eufy Security S230 Smart Fingerprint Lock - Wi-Fi, Touchscreen, Keyless Entry, IP65 Weatherproof (Open Box)

I'm not new to smart locks. I had a Yale Assure smart lock on my previous house's front door for 7 years. It worked great, and the only thing I ever had to do was replace the 4 AA batteries every 12 - 15 months. When I moved to a new house in July 2021, I opted to go with this Eufy smart lock on my front door because I liked the fingerprint capability, but I also installed two Yale Assure smart locks on my back door and interior garage door. The Eufy installation process itself was very easy because Eufy labels each part as "Step 1", "Step 2", and so on. A very nice touch. The build quality of the physical lock is also terrific. Its feel is very solid and very premium. I had high hopes. Unfortunately, this Eufy smart lock uses a proprietary lithium-ion battery pack rather than AA batteries that most smart locks use, and within about 3 weeks of installation, I received a "low battery" alert. This was despite following the directions to fully charge the battery before use. I thought maybe it was a fluke, charged the battery pack again, and reinstalled it. Within two weeks --- a week sooner than before --- I received another "low battery" alert, so I called Eufy support to report an issue with the battery pack and asked for a replacement battery under warranty. Eufy support told me they had ZERO replacement batteries available to send (red flag!), so instead they sent me a completely new smart lock unit, which obviously included a battery. Upon receipt of the replacement Eufy smart lock, I installed it on August 27, 2021, charged the battery to full, and put it in the lock. On September 6th --- just over a week after install --- I received a "low battery" alert. I called Eufy support to report an even worse battery life on the replacement lock and was told that "high activity will drain the battery faster than the advertised life." I literally facepalmed at that response. I checked my event history in the Eufy app, and in that one week timeframe, I averaged 7 locks/unlocks per day, so "high activity" was not a valid excuse for a dead battery in one week's time. Additionally, my back door and interior garage door see double the usage of my front door, and the Yale Assure locks installed showed 99% and 96% battery life, respectively. At that point, the Eufy rep told me that the only thing they can do at this point is refund me, which is what I chose to do. I've since installed another Yale Assure lock on my front door, and have had zero issues. The real shame here is that I really liked the Eufy lock when it was working. The fingerprint function was quick and reliable, the management of the lock via the Eufy app was well done, and again, the build quality and appearance of the lock are premium. Clearly, however, there is an issue with this lock draining the battery life, and without power, it's no better than having a regular deadbolt on your door. For that reason, I can't recommend anyone buy the Eufy smart lock. In fact, I would urge people to stay far, far away from it. Side note: I have a "prosumer" network setup at home, so I can see who my top talkers (i.e. devices using the most traffic) are on my network. When I looked, the Eufy smart lock was regularly a top talker as it was constantly sending/receiving data. In fact, during the time I had the Eufy smart lock installed at my house (about 90 or so days), it both sent and received over 6 GBs of data; about 71 MBs in and out per day, which is an abnormal amount for any IoT device, let alone a simple smart lock. When I asked Eufy about why their smart lock constantly sends/receives data, they couldn't provide me with a definitive answer. They guessed it was due to firmware updates, which is incorrect because firmware updates don't happen daily. My speculation is that they're constantly sending data to the Eufy cloud, and that this constant transfer of data is what's draining the battery so quickly.