I just purchased this and received it early today.  After the experience I had with the installation I thought I would write up a review.  I had been looking for a while for a product that would allow for use of key codes, etc, for access into the home, and was also concerned about common methods of break-in such as bumping.

Our home is just over five years old so the construction is pretty modern.  I have a moderate level of handiness and can take on most small to medium sized jobs in the home without bringing in professional help.

My existing deadbolt set is a cheap Kwikset job and it was installed by the builder.  I removed this one quite quickly and began installing the AP501.  The first thing I will note is that the satin nickel finish on the AP501 is quite a bit shinier than on any of the other nickel finishes throughout my home (all of my door hinges, door handles, etc, are nickel).  The door lock is not something that I want to be super shiny, it would be nice to have an option for brushed nickel that is more muted.

Installing the deadbolt receiver is a piece of cake.  Installing their new hardware for the strike plate on the door frame is not a piece of cake at all.  My Kwikset, like most deadbolts just has a simple steel strike plate that is fastened into place with four two inch screws.  The AP501 comes with a very thick "inner" strike plate as well as a plastic receiver that includes a magnet and then a metal secondary strike plate that goes over the plastic receiver.  Unfortunately because of the large depression at the bottom of the plastic receiver (for the permanent magnet used for the auto-locking and security feature) I had to route out a large area below the existing cavity on my door frame.  The new strike plate has two huge screws that are supposed to provide reinforcement.  Unfortunately these screws are soft pieces of junk.  Even with pre-drilling the torque became high enough when hand tightening them with the appropriate sized screwdriver that both of them became stripped.  I then had to spend a considerable amount of time backing them out with some pliers, which was not a lot of fun.  The screws that came with my Kwikset, by comparison are indestructible.  I have screwed them in and out numerous times and they have never become stripped.  Honestly, a $300 deadbolt should come with decent quality hardware, including the screws, etc.  These screws for the striker, etc, are really cheap, everything else in the package seemed to be of pretty high quality.

The other problem with the strike plate assembly is how thick it is with all three pieces included.  It is a good .25 inch thicker than a regular strike plate, which means there is a good chance that you will wind up not being able to shut the door once you have this thing installed.  When I had all three pieces installed it actually bowed out in the middle.

Considering the price of this kit, you would think that they could include a properly designed single strike plate and receiver that was itself magnetized, to prevent the need for the cheesy plastic receiver and cover plate.  I have seen people post that they used their existing receiver and simply put a magnet inside the enclosure (tape it inside the old receiver, etc)... if this is such a common need then that should tell Sunnect that they ought to include a separate magnet for those scenarios so people don't take their existing deadbolt out and find that they can't complete their install.

I also had a little bit of trouble with the lock assembly installation.  The directions tell you to install the bolt assembly and screw it in, prior to installing the outer and inner part of the AP501. Like a lot of doors, mine was not drilled perfectly straight front to back.  It is just offset from the outside of the door to the inside of the door, like the hole saw was not lined up PERFECTLY when they drilled the hole (big surprise).  This small offset posed no problem with the original Kwikset deadbolt, but resulted in some problems for the Sunnect which has very tight tolerances due to the outer door keypad requiring a lot of space to get through the hole.  I actually had to loosen the screws on the deadbolt plate to get enough "wiggle room" to get the outer part of the lock through the deadbolt receiver hardware.  Unfortunately after doing this, hooking up the inside plate, and tightening everything up, the lock cylinder refused to engage with either the motor or with the manual override turn lever.

I was really reluctant to re-drill my door, especially since the offset was so close to fitting, so I loosened all of the parts up to see if I could get the cylinder to engage, before making the decision to re-drill.  Unfortunately during this process, one of the very small black wires on the lock motor/sensor snapped off and left me with a lock cylinder that was now useless.

//update (2nd attempt)

Okay, so after I had some time away I took another shot at this.  I had forgotten that Sunnect includes two different bolts, for different door offsets.  I was able to remove the wire/sensor harness from the undamaged bolt set and install it into the bolt set that had the broken wires.  Removing these was not difficult but I would exercise caution when doing so (to tuck the wires back in I used the edge of a credit card so I would not break them).

This time around I left a little more slack in everything initially and quickly got this working with my original door strike plate (in the intervening time I had re-installed the original doorbolt and strike plate).  This means that unless I want to put some kind of strong aftermarket magnet behind the plate (I removed the one from the Sunnect plastic receiver but it would not work when I slipped it behind the strike plate) or tackle installation of their crazy thick strike plate hardware setup I will not have the automatic close and alarm features working.

I want to comment on what another reviewer mentioned about friction.  If I leave the deadbolt engaged there is probably 1/5 inch or so of clearance on either side between the bolt and strike plate.  If I try to open the door with the deadbolt engaged, obviously it will not open.  However, after doing this if I then try to open the door with the motor that is inside the AP501, it will try to withdraw the bolt three times (unsuccessfully) and then give up.  If I then wiggle the door and try again it will retreat.  This is not a huge cause for concern, but it is worth mentioning, as someone (especially a guest, visitor, etc) could try to open the door with the deadbolt in place and then create enough friction that they believe they have locked themselves out.  I have read the Sunnect technicians comments regarding friction, etc, and I still have to imagine that this could be fixed with some minor changes, such as five open attempts before giving up or a marginally more powerful motor.  This does make me wonder how well this will perform in the winter time when it is possible that there is a little more friction or sticking between the bolt and the strike plate.

Another minor gripe is that there should be some kind of indicator on the interior side of the door to make it obvious, even from a distance away whether or not the deadbolt is in the locked position.  There is a manual release that moves from left to right, but since it is exactly the same finish as the rest of the assembly it is difficult to tell if the lock is engaged or not.  Maybe a future version could have a small red or black dot or stripe on the manual override lever so you could tell from across the room if the deadbolt is in the locked position.

All in all this is a good product, but I feel it's a little over-rated and that the install is more complicated than it needs to be.  Realistically though it is about the same cost as a high quality double cylinder lock that is "bump proof", and you get all of the added features.  The drawback is that the install is a little bit tougher than anticipated and the motor for the deadbolt is pretty weak, so it is possible to jiggle the door, get the deadbolt to stick and believe you've locked yourself out.

I will keep my original dead bolt and keys "just in case" and try to get through a year with this AP501 to see what I think.  I am looking forward to be able to give out a tag key or code to someone while we are away and if that code is compromised or that key stolen I can easily re-program the lock.  I will also search for a strong permanent magnet that I can slip behind my strike plate to activate the automatic locking and alarm features... or, failing to do that, I will consider re-installing the Sunnect three piece strike plate assembly again.