The Origin
In 2020, I opened Canada's first fully automated, unmanned self-storage facility. The facility combined electronic locks, a call centre and property management software into one operating model. At the time, those systems did not communicate properly, so I had the integrations built to connect them.
The automation worked well. The locks became the weak point.
We dealt with hardware failure rates of approximately 13 percent and batteries that sometimes lasted only six to eighteen months instead of the four years we had been promised. These were not minor inconveniences. When a lock failed, a tenant could be left standing outside a unit they were paying to access. My team had to troubleshoot the problem, restore access and often compensate the customer for the experience.
I spent years working with the manufacturer and trying to get the underlying problems resolved. Other operators were experiencing many of the same issues, but the product was not improving enough.
Eventually, I decided there was no point continuing to complain about it. We needed to build a better lock.
The Engineering
I partnered with an industrial automation team whose background was in oil and gas control systems. They had designed equipment to operate beside 2,500-horsepower engines under constant vibration, harsh weather and years of continuous use. Their engineering mindset was very different from what I had seen in self-storage technology.
The product did not need to work most of the time. It needed to work every time a tenant was standing in front of it.
Their engineering standard: five 9s. 99.999% uptime. During development, we put the lock through more than 1.2 million test cycles without a lock failure — equivalent to roughly 500 years of normal daily use. We livestreamed the final portion of the test because I wanted operators to be able to see the result rather than simply take our word for it.
1.2M
cycle tests without
a single fault
500
years of daily use
equivalent
99.999%
uptime engineering
standard
The testing does not mean nothing can ever go wrong. It demonstrates the level of engineering and validation we believe access technology deserves.
The Vision
Self-storage facilities typically operate through a collection of separate products: locks, gates, access controls, property management software, sensors and reporting tools. Each may solve part of the problem, but the operator is often left trying to make the pieces work together.
Blu Technologies is being built differently. BluLok provides the access hardware at the unit. Around it, we are developing the network infrastructure, facility controls and software needed to manage the system reliably at scale.
BluAI will use the operational data created by that system to help operators identify issues earlier, understand what is happening across the facility and make better decisions.
The longer-term objective is not simply to sell a better lock. It is to build a connected operating platform for self-storage — with the hardware, intelligence and software designed together from the beginning.
From 3D-printed prototype to production-ready hardware.
BluLok began with early prototypes and a straightforward question: could we build a smart lock that operators could genuinely depend on? Years of engineering, testing and product development later, BluLok is now moving toward commercial deployment. There is still a great deal to build, but the reason behind it has not changed. Storage operators should not have to choose between automation and reliability.
Follow the Build
Learn more at BluLok.com.
To learn more about BluLok, see the product details, or get early access — visit the product site.
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