Mechanical Locks Will Not Be Replaced by Fingerprint Locks
It is well-known that any invention has a long way to go before becoming perfect. So do intelligent fingerprint locks.
So, what are the advantages of fingerprint locks?
First, distinguished from the traditional mechanical lock,
a fingerprint lock has fancy appearance, which might be the most
appealing characteristic of the fingerprint lock for people noticing it
for the fist time. But this advantage may not be that attractive for
ordinary families.
Second, it is convenient for people to use the fingerprint lock. With
intelligent technologies, the fingerprint lock can be opened and closed
without a key while the traditional mechanical lock
must be opened and closed with a key. Moreover, the key of the
fingerprint lock can be changed for thousands of times. In this point,
the fingerprint lock is more cost-effective than the traditional lock and is suitable for all people.
With the fingerprint lock, users are able to enter and leave the room
without any keys, which saves time. Moreover, there is no need for lock users to worry about being unable to open the lock and enter their own houses if the keys are lost. Therefore, using the fingerprint lock can save both time and money.
However, this function is not suitable for most families and is only
beneficial to places with high staff turnover. For example, in urban
China, there are lots of families comprised of only three members
without nannies or professional cleaners. These families almost have no
need to change their fingerprint passwords, but they still have to pay
money for the intelligent fingerprint lock due to the function which is
useless for them.
The third point is the security problem of the intelligent fingerprint
lock. In general, the fingerprint lock adopts the structure with a
mechanical key hole for the unexpected cases and the key hole is similar
to the key hole of the cheapest traditional mechanical lock with
extreme low security. It can be easily picked just like the A class pin
tumbler lock.
Except the old-style A class lock cylinder, there are new super B class
lock cylinders and C class wafer tumbler lock cylinders on the current
market. These two kinds of lock cylinders have not been picked until
now. Therefore, it can be concluded that high-quality locks will not be
picked and can ensure safety for users. Meanwhile, the cost of the
high-quality mechanical lock is less than the cost of the intelligent fingerprint lock. First, the price of the high-quality C class wafer tumbler lock
is only from 200 RMB to 300 RMB, which is much lower than that of the
intelligent lock. Second, making duplicate keys for the lock may cost
about 200 RMB, which is still cheaper than purchasing a new intelligent
lock.