Smarten up your electronic door lock

Smart locks are all the rage today, but they’re hamstrung by a dumb problem: If your smartl ock doesn’t come with a box strike plate — and many don’t — breaking into your home with blunt force becomes much easier for a criminal.

The solution? An after-market strike plate that will run you about $10 at any home improvement store or online.

Consumer Reports recently looked at 17 locks and applied the kick-in test to each of them. Only six locks fared well with the standard latch strikethatcamewiththe lock.

Butwhenaboxstrikesecured with four 2-inch screws was added to the door frame, suddenly every single model was highly resistant to the kick-in test.

Translation: You can buy a slightly cheaper, though still quality lock and supplement it with an after-market $10 box strike to make it as secure as a more costly lock!

Speaking of tests, Consumer Reports recommends the Kwikset 980 ($30), the Baldwin Prestige 380 ($40) and the Falcon D241 ($55). If you have a bigger budget, the highest score of all went to a high-security door lock called the Medeco Maxum 11*603 ($190).

Whatever you do, you may not what to cheap out too much on a lock.

The Gatehouse DLX71 ($12) and Kwikset 660 ($17) were among the most affordable locks, but they both got the lowest possible scores on kicking, picking and drilling!

When it comes to electronic locks, Consumer Reports only tested three models.

The Schlage BE365 V CAM 619 ($130) and the iTouchless Bio-Matic BM002U ($300) both got high scores on the kick-in test when reinforced with a box strike secured with four 2-inch screws.