A Deadbolt That Scrapes the Strike Plate Is Draining Its Own Battery

A smart lock fails the way a bad hinge fails: slowly, audibly, and in a way everybody learns to ignore. The deadbolt starts needing a half-second longer to extend. Then the motor audibly strains. Then the app starts reporting lock timeouts, and someone wedges the door open with a foot while turning the key manually. The lock is usually not broken. The door has moved, the strike plate is out of alignment by a few millimetres, and every lock cycle is now a small mechanical fight the battery pays for. Why Doors Move and Locks Do Not Houses breathe. Frames settle seasonally, hinges wear, humidity swells the door, and a latch that aligned perfectly at installation binds by winter. A mechanical key does not care: human fingers add force without complaint. A motor does care, because it has a fixed torque budget and a stall current it is designed to avoid, not to live at. The lock's engineers assumed an aligned door, and their current thresholds assume one. A deadbolt fighting a m