Lift-up handle calibration issues

Discussion Questions
1

Hello everyone,

TLDR; my door requires an additional step to open the door from the outside when it is locked, Nuki doesn’t support this.

I’ve been using Nuki now for the last few months. I’m generally happy with it, but from the very beginning, I’m having some issues with my lift-up handle front door.

My door is fitted with a lift-up handle lock which requires a key to open the door from the outside (door handles inside and outside are not interconnected).

Normally, to lock my door from the outside manually with a key, I:

  • Lift up the door handle
  • Turn the key to the locked position

(Nuki also does the same, so there are no issues with locking with Nuki. )

To unlock and open the door from the outside, what I do:

  • Turn the key to the unlocked position (this step unlocks the door but does not pulls the latch in completely)
  • Push down the door handle
  • Continue turning the key to open the door (the pull the latch in completely)

What Nuki does:

  • Turns key to open position to pull the latch completely in, but fails as the handle is still up.

When I try to push the handle down, door does not open as the latch still outside.

So my issue with calibration is, Nuki does not ask me or wait for me to push down the door handle. As Nuki misses this step, the door latch is never entirely pulled in, which blocks the door from opening.

What happens when I use the calibration is it is
When I use the app or the fob to open the door, I cannot open it because the latch not entirely pulled in

What did I do the overcome this issue (my workaround)
During the calibration, when Nuki tries to turn the key to unlock position, I force-push the handle down. At some point, when the lock is unlocked position, I can push the handle down and Nuki can continue to turn the key until the latch is completely in.

And when I try to open the door, I do the same (pushing the handle down until the lock allows me to push).

I am generally ok with the workaround, but when I try to explain to other people how to open the door, I always fail, and no one can open it on their first try.

I am not entirely sure how to fix this, but maybe Nuki can wait a few seconds after unlocking, which allows us to push down the door handle, or Nuki can continue trying to turn the key a few seconds more so that we may have more time to push down the handle.

I try to explain as detailed as possible and appreciate any suggestions.

2

Hello!

Did you ever get an update to this or are you still using your workaround?

I have the same problem making it quite impractical to open the door without a key!

Thanks

3

No, unfortunately, no update and no solution.

I know how Nuki smart lock works, so as soon as I unlock via Nuki from the outside, I immediately start pushing the handle down and keep pushing until Nuki finishes rotating, so when Nuki tries to unlatch, I catch it, and Nuki can complete the unlatching.

But the wife, on the other hand, forgets the crucial “PUSH THE LEVER DOWN” step and eventually fails to open the door. On top of that, she has to wait for the “unlatch wait duration” to be able to retry. And I became the husband who spent hundreds on a stupid lock that cannot properly open the door.

Even our plants died when we were on vacation because my neighbour, who did not want to be an expert on how to open a Nuki-enabled door, failed to open the door to water them.

4

Your lock works quite untypical for a lift-up type lock. Usually they operate the latch and the bolt when you pull the lever down, thus never requiring Nuki (or someone with a key) to pull the latch.

Propably the best way to emulate your 2 step unlatch process with what is currently available is to use Auto-Unlock expert settings to unlock the door on geofence enter and unlatch it through a keypad once you are infront of the door and did pull down the lever.

My solution to the “lift-up is complicated to operate” problem was to exchange the lock mechanism on all of my doors with a traditional one, because people (my kids, guests …) & Nuki failing to operate the door did suck …

5

Hi Jürgen,

I am not a lock expert, but after some research, I discovered that the lock mechanisms might have a single spindle, split spindle or dual spindle.

On a single spindle, the handle can unlatch the door from inside and outside. On these types of locks, Nuki just needs to unlock, and you can unlatch it by pulling down the lever.

Whit split spindle and dual spindle locks; inside is working like a single spindle, but from the outside, you need:

  1. Unlock the door,
  2. Pull down the lever
  3. Unlatch using the keys.

(Pulling the outside lever down does not unlatch.)

What Nuki tries to do is, spin the key from locked position to unlatch position. But as this spinning is a continuous operation, it fails to unlatch if you don’t pull the lever down in time, and it jams.

I can’t give you any numbers or statistics, but these types of locks are very common here in the UK entrance doors of houses.

And in my case, this is a rental property. So changing the whole door-locking mechanism is something I am not even sure that I am allowed to. And additionally, with some firmware/software upgrades, Nuki can easily adapt to these type of locks.

My proposed change would be, for example:

  1. Nuki may try unlatching after unlocking several times, giving me the time to pull the lever down
  2. Nuki can wait a configurable amount of time after unlocking before unlatching, giving me the time to pull the lever down.
  3. Nuki can accept two consecutive “Open” commands; on the 1st, it unlocks the door if locked, and the 2nd unlatches.
6

And yes, I’ll try geofencing to auto-unlock in expert settings. I didn’t even see that option.

7

geofencing provided a kind of workaround. I’ve set the “Geofence enter” and “Device found” actions to “unlock”.

Now I can make Nuki “unlock” only when I enter the geofence or in Bluetooth range. And I can pull the lever down first and then use the keypad to “open” the door (unlatch). This resolves the wife’s problem.

But, the “Neighbour coming to water the plants” issue still stands as I don’t want to make my friend install an app and share their location in order to enter the house.