There are gadgets that I review that my wife never interacts with, but when I review a smart deadbolt, it means she’s going to use it every day. I think we’ve had four or five different deadbolts over the last few years.

If you are married, the “spouse acceptance factor” is very important. Usually, one spouse or the other will be the more technical one, and they are the ones who bring new gadgets into the home.

Whenever I install something at home, I am always paying attention to how it will go over with my wife. Will it have an easy learning curve? I hope so.

For the last few months, we’ve been using the Proscenic L60 Smart Lock ($89.99, Amazon.com), and it has a lot of new features to learn.

The L60 is a lock that replaces your existing deadbolt. If you are handy with a screwdriver, installation should take about 10 minutes. There are black metal boxes that hang on both sides of your door. The L60 is sturdy and IP65 waterproof.

You’ll need to remove your old deadbolt and then install the L60. This is where you need to take your time and make sure the bolt slides easily into your door jamb. You don’t want there to be any resistance. Take your time and make sure the lock engages smoothly for best results. When the motor tries to lock the deadbolt, it’ll go into an error state if it can’t fully extend or retract the bolt.

The L60 I reviewed communicates via Bluetooth only, so you have to be within 40 feet or so to interact with it via the Proscenic app. Once you have the lock paired with the app, you can use the app to lock and unlock the door.

There is a Wi-Fi gateway available separately, if you’d like to interact with it away from home.

The L60 uses four AA batteries, and because it doesn’t use Wi-Fi, the batteries should last about a year. The exterior of the L60 has a USB-C port on the bottom so you can attach an external battery pack to power the lock if the AA batteries die completely and you’re locked out.

The L60 can unlock with a key, but what fun is that? Nobody buys a smart lock to use the key.

It has a touch-sensitive keypad to open with a passcode. The keypad is backlit and only appears when you touch it. You can also unlock the door using your fingerprint or with an NFC card that can attach to your keychain or slip in your wallet. There are two keys and two NFC cards included. You can buy extra cards from Proscenic.

We settled on the easiest unlocking method of the fingerprint reader, which works quickly.

You use the app to set up the entry codes (it can store up to 100 codes) and to capture and store the fingerprints (you can save up to 100 fingerprints).

When the L60 is active, a voice announces the lock status (“Locked” or “Unlocked”). You can turn off the voice, but I like it.

The L60 can be installed on doors from 1.38 to 2.16 inches thick. It can be adjusted for backsets from 2.375 to 2.75 inches. There is a template included if you need to drill holes into a new door if it didn’t come predrilled.

Once you get the lock installed and put in the batteries, you’ll need to download the free Proscenic app and set up an account and pair the lock with the app.

You’ll create a master user account, which is the login you’ll use to create accounts for any other users in your home.

Because you can capture up to 100 fingerprints, I recommend setting up your thumb and forefinger on both hands for each user. You never know when you’ll want to unlock the door and you have groceries in one hand or the other.

One thing I did notice, if you have wet fingers, the reader will not let you in. You have to dry your fingers and dry and water off the fingerprint reader.

So, how does it work day-to-day?

I really like the L60. It works well for me, which means unlocking via fingerprint 99 percent of the time. Leaving the house, I touch the keypad to light it up, and then I touch the small lock icon on the bottom left of the keypad to lock the house.

It took my wife a bit of practice to get the hang of how the L60 wants you to put your finger on the reader to get it to identify your fingerprint. She was tapping it quickly and failing. I showed her how to press and hold for one second so that you hold the pad of your fingertip on the reader so the lock has a chance to capture and read your fingerprint. She also says she needs to turn her finger slightly off center to get it to read consistently.

I think recapturing her fingerprint will fix that issue.

I find I don’t use the NFC cards. They are a bit too big to live on my keychain, because I keep my keys in my front jeans pocket and I want those to be as small as possible.

I do love leaving the house to go for a walk in the neighborhood and not having to bring my keys.

Note: At the time I wrote this review in late September, Amazon had a $30 off coupon for the L60 that’s good through the last week of October that’ll drop the price down to around $60, which is a great price for such a capable smart lock.

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