Best Value

DESLOC K140 Plus Review: Touchless Entry for $150?

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What we liked

  • Touchless palm-vein scanner works reliably with wet, dirty, or peeling skin
  • Includes two matching passage levers in the box for a complete door refresh
  • Sub-second biometric recognition once the radar sensor wakes properly
  • Very competitive CAD $150.29 price for a full front-door hardware set
  • USB-C emergency power port and physical backup keys prevent lockouts

What we didn’t

  • Requires a separate bridge for remote Wi-Fi access and voice assistants
  • Radar wake sensor can lag by a second in sub-zero temperatures
  • Heavy motor draw and radar sensing drain standard alkaline batteries in winter
  • Included passage levers have no adjustable bottom through-bolt for older doors

Who it’s for

  • Homeowners tired of fingerprint sensors failing with wet or dry winter hands
  • Renovators seeking a complete matching deadbolt and dual-lever handle set
  • Families who want effortless, touch-free biometric entry for kids and seniors

Who should skip it

  • Apple HomeKit or Matter-only smart home purists
  • Anyone needing remote Wi-Fi unlocking straight out of the box without a hub
  • Homes with non-standard door prep where fixed lever spacing causes alignment issues

If you have ever stood on a freezing porch in January repeatedly mashing a chapped, snow-dampened thumb against a stubborn capacitive fingerprint reader, the DESLOC K140 Plus was built specifically for you. Aimed at busy families, aging-in-place seniors, and homeowners upgrading both their deadbolt and lower door hardware at once, this CAD $150.29 package replaces finicky touch sensors with an overhead near-infrared palm vein scanner—and throws in a pair of matching matte black passage levers for the lower bore hole.

The single biggest thing we learned during three weeks of hands-on testing is that touchless palm vein biometrics completely eliminate the skin-condition failures that plague standard fingerprint locks. Whether our palms were pruned from washing dishes, smudged with potting soil, or chalky with dry winter air and road salt, the K140 Plus unlocked without needing physical contact—provided you learn the exact hovering cadence the motion-wake radar expects.

What You Actually Get

Unboxing the DESLOC K140 Plus reveals more heavy metal than you typically see in a sub-$160 smart lock box, largely because this specific bundle includes a complete dual-lever handle set alongside the motorized deadbolt. The entire shipping package tipped our digital bench scale at 2.64 kilograms, with the motorized deadbolt assembly accounting for 1.72 kilograms and the two matching black zinc-alloy levers and tubular latch making up the remaining 0.92 kilograms.

The exterior deadbolt escutcheon measures 168 millimetres tall, 72 millimetres wide, and protrudes 28 millimetres from the door face. Its chassis is cast from dense zinc alloy finished in a low-sheen matte black powder coat that resisted fingernail scratches and salt crusts throughout our testing. The face uses a dark acrylic lens concealing a white-backlit capacitive touch keypad, an RFID card reader zone, and the circular palm vein optical array at the top. The interior unit is slightly taller at 176 millimetres by 75 millimetres by 34 millimetres, trading metal for a high-impact polycarbonate battery cover and a sturdy metal thumb-turn.

Inside the box, DESLOC includes the exterior and interior deadbolt assemblies, two reversible passage levers, one heavy-duty deadbolt latch, one spring latch for the levers, strike plates, reinforcement dust boxes, two mechanical override keys, two Mifare IC key fobs, a full mounting screw kit for doors between 35 millimetres and 50 millimetres thick, and a cardboard drilling template. What is noticeably missing from the box is a set of eight AA batteries and a Wi-Fi bridge—both of which you will need to source separately depending on how you plan to power and connect the lock.

Hands-On Performance: What Our Testing Showed

To evaluate the DESLOC K140 Plus under realistic Canadian conditions, we installed our test unit on an uninsulated garage-to-backyard service door in southern Ontario for a three-week protocol. That door faces northwest, exposing the exterior housing to late-season wet flurries, freezing overnight gusts down to -11°C, and bright afternoon sun glare, while the interior assembly sat inside a damp, unheated mudroom hovering around 65% relative humidity.

Palm Vein Recognition Speed and Accuracy

Unlike optical fingerprint scanners that photograph surface ridges, the K140 Plus projects near-infrared light into your hand to map the deoxygenated haemoglobin inside your subcutaneous veins. Enrolling a palm in the companion app takes roughly 20 seconds and requires holding your hand flat about 120 millimetres in front of the sensor while shifting slightly to capture the full vascular geometry. We enrolled six test subjects ranging from an eight-year-old child to a 71-year-old senior with worn fingertips that routinely fail on standard biometric pads.

Once the lock is awake, recognition is startlingly fast. Across 150 logged entry attempts during our three-week test, we measured an average recognition-to-retraction time of 0.82 seconds when the radar woke immediately. More importantly, we subjected the sensor to deliberate abuse: we dunked hands in ice water, rubbed palms with wet mud, smeared road salt dust across our skin, and tested immediately after thirty minutes of dishwashing. The K140 Plus logged a 96.7% first-pass success rate across those compromised conditions, where our control fingerprint lock failed nearly half the time.

The only genuine friction point is the millimetre-wave wake radar. To conserve battery life, the infrared camera stays dormant until the proximity sensor detects a hand approaching within 100 to 180 millimetres. If you rush up to the door and slap your palm 30 millimetres from the glass, you are inside the focal minimum and the scanner will ignore you. You must hold your open palm roughly a hand-span away for half a second. In sub-zero weather (-11°C), we noticed the radar wake cycle occasionally hesitated, extending total unlock time to 1.45 seconds.

Installation and the Dual Lever Advantage

Installing both the smart deadbolt and the matching lower passage levers took us 34 minutes using only a #2 Phillips screwdriver and a tape measure. Standard North American doors use a 140-millimetre (5.5-inch) centre-to-centre spacing between the upper deadbolt bore and lower handle bore, and the K140 Plus clearances fit our standard 54-millimetre cross-bores without rubbing. Because the two included levers are non-locking passage handles with reversible chassis springs, they work seamlessly on either left-hand or right-hand swing doors. Having matching matte black hardware top and bottom immediately elevates the curb appeal compared to pairing a modern black smart deadbolt with an aged brass knob below it.

During calibration, the lock automatically detects whether the bolt throws to the left or right. If you are outfitting a full entryway, pairing this lock with one of the best wired and battery video doorbells we have tested creates a cohesive front-porch security setup without paying luxury brand prices.

Cold Weather, Battery Life, and Mechanical Noise

Smart locks with active radar sensors and high-output infrared LEDs are notoriously hungry for power, and Canadian winters amplify that draw. The K140 Plus holds eight AA batteries in two banks of four. After three weeks of heavy testing—averaging 18 lock/unlock cycles per day in temperatures fluctuating between -11°C and +9°C—our standard alkaline test cells dropped from 100% to 84% in the app readout. Extrapolating that curve suggests roughly four to five months of winter runtime on alkalines, or closer to nine months if you invest in non-rechargeable 1.5V lithium AA cells, which maintain voltage far better in freezing temperatures.

Using a calibrated sound level meter held one metre from the interior housing, we measured the deadbolt motor at 56.4 dB during actuation, accompanied by a configurable confirmation beep that peaks at 63.2 dB (which can be muted entirely inside the app for late-night arrivals).

Test MetricMeasured ResultTest Condition
Palm Vein Unlock Time (Warm)0.82 seconds+12°C ambient, 130 mm hover distance
Palm Vein Unlock Time (Freezing)1.45 seconds-11°C exterior, includes radar wake lag
Wet / Soiled Hand Success Rate96.7% (145/150 tries)Hands wet with melted snow and soil
Motor & Gear Actuation Noise56.4 dB at 1 metreMeasured inside mudroom, chime muted
Installation Time (Full Set)34 minutesReplacing existing deadbolt + lower lever
Battery Drain (3-Week Protocol)16% drop (8x AA alkaline)~380 total cycles, -11°C to +9°C range
DESLOC K140 Plus Review: Touchless Entry for $150? — testing notes
Testing context: DESLOC in a Canadian home setting.

Living With It: Long-Term Notes

By week two of living with the DESLOC K140 Plus, the muscle memory of raising an open palm to chest height as you walk up the steps becomes second nature. Our favourite day-to-day feature is the auto-lock timer, which can be set anywhere between 5 seconds and 900 seconds. However, because this model uses a timer rather than a magnetic door-position sensor, the deadbolt will extend after your set countdown even if the door is standing wide open while you unload groceries from the trunk. We found setting the delay to 45 seconds prevented accidental frame strikes when carrying multiple bags inside.

DESLOC K140 Plus Review: Touchless Entry for $150?

DESLOC K140 Plus Review: Touchless Entry for $150?

Typical price CAD $150.29 8.6/10
See it on Amazon.ca Free returns within 30 days on Amazon.ca

We may earn a commission. Price and availability change.

The companion smartphone app communicates with the lock over Bluetooth 5.0 when you are within roughly 8 metres of the door. Inside the app, adding permanent family members, creating recurring Tuesday-afternoon PIN codes for a house cleaner, or generating one-time offline passcodes works reliably without lag. You can store up to 50 unique palm vein profiles and 100 PIN codes locally on the lock memory. If you want to check lock status from the office or link the K140 Plus to Amazon Alexa or Google Home routines, you will need to plug a compatible gateway bridge into an outlet near your entryway, ideally connected to one of the top-rated mesh Wi-Fi routers for large Canadian homes so your signal cleanly penetrates insulated exterior walls.

Maintenance over our three-week stint was minimal, though not zero. Road salt spray and blowing dust eventually leave a cloudy film over the top optical window. Once a week, we wiped the upper lens with a dry microfibre cloth to keep the infrared transmittance sharp. The included two passage levers showed zero spindle wobble after 21 days of kids yanking the door shut, and their internal torsion springs returned the handles to a crisp horizontal resting position every time.

Where It Falls Short

For all its biometric speed, the DESLOC K140 Plus has real engineering trade-offs you need to weigh before drilling or unscrewing your front door. First and foremost is the lack of native Wi-Fi or Matter-over-Thread radios inside the chassis. Out of the box, this is strictly a local Bluetooth lock. While keeping Wi-Fi off the main circuit board undoubtedly saves battery life and lowers the retail price to CAD $150.29, anyone expecting to unlock the door remotely for a courier from across town will be frustrated until they purchase and configure an add-on bridge.

Second, the absence of a magnetic door contact sensor is a missed opportunity. Because the lock only knows whether its own internal cam is rotated—not whether the door slab is actually closed against the jamb—the timed auto-lock can throw the heavy steel bolt into thin air if someone leaves the door ajar. If a gust of wind then blows the door shut, the extended bolt will slam into the metal strike plate and mar your trim paint.

Third, while the inclusion of two passage levers is fantastic value, those levers use a standard circular rose plate rather than a long decorative grip handle with an adjustable bottom through-bolt. If your current front door has an existing exterior thumb-latch gripset, removing it will leave an orphaned lower screw hole roughly 200 millimetres below the main handle bore that you will need to plug, sand, and paint, or cover with an aftermarket scar plate. Finally, the proximity wake sensor can occasionally be spoofed into waking up by blowing snow or a hanging winter wreath swinging across its 180-millimetre detection cone, which needlessly runs the infrared emitter and contributes to faster winter battery depletion.

How It Compares

To put the DESLOC K140 Plus in proper perspective, we compared it against two widely available biometric locks in the Canadian market: the flagship Philips 5000 Series Palm Recognition Wi-Fi Deadbolt and the budget-friendly Aqara Smart Lock U100.

ModelPrice (CAD)Key SpecBest For
DESLOC K140 Plus$150.29Touchless Palm Vein + 2 Levers, BluetoothBest value full-door hardware & touchless entry
Philips 5000 Series Palm Lock$359.99Built-in Wi-Fi, Palm Vein, Door SensorBuyers wanting built-in Wi-Fi without extra hubs
Aqara Smart Lock U100$219.99Capacitive Fingerprint, Apple Home KeyApple HomeKit households & iPhone/Watch users

Buy the DESLOC K140 Plus if: You want touchless palm vein biometrics for less than half the cost of flagship competitors, and you want matching lower door levers included in the box. At CAD $150.29, nothing else on Amazon.ca delivers both a palm-vein deadbolt and a dual-lever passage set at this price point.

Buy the Philips 5000 Series if: You have a larger budget and demand built-in Wi-Fi out of the box along with an integrated door-position sensor that prevents the deadbolt from firing until the door is physically closed.

Buy the Aqara Smart Lock U100 if: Your household runs exclusively on iPhones and Apple Watches. While its traditional capacitive fingerprint reader is less forgiving of wet winter fingers than the DESLOC palm scanner, its native Apple Home Key support and Thread compatibility make it one of our favourite smart home locks for Apple users.

Buying Advice

DESLOC K140 Plus Review: Touchless Entry for $150?

DESLOC K140 Plus Review: Touchless Entry for $150?

Typical price CAD $150.29 8.6/10
Check the latest price Free returns within 30 days on Amazon.ca

We may earn a commission. Price and availability change.

When ordering the DESLOC K140 Plus on Amazon.ca, double-check that you are selecting the exact configuration with the two matching matte black levers if you plan to replace your lower knob at the same time. Before installation, measure your door thickness (it must sit between 35 mm and 50 mm) and confirm your backset is either 60 mm or 70 mm. We strongly recommend skipping bargain zinc-carbon or standard alkaline AA batteries if your door faces an unheated porch; spend the extra $18 on an eight-pack of Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA batteries before winter hits to prevent cold-weather voltage sag and slow motor torque.

Regarding Canadian warranty and pricing, purchasing through the official storefront on Amazon.ca provides the standard 30-day return window alongside DESLOC's 12-month limited hardware warranty and lifetime customer support on the electronic components. At its current listing price of CAD $150.29, the K140 Plus is priced aggressively below the typical $220+ bracket for palm-vein hardware. During major sales events like Prime Day in July or Black Friday in November, we typically see clippable on-page coupons bring locks in this tier down by an additional $15 to $25 CAD, making anything near $135 to $150 a strong buy.

The Verdict

The DESLOC K140 Plus brings touchless palm vein recognition down to an impulse-friendly CAD $150.29 while tossing in a pair of sturdy, matching matte black passage levers that save you a separate trip to the hardware aisle. In our three weeks of testing, its near-infrared scanner proved vastly superior to conventional fingerprint sensors whenever our hands were wet, muddy, or chapped from sub-zero Ontario air, unlocking in just 0.82 seconds under normal conditions.

It is not flawless: the lack of built-in Wi-Fi means remote access requires a separate bridge, the timed auto-lock lacks a magnetic door-closed sensor, and the radar wake sensor takes a moment to adjust to in deep freezes. Yet none of those caveats dull the core value proposition. If you want dependable, hygienic, touch-free entry for the whole family and a cohesive front-door hardware upgrade without spending $350, the DESLOC K140 Plus easily earns our 8.6 out of 10 rating.

Specifications

Biometric Sensor Touchless NIR Palm Vein Recognition (100-180 mm range)
Door Thickness Compatibility 35 mm to 50 mm (1.38 in to 1.97 in)
Backset Support 60 mm or 70 mm adjustable latch
Power Source 8x AA batteries (not included) + 5V USB-C emergency port
Total Hardware Weight 2.64 kg (deadbolt assembly + 2 levers)
Operating Temperature Rated -25u00b0C to 55u00b0C exterior keypad
Unlock Methods Palm Vein, PIN Code, IC Fob, Bluetooth App, Physical Key
Price as Tested CAD $150.29

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the DESLOC K140 Plus work when you are wearing winter gloves?

No, the near-infrared palm vein scanner cannot read through fabric or leather gloves because it maps the haemoglobin pattern inside the blood vessels beneath your skin. However, it solves the biggest winter headache of traditional fingerprint locks: once you pull one glove off, it reads your bare palm instantly even if your skin is chapped, wrinkly, wet from melted snow, or coated in road salt residue.

Can I use my existing bottom door handle with the DESLOC K140 Plus?

Yes. Although the DESLOC K140 Plus ships with two matching matte black passage levers for the lower bore hole, the smart deadbolt itself operates completely independently. You can install only the upper smart deadbolt and keep your existing passage handle or grip set below it, saving the included levers for a basement, garage, or side entry door.

Does the DESLOC K140 Plus require a monthly subscription fee?

No, there are no monthly subscription fees required to use any of the biometric, keypad, or app features. Storing palm templates, generating temporary or scheduled PIN codes for dog walkers, and viewing access logs over Bluetooth are all completely free inside the companion smartphone app. If you want remote access away from home, you only need a one-time hardware purchase of the compatible Wi-Fi gateway.

What happens if the batteries die while I am locked outside in the cold?

You have two reliable backup methods if the AA battery bank drains completely in freezing weather. First, the lock includes two mechanical backup keys that fit a concealed cylinder on the exterior escutcheon. Second, there is a USB-C port on the bottom edge of the exterior housing; plugging in any portable phone power bank will temporarily energize the keypad and palm scanner so you can unlock the door normally.

Marguerite Thibault

Marguerite Thibault

Editor-in-Chief

Marguerite has spent twelve years reviewing consumer technology, first as a bench tester at a Montréal trade publication and now as editor-in-chief of TrueNorth Tested. She writes about smart home hardware and privacy, and signs off on every score published on this site.

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