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The best outdoor combination padlock for securing boat storage is the Shield MC40 or the larger MC50 which won BEST IN TEST in Practical Boat Owner Magazine when subjected to an accelerated salt spray test simulating many years in a natural coastal environment. This marine grade padlock can be used on narrowboats or sea going […]
We’ve been asked how it is possible to lock a manhole cover to a drain system or subway. There are some specialist locking manhole covers but they require some significant changes to the rim of the cover and the cover itself which can be shockingly expensive. The low cost or DIY way to achieve this […]
A customer recently asked us if a padlock could be made more secure by adding nuts or washers to the shackle, effectively making a closed shackle padlock. The answers is Yes and No. As seen here we added two stainless nuts to a marine stainless padlock to protect an outboard engine. It clearly does protect […]
The short answer is usually no! A non-marine grade padlock would rust and seize up very quickly around saltwater. However, top-end manufacturers, like Abus and Abloy, often make their non-marine padlocks to such a high standard that they can be used on boats and salty environments with great effect. We often have to explain the […]
The team at, respected magazine, Practical Boat Owner (PBO), have done some independent testing on combination padlocks that feature in their August 2017 edition. They put eight different combination padlocks in a salt water corrosion tank which sprays a fine mist of warm salty water over the padlocks every hour for a month. This would […]
We supply a lot of padlocks for school lockers and we’ve learned a thing or two in the process. Over the years we’ve gone from simply supplying locks to manufacturing, testing and providing advice to schools, universities and colleges worldwide. Here is what we have learned: Master keys for your padlocks A master key is […]
We recently supplied a batch of padlocks to a well know magazine called Practical Boat Owner to test. Each lock was regarded as “weatherproof” and available in various chandlaries and hardware shops in the UK. You could be fooled into thinking that they would all be suitable for use on a boat. It is an […]
This is a Squire CP60 padlock and on the face of it is just a fairly standard open shackle padlock. However, there is a feature within this lock which makes it significantly better. This goes for all padlock that use double ball bearing locking. Padlocks shackles (U bar) are usually secured into the body 1 […]
You may have read the Insurance Grading article also and noticed that there are specific strengths that a padlock must meet in order to gain a specific insurance grade. As such, many of the major manufacturers have testing facilities to ensure their products meet the grade before taking them to market. Below is a video […]
We have been asked a few times how a manufacturer can claim that its padlocks will work after 10 years outdoors for example. Some larger brands of padlock who have had the same model in the market for over 10 years and can actually see their locks have coped or failed. However, most will use […]