When it comes to smart tech of any kind, it is the tech that provides a tangible benefit to daily life. Smartphones are an obvious example. Smart lighting and heating that learns your living patterns so as not to overdo it on the utility bills. When it makes a genuine difference to how people live and brings real-world benefits, that is when smart tech works best.

This is what you get with Ultion Nuki. From Brisant Secure, their latest iteration of smart home tech is the slickest and most compatible smart door product they have released to date. Here is what you need to know, and why it could open up additional sales for you as an installer.

Simple installation, simple integration

When smart tech is easy to operate and easy to use, it immediately becomes all the more inviting. That is a huge USP Ultion Nuki has.

With its dedicated internal handle with in-built fixing points to fit all handle types typical on PVCu and composite doors, it makes the installation process for installers as simple as you could wish for it to be. Ultion Nuki also has an escutcheon model which allows for the product to be fitted to doors without a lever handle. All of this kit comes in the box, so there is no need to purchase additional items separately.

Whether you’re going to sell these as retro-fit items to existing doors, or sell them in addition to brand new entrance doors, the handle and smart unit are easily fitted in a matter of minutes. This is a demo unit which we have had fitted, and as you can see, it is fitted with ease:

According to Ultion:

It accommodates lever handles where the distance between the handle fixings is 215mm, 211mm and 122mm. The distance between the centre of the handle (spindle) and the barrel (keyhole) should be 92mm.

The adjustable design of the Ultion Nuki handle also means that should you change your door, or move house, you can continue to use it on the new door without needing to buy a new handle.

To coign phrase from the tech world, this is about as open-source as it gets. It can be used on new doors, existing doors, fitting to all screw centres and has an escutcheon option as well. The beauty here is that this allows installers to offer Ultion Nuki on both new door sales or to be sold to additional doors in the house alongside a new sale.

Ultion Nuki smart watch control

The second major USP here is the ability of Ultion Nuki to work with all established smart home systems and other smart devices. Brisant’s previous version did too, it’s worth remembering. But it required installers or homeowners to buy specific models to pair with specific smart home systems. With Ultion Nuki this is no longer the case. It’s a plug-and-play product that automatically pairs with all smart home systems.

After a few minutes of fairly simple integration following the downloading of the Nuki app, we have been playing around with the functionality of Nuki via a Google Home Hub in the office. Being able to show the customer that voice commands such as “Hey Google, unlock the door” is very cool. It’s also a great way to be able to demonstrate how Nuki fits in with use in daily life. In the same way that we ask Alexa or Siri to play music, and tell us the weather forecast or the traffic, we can ask Google or Apple or Alexa to lock or unlock the door, as well status updates.

The app is fantastic. Easy to install and very easy to navigate. It is an improvement on the Danalock app in the previous version. You have all the remote controls you would expect with a smart lock, being able to lock and unlock the door with a tap, and getting status updates as to whether the door is locked or not. You can invite guest users, and then kick them off when you tire of them! You also use the app to pair the remote fob, the optional keypad as well as the bridging device required to connect to smart home systems. It’s all very intuitive and reliable. That’s the thing with apps, they have to be reliable, and this has worked every time I have used it since our showroom model was fitted.

Lastly, if you are by the door and don’t want to use the app, the circular button at the centre of Nuki allows you to press it twice to unlock, or three times to lock. Via the app, you can personalise all the settings within Nuki, including timings on functionality, sound, vibrations, and what the double and triple-taps do on the unit itself.

Unlocking sales

Take a look at that handle. It’s a bespoke design from Brisant that has been created to allow it to fit UK doors. It’s worth noting that Nuki is a European-based product, and was therefore built to accommodate European door hardware. For those that know, the UK and European markets in terms of locking and hardware options on doors are very different.

Therefore, to be able to bring it to the UK a new internal handle had to be designed to allow it to slot nicely into the British market. It’s a great-looking handle. Flat to the surface of the door, wide, but not too wide that it looks ungainly on the door. I love the white finish. I know we all do a lot of Chrome in this industry, and there is a Chrome option coming, but the clean White, that follows a very Apple style, looks great on a White door sash internally.

Ultion Nuki White

Speaking of handles. It’s also worth noting that the external handle on jobs that you retrofit can remain. There is no need to sell a new external handle with Ultion Nuki thanks to the variety of screw centres. However, given the fact that you’re already selling a brilliant smart lock, it might be worth nudging the client that one bit more and fitting a Sweet handle to the outside to make sure the external side of the door it pit-proof!

Overall, Ultion Nuki is a great smart lock and a big improvement on the previous smart lock from Brisant. It will fit nicely and seamlessly into everyday living, which is very much the point with smart tech. Those who buy it I am convinced will love it. But there is also a great opportunity here for installers.

I think some of the hesitations around the adoption of smart window and door tech have either been faith in the product and quality, as well as the usefulness of the product itself. This is where that argument breaks down. Nuki is affordable – just £239 to the public on the Ultion website, very simple to fit, as per the video above, and quickly pairs with all major smart home operating systems.

There is a lot of appeal to Nuki, for the reasons above and more. This is going to be an easy sell for installers and will quite easily capture the imagination of homeowners who are looking to integrate their door into their existing home security systems like Ring. Installers can get excited about this, which means end users can as well. This can be a very sparkling cherry on top of the cake that will push sales over the line for some.

I have argued in previous articles that adoption of smart window and door tech in fenestration is behind compared to where it should be. It is products like Ultion Nuki that will break down those barriers and provide a boost in this particular area.

Discover more about Ultion Nuki: https://www.ultion-lock.co.uk/ultion-nuki/

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