Best Prices Today: TP-Link Tapo DL100

Best known for its inexpensive routers, TP-Link is rapidly growing its Tapo line of budget-priced smart home devices, and the Tapo DL100 smart lock is a fabulous home security value.

You’ll find plenty of smart locks that look prettier, pack more whiz-bang features, and support more smart home ecosystems, but you won’t find a $70 lock that’s nearly as good as TP-Link’s Tapo DL100.

Design and build quality

The Tapo DL100 isn’t flashy, but it doesn’t look cheap. The black-and-silver finish blends well with most doors, and the keypad glows softly for nighttime visibility. While the housing is plastic instead of metal, it doesn’t feel flimsy in the hand.

The Tapo DL100 isn’t flashy, but TP-Link has delivered one of the most fully featured smart locks you can buy for less than $100.

The Tapo DL100 is BHMA certified as a commercial lock rated ANSI Grade 3, the lowest of the three ANSI commercial lock grades (the higher levels being Grade 1 followed by Grade 2). If you want a stronger lock, you’ll need to spend more money. You can read about ANSI lock grades on the ANSI blog. We explain the BHMA’s residential lock standards at the preceding link.

In terms of weatherization, the lock is rated a modest IP54, which according to our IP code guide, means it won’t allow dust ingress to the point of causing failure, and that it can withstand being sprayed with water (but definitely not from a pressure washer).

I don’t know if I’d use it for an oceanfront beach house, but it should stand up to more typical environments. That said, many of the locks we’ve reviewed lately have had the same water resistance ratings as this lock, but they’ve been impervious to dust ingress (having a 6–instead of a 5–as the first digit in their IP codes).  

More specifications

The Tapo DL100 smart deadbolt features both a numeric PIN pad with physical buttons (it’s not a touchscreen) and a conventional key cylinder, and it can also be locked and unlocked with the Tapo app on your phone via Bluetooth, or—once you’ve connected it to your home Wi-Fi network (2.4GHz networks only)—with an Amazon Alexa or Google Home voice command.

The lock also supports SmartThings and IFTTT, but not Apple’s HomeKit or, by extension, Apple’s Home Key . There’s no support for Thread or Matter, either, and the DL100 also doesn’t provide the alternative means of unlocking it with a fingerprint. If that’s a must—have feature, consider the upscale model Tapo DL110 that has that feature—plus an integrated doorbell; it’s priced at $150.

The lock operates on four AA batteries, which TP-Link says should last for 10 months using a Bluetooth connection. That claim drops to seven months with the lock connected to Wi-Fi, which I expect most people will opt for, since it gives you remote access to the lock. Should the batteries die while you’re out and about, you can plug a smartphone or a portable battery into a USB-C port on the bottom of the lock

Installation and setup

Physical installation should be a breeze for anyone replacing an existing deadbolt, and you don’t need any sort of hub or bridge to take advantage of all its features without the need to sign up for a subscription or other service plan.

I replaced an existing deadbolt lock, and the entire process from removing the old deadbolt to opening the DL100’s box to walking away from a completed project took less than fifteen minutes. If you need to cut into your door and jamb for installation, the process gets a lot more complicated—as it would with any other deadbolt.

A Phillips-head screwdriver was the only tool needed for the project and, after installing the Tapo app on my phone and inserting the batteries into the lock, the DL100 connected via Bluetooth almost immediately. Your next steps will be to create a 4- to 8-digit PIN and add the lock to your Wi-Fi network. You can create up to 200 unique PINs with varying levels of permission. You’ll also want to activate the App Lock/Unlock setting if you want to be able to unlock the door remotely via the internet.

The app also allows you to generate a one-time code that guests, house-cleaners, contractors, repair services, and other people can use to gain authorized access to your home. You can choose from preset times (up to one full day) or set a custom time window on a future date. An activity log keeps tack of everyone’s comings and goings.

If you’re concerned that someone might discover your PIN by watching you unlock the door, or by studying which numbers on the PIN have telltale fingerprints, take advantage of Tapo’s Scramble PIN code option. This lets you press up to 20 random numbers, with your PIN code included in sequence and/or after your PIN, and the lock will disregard the other numbers but unlock when it recognizes your PIN.

TP-Link’s Unlock Attempt Limiter another security feature. It lets you define the number of failed unlock attempts before the lock freezes for a defined length of time: up to 5 minutes, in 1-minute increments). You can also set an Auto-Lock timer that will automatically relock the door after the passage of a defined number of minutes after opening it: 15- or 30- seconds, or 1-, 5-, or 15 minutes.

Wi-Fi connectivity is a known battery hog, so you can program the lock to automatically turn its Wi-Fi adapter off at night and fall back to Bluetooth connectivity only. The lock will automatically reconnect to Wi-Fi at a time of your choosing. It’s a very cool feature.

So, what’s missing?

Here’s what you don’t get at the bargain price of $70: There’s no fingerprint recognition (again, TP-Link offers a more expensive lock that does have that feature) and there’s no geofencing support, so your phone can’t automatically lock the door when you leave your home’s geocircle or unlock the door when you come back into it. The Tapo also app doesn’t send notifications on a per-user basis (“so-and-so just unlocked the door with their PIN”).

I also sometimes experienced a delay when unlocking via the app over Wi-Fi, usually just a few seconds, but long enough to make me wonder if the message went through. Voice assistant commands worked well but occasionally required a repeat. That could be more of an Alexa issue than a Tapo one. I didn’t test the lock with Google Assistant.

If you want to use the remote Wi-Fi features, you’ll need to set up a Tapo account in the Tapo app. That’s to be expected if you want long-distance access to a device, so keep in mind you can’t be 100-percent in control of your connection if you want those features. 

Should you buy the Tapo DL100 smart deadbolt

At this price, the DL100’s most obvious competitor is the Wyze Lock Bolt, TechHive’s previous pick for best budget-priced smart lock. Wyze offers local Bluetooth control and fingerprint recognition but not Wi-Fi connectivity. If remote access and voice assistant compatibility are priorities, the Tapo DL100 is the clear winner.

The Tapo DL100 isn’t flashy, but TP-Link has delivered one of the most fully featured smart locks you can buy for less than $100. For this price, getting Wi-Fi access, real-time alerts, code and management without a paid subscription is truly impressive.

If you want premium features like fingerprint recognition or Apple HomeKit/Home Key support, you’ll need to spend more money—maybe even a lot more. But at this price, the TP-Link’s Tapo DL100 smart lock is easy to recommend.

Further reading: This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart locks.

Best Prices Today: TP-Link Tapo DL100

Author: James Barber, Contributor