Most homes are designed with their front exterior door as a focal point, and it’s often the first thing people notice about a house. If you’re replacing the front door to your smart home because it’s worn out, drafty, or just plain ugly, you’ll want to consider the Masonite M-Pwr smart door.
Masonite is one of the largest door manufacturers in the U.S. and it has packed this door with every smart feature you can think of, including customized versions of a Yale smart deadbolt with a numeric keypad and key cylinder, and a Ring video doorbell. How are they customized? The door connects to your home’s electrical system and powers the lock and doorbell directly, so they don’t need their own batteries. The door itself has a battery-backup in case of a power outage.
The Masonite M-Pwr smart door has three LED spotlights embedded in its frame, including this one to illuminate the doorknob.
Michael Brown/Foundry
The M-Pwr is a pre-hung door appropriate for both retrofits and new construction, and it has three built-in LED lights: A broad downlight at the top of the exterior frame, a circular spotlight in the frame adjacent to the doorknob, and a second spotlight near the bottom of the frame that casts a pool of light on the threshold. Masonite’s M-Pwr app will deliver push notifications when the door is unlocked, opened or closed, or left open. Wireless communications are handled by embedded Z-Wave and Wi-Fi radios.
The Masonite M-Pwr available in various sizes with or without a window from Home Depot and custom installers. Prices start at $6,500.
Correction: The Masonite M-Pwr door can be purchased from custom installers now and will be available for sale at Home Depot later this year.
Author: Michael Brown, Executive Editor, TechHive
Michael is TechHive's lead editor, with 30+ years of experience covering smart homes, home networking, and home audio/home theater. He holds a BA in Multimedia Journalism, authored the book Desktop Video Production, and was awarded Best Online Review by the Computer Press Association. Michael built a smart home in 2007 and used it as a real-world product-testing lab. Now living in the Pacific Northwest, he is converting his 1890 Victorian bungalow into a modern smart home. Michael has worked at CNET, PCWorld, Electronic Musician, and Maximum PC. As a freelancer, he contributed to New Media, Camcorder, MacWeek, and more.