lock itself is a small, white cube that slides into place in front of the box and is secured by a metal strip. You just need to drag the battery tab and slide the cube into its track. With the lock in place, I did a test fit to make sure everything was done correctly. If you need to make adjustments, a latch on the lid of the box is easily adjustable with a screwdriver.

With the lock in place, I enabled Bluetooth on my mobile device and opened the app. The on-screen instructions for connecting the new device were easy to follow. With the lock connected via Bluetooth, I plugged into the Connect Bridge and connected it to my lock and my Wi-Fi network.

If you don’t want to add a $ 50 keypad, you’re all set. Just connect (or reconnect) your August or Yale account to your favorite voice assistant’s app and set a PIN for voice unlocking.

If you opt for an additional keypad, you will repeat the same setup process as the lock to add the keypad to your system. Pre-drilled holes on the side of the box provide a sensible place to mount the keypad. You need a six-digit code to unlock the box through the keypad.

App access and keypad codes can be shared, scheduled and managed in the mobile app just like any other Yale or August Smart Lock. Friends, family or anyone who needs delivery can be given their own code.

My biggest complaint with the Yale and August line of products includes Connect Bridge. Each Connect works with only one product at a time, so if you already own an August or Yale lock and connect to control it, you simply cannot add it to this new delivery box. You will need a second connection for that. Two products and BOOM! This is a wall outlet already filled with large, white appliances.

The Yale team is aware of this inconvenience, and hopes that future updates will add multilateral functionality, but now you will need to make room in your walls for a new connect every time you buy a Yale or August smart product. The smarter my house gets, the more expensive the outlet becomes real estate.

smarts

The delivery box is not difficult to use, but there are not many instructions on how the “delivery mode” works. In fact, it doesn’t really have a clue that I saw in the app, but the Yale team walked me through the idea before testing.

The delivery mode means that every time you open and close it, it is not locked, but every other Time. The idea is that you will open a closed box to retrieve a package, and once it is closed again it will need to be unlocked to accept the next delivery. This means that delivery companies will not need to instruct drivers on code or app access to deliver packages. Once the box is opened a second time, the box will lock.

This is a lot for maintaining tabs, but is made a little easier by voice assistants. You can ask your assistant if the box is locked or unlocked. You can unlock it with a voice pin if needed. Yale says that intensive integration with delivery drivers is working to improve the future, but we don’t have any information about it yet.

other applications

The smart lock portion of the Yale smart delivery box also lends to another new Yale product, the Smart Cabinet Lock. Also available today, it is designed to keep things like a medicine or liquor cabinet safe inside your home. The same lock mechanism, seen in the delivery box, fits into a mount that is found in two pieces of your cabinet door and interior.

You will get an alert every time the cabinet is opened. There are two ways to control voice control and app control lock. The Smart Cabinet Lock is automatically priced at $ 80, with functionality limited to only the Bluetooth connected lock to your phone. Add a $ 50 connect bridge for voice commands and you will spend $ 130 per cabinet.

Given that steep price, this is probably not a solution for toddler-proofing the entire set of kitchen cabinets. If you have one or two high-risk locations you want to control access, then Smart Cabinet Lock is a high-tech (and expensive) way to do this.

Availability

Brighton and Kent Box are available from today on Yale’s website, Amazon, BestBoy.com and other major retailers.

Together Prime day, Black friday And the holiday shopping season around the corner, keeping packages safe is a top priority for many consumers. Yale’s system is not the first smart storage solution we’ve seen. Like other brands Boxlock Packages are also trying to make delivery secure. Options like Amazon key Allow a delivery person to enter a house, a garage or Even a car To deliver a package. No matter how you choose to steal war packages in your area, perhaps there is a smart home product out there to help you.