The Key to the Future of Locks: Tedee in the Loxone Podcast
The CTO of Tedee, Andrzej Kaszycki, was a guest on the Smart Talk podcast, hosted by Adam Węgrzyn, Head of Business Development at Loxone Poland. Listen to their conversation about the origins of the Tedee brand and the integration of smart locks with home automation.
The episode is available in Polish on YouTube >> and on podcast platforms >>.
The conversation transcript has been edited and condensed.
Adam Węgrzyn, Head of Business Development at Loxone Poland: Welcome to another episode of the Smart Talk podcast. Today we have the pleasure of hosting Andrzej Kaszycki, CTO and board member at Tedee. Welcome, Andrzej.
Andrzej Kaszycki, CTO at Tedee: Hi, it’s great to be here.
AW: “Tedee powered by GERDA.” So is it GERDA or Tedee? Andrzej, what’s the story here?
AK: That’s a very good question, and the answer isn’t that simple. The idea for the lock itself originated at GERDA. GERDA is the manufacturer and supplies key components of the device: the mechanics and the battery. However, Tedee is, in fact, the producer of the device, bringing it to the market and being responsible for its quality and sales worldwide.
GERDA is a well-known brand in Poland, with 40 years of tradition in producing locks and doors. Because of this, no one questions whether GERDA makes good locks because GERDA has always made locks. Hence the term “Tedee powered by GERDA” is used in Poland. Globally, as we sell this product in over 60 countries on all continents—except perhaps Antarctica—it’s simply Tedee. This is the brand we want to build, and this brand is very important to us.
AW: So where did the idea for an electronic lock come from?
AK: The idea emerged long ago—GERDA was always looking for new ideas to develop its products. As soon as the first electronic locks appeared on the market, they caught our attention—this was around 2014-2015.
We bought all those locks and checked what was inside. At that time, there wasn’t a product that met our expectations. We expected the lock to have enough power to turn all the bolts. Why is this so important? Because doors are only burglar-proof if they are locked! If they are only latched with the handle, theoretically, you can kick the handle, to put it bluntly, and open the door. It was important to us that the lock was both strong and fast, and ideally, as small as possible. None of these locks met these criteria; they didn’t work on doors with multi-point locking.
In vain, we searched for such a product for a year and a half until we finally found a product from a Danish company that we started working with. We branded this lock as GERDA Lock for obvious reasons. This lock was with us for two years. However, the cooperation with the company was going well until we started giving feedback on how to improve the product. We were told that it wasn’t really our concern because it was their product, and they wouldn’t be changing it.
AW: A conflict of interest.
AK: I think it was the company’s belief that they knew everything. We felt we knew more, especially since we knew how door locks should function. They came from an IT background. So, we started thinking about our own product, and we already knew the current shareholders of the company who were involved in electronics.
In general, Tedee is built on two pillars: the classic mechanics from GERDA, and the IT side was handled by the company Predica, as that’s where the people we collaborated with came from.
It turned out that we had a good idea, but GERDA didn’t have the competence to create the electronic and software part of the product. We tried working with various companies, but nothing came of it. We established our own company, Tedee, which initially was supposed to deal with a different product, as it was supposed to be a smart intercom.
As part of this work, we created the bridge that was supposed to remotely connect the intercom with phones, as the idea was based on talking to the intercom via phone. In short, nothing came of it, but in the meantime, the lock appeared. We used the same bridge that allows us to connect many of our devices. It’s very good and was developed over two years, starting in 2018.
We launched the product on the market right in the middle of the pandemic, in 2020, and for two years, we couldn’t show this product to anyone in person. Of course, we showcased it online. However, online you can’t touch it, you can’t see how cool, small, and nice it is. Those were two very difficult years. Because everyone else who was already active in this industry had already proven that they produce great, functional products. We had to work very hard to show our product and establish it in the market.
AW: I’m a user of your lock. You don’t need to convince me that it’s good. However, many of our listeners, clients, and installers are wondering why they should choose the Tedee smart lock.
AK: Just take a look at Trustpilot and search for Tedee. There you’ll find reviews from people who use these products. Our lock is the smallest, strongest, and quietest on the market. These are features that are immediately noticeable if you’re familiar with these products. It’s the most attractive, although that’s a matter of taste, but Tedee PRO is “our iPhone.” It’s made of anodized aluminum. Very cool design, two colors: silver and black. We’re introducing new ones.
AW: I even saw crystals.
AK: Yes, that’s very important. It’s an idea for a client from the Middle East. They liked it very much, and we’ll definitely be producing such locks. We also paint the locks by hand, and thanks to the cool shape of the device, we can do a lot more with this lock than the competition.
Of course, that’s important, but the most important thing is that the lock is quiet and very strong because it generates 2 Nm of torque. That’s the kind of torque that very few people would be able to manually turn the cylinder with a key. Of course, it’s not good if you have doors that are so difficult to operate; in that case, it’s better to adjust the door than install Tedee. However, we manage where others fail.
AW: I understand. What benefits do you see in combining Loxone automation with your lock?
AK: The benefits are obvious because it’s no longer the time when technology is based on individual devices. This device has to be integrated into the automation system. We see how rapidly Loxone is developing, and you can see you everywhere. We care a lot about our lock working in this environment, so we prepared integrations via cloud API and local API, using Tedee Bridge.
Now we also have a new product, Tedee Dry Contact, which allows us to integrate with Loxone and other systems even without a bridge. It’s a device that, when connected to wires and a signal is provided via Bluetooth, sends commands to the lock to open or close. There’s no simpler method of integration.
We have three methods of integration with Loxone, right? If someone wants to integrate through the cloud, they integrate through the cloud. Locally? Sure thing. Now you don’t even need a bridge, just connect the wires to Tedee Dry Contact.
AW: You’re also available in our Loxone Library, where you’ve created a clear integration. Today, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dawid, our installer, who asked if there’s already a local API and a ready integration template. I’m very happy that you’re also developing our community and the available templates.
Behind the scenes, we talked about automation, including geofencing. How do you see automation in the daily use of your lock with Loxone?
AK: One of the coolest features of the Tedee lock is automatic opening. Of course, we need authorization to operate the lock. It works by allowing us to open the lock without taking the phone out of our pocket when we approach the door. If we’re carrying shopping bags or holding a child, the door opens automatically. You can imagine that at the same time, the alarm is automatically disarmed.
The entire connection is encrypted, and we take great care to ensure the security of our devices. Every year, we have their security tested by the German company AV-Test.
Because the system can receive confirmation that the door has opened—and we’re on the other side—we can automatically disarm the alarm, turn on the lights, and automate everything we do in such situations. It’s all about convenience, and people are willing to pay for convenience.
Also, saving time. We spend time on what we enjoy doing, so we don’t necessarily want to spend time clicking through an app. Convenience is key. It’s our idea that the operation of the device and the entire environment should be very simple and convenient. I think we’re very close.
AW: When it comes to your customers, are you trying to reach new clients who are building their homes or buying their first apartments, or are you more focused on retrofit modernization? What’s your direction?
AK: We’re trying to reach both. In the case of such locks, it’s a product mainly aimed at the retrofit channel because we can turn regular doors into smart doors simply by replacing the cylinder. A billion cylinders are produced annually worldwide, so the market is very deep. There’s nothing more to do than replace the cylinder and install Tedee on it. That’s it, and you have a regular door that’s now smart.
Of course, the new homes market is also very important to us. Especially for GERDA in Poland, because GERDA produces doors. They offer doors with Tedee locks pre-installed. This offer is simply more attractive than buying doors and locks separately.
However, in the case of new doors, there’s competition in the form of electromechanical locks. Often these locks are weaker than our lock. It has often turned out that even companies that produce these locks talk and cooperate with us, and are interested in our solution. In certain specific situations, for example, with composite doors that warp, their devices are simply too weak to operate the lock. We’re in talks with several companies, manufacturers of such locks, who are interested in working with us and using us in their doors.
It’s very important that our lock works even when there’s no power. It’s not like it used to be when power outages were frequent, but when there’s no power, you can still open the Tedee lock because it runs on batteries. That’s also convenient. We can always open it locally via Bluetooth.
If an electromechanical lock has no power, it can only be opened with a key. So we’re more flexible than the competition and standard electromechanical lock solutions.
AW: As Loxone, we are compatible with reservation systems like Room Admin and HotRes, which allow integration with Booking.com, Airbnb, and other platforms. I often come across you there and recommend you in such solutions. So I see potential in the unmanned apartment sector as well. That is, apartments without a reception, without keys, managed automatically. We have PIN pads, so that’s also an ideal solution. We can offer clients a stable solution because there’s simply no issue with it.
As for battery life, how does charging work? How often do you need to charge such a lock?
AK: Starting with integrations, these are very convenient solutions. Someone renting an apartment wants to make money. They don’t want to worry about the guest arriving at midnight or being stuck in traffic and losing time. It just doesn’t make sense with today’s technology. We greatly value our cooperation with Loxone because we have even more possibilities for integrating with reservation systems.
As for the battery, it lasts at least 6-10 months on a single charge. It charges from 0 to 100% in 5 hours.
If you have a cleaning service in the apartment, you can connect a power bank to the lock for half an hour once every two weeks. That’s really all it takes because cleaning the apartment doesn’t take less time, and you can charge 10% of the battery, which is enough for a few weeks of operation. Almost like a perpetual motion machine!
AW: Great. Andrzej, thank you for your time.
AK: Thank you very much for the invitation. Our cooperation has been very professional from the beginning, and I’m very grateful that you have Tedee in your offer.
AW: My pleasure! We really strive to make keys a thing of the past, so the choice is yours. Trust us, trust Tedee. See you next time!
AK: Thanks a lot.
