The best padlocks in 2024, tried and tested | CNN Underscored

Oct 27, 2024

Best padlock: Abus 37/55 RK KA Granit Alloy Steel Padlock Keyed Alike

Best combination padlock: Master Lock 178D Set Your Own Combination Lock

Best high-security padlock: Abus Granit 37RK/80 Heavy Duty Hardened Steel Padlock

The best padlocks keep your possessions safe in the same way the best bike locks do. That is, they’re great thief deterrents. But they can also ensure the well-being of your loved ones, especially the younger or more vulnerable members of your household, by keeping dangerous things safely locked in a cabinet or chest.

Like most things, some padlocks are better than others, so choosing the best one for your needs is important. One thing to note is no padlock is unbreakable. A padlock’s primary purpose is to make it harder for criminals to break in. According to Luis Bravo, owner of NELA Locksmith and an experienced licensed locksmith, “It’s a matter of slowing them down or making them look at a padlock and go, ‘Oh wow, this is gonna be a pain.’ There are some padlocks that I don’t want to break into because it will take me a while and [I’ll need to] break a few (angle grinder) blades in the process.”

Therefore, choosing the best padlock ultimately boils down to your particular needs. If it’s just for your gym or office locker, a cheap combination padlock from Master Lock might be ideal. But if you need to protect a garage or a storage unit full of expensive appliances and furniture, a high-security option from a brand like Abus might be best. And if you’re seeking something for outdoor use, you’ll be wise to invest in a weatherproofed padlock.

We stress-tested 11 of the most popular padlocks — excluding smart locks and portable door locks as those deserve dedicated guides — to help you choose. After days of dropping, cutting, angle grinding and soaking them in water, we found the three best padlocks for different needs.

A solid investment, this robust and highly rated steel padlock from Abus is a great choice for most people, whether you need one for outdoor use or to protect your storage unit or shed. This padlock is tough to pick and cut.

For a robust, hard-to-pick combination lock, this popular one from Master Lock is the right choice. It’s slightly pricier than other combination locks but provides better security for lockers, bikes and office storage spaces.

It may be a hefty investment but this high-security Abus padlock with a 14-millimeter hardened steel shackle will take quite a bit of time to cut or pick, making it an impressive option to protect your property.

There’s a reason why discus padlocks are recommended by many to secure storage units, garages, sheds and more. Much like shrouded or closed shackle padlocks, these disk-shaped padlocks are designed so that the shackle is only partially exposed — just enough to easily slip into most hasp latches or chains without allowing space for criminals to cut. It’s one of the many reasons we picked the Abus Diskus 20/70 as our best overall pick.

To be very clear, we have a lot of incredibly robust key padlocks in our testing pool, including the Master Lock Magnum M115XDLF, which boasts an octagonal boron-carbide shackle, and the Abus 8840C Padlock, which comes with a hardened steel shackle. However, due to its partially obscured 10-millimeter shackle, affordable price tag and protection against drilling, this discus padlock is the best for most people’s security needs. Pair it with an Abus Hardened Steel 8KS Security Chain, and you can even use it as an electric scooter or bike lock.

The Abus Diskus 20/70 is a tough padlock made of stainless steel, a hardened steel shackle and the Abus-Plus disc cylinder known for its impressive manipulation and drilling protection. When we performed our angle grinder cut tests with the help of Luis Perez, a maintenance technician who learned to break and pick locks as part of his work duties, who did all our cutting for us, we found it the fourth hardest padlock to cut. That’s an impressive feat, especially since the other three cost over $100.

It’s also a hard lock to pick. According to YouTube lock picker Daz Evers, who picked it in under three minutes using the SilverBullet lock-picking tool, it’s a very tricky padlock to pick. To do so, you first need to learn a skill few people can quickly acquire and master. In other words, you can rest assured most ordinary lockpickers won’t have a clue where to begin.

It also has great weatherproofing, thanks to its stainless steel material, making it ideal for indoor and outdoor use. Soaking it in water outdoors for 24 hours didn’t result in rusting or corrosion apart from the small rust on the screw that held its keyhole weatherproof cover in place. We’re guessing Abus didn’t use stainless steel for that screw. In addition, the locking mechanism and the shackle turned as smoothly and effortlessly as they did pre-soaking. And if that isn’t enough to assure you, several verified reviewers on Amazon said it held up well in inclement weather.

The only thing holding the Abus Diskus 20/70 back is that the space between its shackle and its body is less than an inch in diameter, which means there are some latches and chains it might not fit into. Other than that, however, it has top pick written all over it.

We tested four different combination locks for this guide, and while each of them were fantastic options in their own right, the Master Lock 178D ultimately took the best combination lock title.

Don’t get us wrong; the Puroma Combination Lock would have been our top pick with its premium zinc alloy-and-steel construction and hard-to-decode dials had it not been for the fact Perez managed to cut it with a bolt cutter. It took him a few minutes but he eventually did. Meanwhile, he had to use his angle grinder to cut through the Master Lock 178D’s 8-millimeter hardened steel shackle.

It is, however, worth keeping in mind that the three other combination locks are under $15. If you’re looking for a budget option to protect your books at school or your clothes at the gym, one of those should suffice. Otherwise, the Master Lock 178D is your best bet.

Earlier iterations of this combination padlock had a small flaw. There was a gap next to its second dial you could insert a shim in to trip a latch and unlock it, as evidenced by several YouTube videos of lock pickers doing it. However, Master Lock seems to have fixed that flaw by making that gap impossibly small. The padlock is also hard to decode, and its small dials make the job even harder. Plus, it has one advantage over key padlocks — there isn’t a keyhole to pick.

We love the locking mechanism here, too. It’s not only easy to use but the way it’s designed, you still have to press the shackle down to unlock it even when you have the right combination in place. This means it won’t unlock completely until you’re ready. Similarly, the shackle also won’t hold in place with the dials are still arranged in the right order, making it impossible to accidentally leave the correct combination and do the thieves’ job for them.

Sadly, it doesn’t offer the same level of weatherproofing as our top pick. After being submerged in water outdoors for 24 hours, we found some noticeable corrosion on the shackle and the dial panel — not to mention signs of rusting on the shackle. It is, therefore, best for indoor use. Also, if you’re looking for a TSA-approved lock, look elsewhere. Besides, this one’s too heavy to use on your luggage anyway.

However, for the price, the $21 Master Lock 178D is without a doubt the most economical choice if you’re looking for a combination lock that’s hard to decode, crack or cut.

Here’s the thing: high-security padlocks are designed for industrial use, for businesses to protect their warehouses and lorries. But when you think about it, consumers own properties too, properties they need to secure from vandals, thieves and transients. So, we’re tossing a high-security option in our top picks.

We tested three high-security padlocks and while the Abus Granit 37RK/80 is the priciest of the three, it’s also the best. We figured, if you’re prepared to shell out more than $100 on a padlock, you might as well get the best.

This may be a key padlock but it’s one of the most secure padlocks on the market for consumers. YouTube’s Lockpicking Lawyer called it “an entry-level model in the high-security padlock category,” which makes it great for the general consumer.

Made of hardened alloy steel, it uses the famous Abus-Plus disc cylinder and boasts excellent drill resistance. Throw in the fact it’s a shrouded padlock, exposing only a small part of its 14-millimeter shackle, and it’s near-impossible to break into or cut, which is what you need if you want to make it hard for criminals to break in.

The Lockpicking Lawyer also admitted that it will take the average thief “considerably longer than usual to pick.” While in his video, it only took him just under four minutes to pick using a tool he designed, he also said that it’s “very unlikely” to be picked in the real world “without an exceedingly skilled picker.”

During our stress tests with an angle grinder, Perez also said it was the hardest in our product pool to cut, cementing our decision to make it our best high-security padlock pick.

We love the Abus Granit 37RK/80’s Black Granit coating, which not only reinforces its corrosion resistance but also gives it an elegant and elevated look. After cutting about three millimeters on its shackle with the angle grinder, we dunked it in water and left it outdoors for 24 hours. That unfortunately resulted in some rusting on the cut itself.

However, the rest of the padlock came out unscathed, proving that this is a great option for outdoor use. We used it with our Abus Hardened Steel 8KS Security Chain to secure our electric scooter, and it worked beautifully. If you want to use an expensive padlock as a bike lock, this will undoubtedly keep your expensive e-bike safe.

There’s another security feature here — you can only authorize key duplication with its own unique code or security card, which means no one can create another key without your consent.

The only real downside to the Abus Granit 37RK/80 is that it will set you back $147, which is expensive for a padlock. But it’s still a small price to pay to ensure you’re protecting thousands of dollars worth of belongings.

We decided early on that our padlock stress tests weren’t going to be as rigorous as our bike lock stress tests. Bike lock thieves, especially in cities like New York City, are a different breed, than those that break into lockers, storage spaces and sheds.

According to Bravo, “In my experience working with property management and realtors, people that break into padlocks are usually squatters that break into properties. They usually use giant bolt cutters or grinders to cut.“

In addition, he says “a lot of times people are looking for something that’s anti-pick or the best one that’s unpickable. But in my experience, when thieves are trying to break into a padlocked (area), they just want to break it. So it really comes down to which padlock has the strongest shackle. That’s what I would recommend.”

With his expert insights in mind, we stress-tested our padlocks with either a bolt cutter or an angle grinder, the latter being Bravo’s preferred tool when his clients need him to break a padlock. We also enlisted the help of Perez — we did not dare cut the padlocks ourselves, as that job is best left to professionals.

Of course, we used two other stress tests and judged each padlock in our testing pool on other metrics.

We evaluated each pair using the following primary criteria:

To reiterate, padlocks are never meant to stop bad elements. Given enough time and the right tools, criminals can and will find a way to break, pick or crack a padlock. So, when choosing the best padlock that meets your security needs, remember that it’s not a matter of finding one that claims to be unbreakable or unpickable.

As Bravo says, “Locks are just one part of a holistic security system. I always tell people, ‘Try not to spend your entire budget on the best lock for your door if you have a window next to it.’ Get your camera. Get your Ring system. Get all of that together. That’s what’s going to keep you safe more than having the $500 top-of-the-line padlock.”

That said, there are still a few things to consider before you hit buy.

“In my experience, a lot of times when thieves are trying to break into a padlocked (area), they just want to break it. So it comes down to which padlock has the strongest shackle,” says Bravo. “Anything that’s hardened steel, and the bigger the shackle, the better. When they have more steel in them like hardened steel, it’s really hard to cut through. That’s what I would recommend.”

So, if you’re trying to secure a storage space or a garage full of valuable items, you need to get something with a thicker steel shackle. During our testing, Perez found them the hardest to cut with his angle grinder, especially the ones with hardened steel.

Keep in mind, though, that such padlocks tend to be pricier. So, if you’re just looking for a padlock for your office or gym locker where you’re likely not keeping anything worth going to prison for, a robust combination or key padlock should suffice. The shackle should still be enough that it will take a few minutes for someone to cut or decode, but it won’t make you over-$100 poorer. Plus, if you forget your combination or lose your key, it won’t be a pain to cut.

Of course, you do have to make sure your shackle isn’t too big to fit into your hasp latch or chains. A padlock with a 14-millimeter shackle won’t do you any good if the hasp hole is too small or narrow.

Picking, decoding or shimming a padlock isn’t as easy as movies make it look. The truth is, breaking into padlocks is a skill that needs to be practiced and mastered, especially if you’re trying to break into modern models.

These days, padlocks across different types and price ranges are more robust and designed in a way that takes special skills and tools to pick. Even expert lock pickers on YouTube who can pick a high-security lock within five minutes with modified tools say so. According to Bravo, “(Manufacturers) have started making the inserts a different shape so that it’s harder to stick a shim in. With the higher-security padlocks, it does get a little harder to just stick a shim in there.”

Even combination locks that several YouTube lock pickers called useless have become more secure and harder to decode. The Master Lock 178D, for example, no longer has the same vulnerability as its older iterations, making it less susceptible to picking.

Other combination locks we tested are also hard to decode. When we tried to use the two decoding methods several YouTube creators, including Mike Shake, recommended, we simply couldn’t decode them because there were no audible clicks or discernible thuds that gave away the right number or letter. Combine that with the fact that in real-world scenarios, using one of those methods takes a lot of practice, time and complete silence — ambient sounds like birds singing, people talking and cars passing are surprisingly powerful distractions, especially to amateurs.

And as Bravo says, “In my experience, thieves in general really don’t get that creative.”

Most good-quality padlocks come with some rust protection, but if the padlock you need is for indoor use, don’t worry about robust weatherproofing. It’s the padlocks you plan on purchasing for outdoor use that you have to pay attention to. If you live in an area that gets a lot of rain or drops to freezing temperatures during the cold months, consider a waterproofed padlock or one with a weather cover.

And it’s not as simple as merely looking at the product description to check. We’ve noticed that many online retailers such as Amazon only offer vague descriptions like “corrosion-resistant” but don’t offer information as to how corrosion-resistant they are.

Before you hit buy, look up that model on Google and see if you can find the manufacturer’s product page. That should give you more information on weather-proofing.

Shrouded padlocks are considered by many to be more secure due to their design adding another layer or deterrent. As their name suggests, these padlocks are designed so their shackle is only partially exposed, leaving less room for criminals to cut.

Disc or discus padlocks are similar in that their shackle is also less vulnerable to tampering. Bravo says “If you have a really small circular saw that’s accurate, and you can really get in there, you could still do it. There are other ways to (break into) disk padlocks. The way I would do it is to pick a really small drill bit, cut into the cylinder where the pins are and just turn it like a key after I’ve drilled through all the pins. But that’s a very difficult technique. If you don’t do it the right way — if you go too far or angle it wrong — then the whole padlock gets jammed. So I do think that those padlocks are a little bit more difficult for the average thief to get into.”

This is why many use such padlocks to secure their storage unit or sheds. The only thing to keep in mind is that shrouded padlocks tend to have less space inside the shackle so before you hit buy, make sure that it can fit into your hasp or the chains you’re using.

Another robust padlock for outdoor use, this key padlock is a great choice for sheds, storage units, gates and bikes. It’s not considered a high-security lock, but it’s slightly more affordable than the Abus Granit 37RK/80.

The Abus 37/55 RK KA came very close to being our top pick had it not been for its $130 price tag. Since people are often looking for the best budget option they can find, the Abus Diskus 20/70’s $50 price tag is hard to beat.

That said, we would recommend the Abus 37/55 RK KA as our top pick for folks with a bigger budget. Though not a high-security padlock, this key padlock is almost as robust, claiming the third-highest spot in our angle grinder tests, thanks to the hardened alloy steel used for both its 11-millimeter shackle and its body. The Abus-Plus disc cylinder inside also makes it drill-resistant.

It’s also hard to pick. YouTuber Albert Lebel said it isn’t an easy lock to pick as you will need special tools and skills to do so. That’s saying something, especially considering it only took him a little over four minutes to pick using the Sparrows Disk Tool.

Like the Abus Granit 37RK/80, it sports the same Black Granit coating for even more corrosion resistance. This coating effectively protected it from corrosion and rusting when we did our 24-hour submersion test. It also comes with the same anti-key-duplication card. Plus, one of its keys is fitted with an LED light that makes it easier to unlock in the dark.

Great for storage units, sheds and small moving trucks, the Abus 37/55 RK KA is still a great value lock if you have expensive valuables to secure.

An under-$40 option, this is a good budget key padlock that will keep your shed, storage unit, doors or chest protected, so long as you’re not securing anything expensive. It’s also well-suited for outdoor use.

The Abus 8840C is the type of padlock most people think of. It looks exactly like a traditional consumer-grade padlock and costs like one too. And it also has many of the makings of a best-overall pick.

Unfortunately, its 7-millimeter shackle is thinner and much more exposed than the Abus Diskus 20/70, making it more vulnerable to criminals. And if you’re hoping to protect your possessions that cost you a few thousand dollars collectively, it’s simply not the way to go, even if you are saving a few (measly) dollars.

It’s still a robust key padlock in its own right. It boasts a solid brass body, a shackle made of hardened steel and an Abus Disc Plus cylinder that’s harder to pick than your average padlock. It took YouTuber Daz Evers a little over 4 minutes to crack, and he used a modified $2 Chinese disc to do it. Perez also found it pretty robust and harder to cut when he performed our angle grinder stress test.

It may not have the same Black Granit coating as the Abus 37/55 RK KA above, but it has great weatherproofing as well, surviving our 24-hour water dunk test with barely any signs of corrosion. If you’re looking for a padlock to secure something on your boat or in your cellar, it’s a great option to consider.

This is our second-best combination lock pick, thanks to its robust shackle that’s proven strong enough to make it harder for people with bolt cutters. Its four-digit combination also increases its level of security.

We considered making the Puroma Combination Lock our best combination padlock pick at first. It’s not just a little cheaper than the Master Lock 178D, but it was so hard to cut with a bolt cutter, giving Perez a bit of an arm workout when we performed our stress test. We also found it hard to decode when we followed one popular decoding technique on YouTube, as it did not give any of the usual indications that we hit the right digit.

But the main reason the Master Lock 178D took the title is because this one can still be cut with a bolt cutter given enough time. And the former is only $7 more in price.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider the Puroma Combination Lock. If you’re looking for an affordable option for your kids to secure their school locker or gym bag, or even for you to keep your office storage locked, it’s more than enough of a deterrent. It’s also a more lightweight option, ideal if you’re going on a long road trip and want to use a robust combination lock for your luggage or the bike strapped to the back of your vehicle.

The only thing is that it’s not meant to battle the harsh elements. While it did survive our 24-hour submission test without any visible signs of corrosion, we noticed that its dials were much harder to turn post-dip.

This shrouded padlock is much cheaper than our top high-security padlock pick, but it’s still an impressive option to protect your most expensive valuables. It’s made for all-weather use and boasts a 12-millimeter shackle.

If you want a shrouded high-security padlock that’s cheaper than the Abus Granit 37RK/80, then the Kawaha 21/60-2P is what you want. It’s still over-$100 in price, but you are saving about $40, which is enough to get you several items at the grocery store or buy you a space heater for the cold months.

The shackle on this key padlock is not only thick at 12 millimeters but also shrouded, which should make it a lot harder for criminals to cut. Perez said it was one of the hardest in our product pool to cut, second only to the Abus Granit 37RK/80.

There’s one thing it did better than the Abus, however. Unlike the Abus, it survived our 24-hour water dunk test without any signs of corrosion or rusting. Also, the key cylinder and the shackle worked as smoothly as they did pre-submersion.

Sadly, the Kawaha 21/60-2P does have one thing that holds it back from being great: the discs inside its cylinder can sometimes get stuck and misaligned so you’d have to jiggle the key to get it all the way in. Some reviewers on Amazon found it a major disadvantage, but having experienced it ourselves, we honestly didn’t think it was a big deal.

The Master Lock Magnum boasts a unique octagonal shackle made of boron carbide, which is the same material used in bulletproof vests. It also comes with a weatherproof jacket to help protect it from the elements.

If you need more space between the shackle and the body, the Master Lock Magnum M115XDLF may be your best bet. It has almost an inch-and-a-half of vertical space, making it a bit more versatile in usage.

It’s robust as well, with Perez concluding that its octagonal eight-millimeter shackle held up well against our angle grinder. That’s unsurprising considering it’s made of boron carbide, the same material used in bulletproof vests. Master Lock claims it’s “50% harder than hardened steel.”

Unfortunately for it, it’s also apparently easier to pick than the other key padlocks in our testing pool. At least two lock pickers on YouTube picked it with just the usual lock-picking tool, with YouTuber Chris Bankus doing it in just under 20 seconds. This is the biggest reason why this didn’t make it in our top three — even though it’s incredibly inexpensive at just $14.

At least the Master Lock Magnum M115XDLF’s weatherproofing works well. It comes with a rubber weather-resistant cover that protects it from the cold. Although this cover didn’t prevent water from seeping into the keyhole, we’re sure it’ll keep it warmer in freezing temperatures. The padlock also survived the 24-hour submersion test without any signs of corrosion.

If you want a digit-and-letter or word lock code, the Master Lock 1534D may just be the combination padlock for you. This is a great budget option for folks who have a harder time remembering number combinations.

The concept behind the Master Lock 1534D is a promising one, especially for folks who struggle to remember combinations but don’t want to use the same passcode for everything. It lets you use a five-letter or five-digit-and-letter combo that is also, at least theoretically, harder to guess, making it more secure than 3-digit or 4-digit combination padlocks.

Unfortunately, Master Lock’s execution fell short. Don’t get us wrong; we enjoyed playing around with this padlock and appreciated its design. However, turning those dials was a bit of a pain as they didn’t exactly turn smoothly. They still don’t. Unlocking it was just as tough as we found that we had to line up the combination perfectly before it opened. Those aren’t exactly positive things from the user’s standpoint.

For a cheap $14 combination padlock, it’s still a worthy contender, however. We found it fairly tough to cut with an angle grinder, and while YouTuber Skeleton Key managed to decode the model four years ago, that wasn’t the case with our test unit as we couldn’t hear the auditory clues that betrayed the right digits or letters.

We would, however, only recommend it for indoor use. While it had minimal signs of corrosion after our 24-hour water dunk test, we noticed the dials being harder to turn post-submersion.

A hard-to-decode combination padlock, this cheap option may not have the strongest shackle against bolt cutters. However, it’s still a great option for school and gym lockers. It also comes in several different colors.

Sometimes, you do get what you pay for. That isn’t to say that the $11 Desired Tools 4-Digit Combination Padlock is absolute garbage. On the contrary, it’s actually a decent option for school kids and gym rats seeking an inexpensive option for a decent level of security. And just like the Puroma Combination Lock, it was harder to crack because it didn’t provide clear auditory signs when we tried to decode it.

However, its shackle was also the easiest to cut out of all the padlocks in our testing pool — and Perez only used a bolt cutter to do it. So if you’re considering using this one to protect your shed or secure a storage bin in your backyard, you might want to rethink that.

That’s especially because it’s not built for outdoor use. In fact, after our 24-hour submersion test, we not only saw white deposits on the shackle but also found it harder to turn its dials. We doubt this would survive a particularly rainy season or freezing temperatures.

It doesn’t look to be TSA-approved so we would not use this to secure your luggage if you’re flying. However, if you’re on a long road trip or traveling by train, it should suffice.

While it may not be among the toughest padlocks we tested, this combination padlock is the cheapest option. It’s great for kids to use at school for their lockers or school bags.

The Master Lock 1530DCM evokes nostalgia in all of us. We all probably used this type of combination padlock at one point or another, especially at school. And we’re sure that a lot of kids these days still do.

What’s great about this padlock is that it’s so fun and easy to use. You simply turn it counter-clockwise three times to the first number then clockwise to the second number and finally counter-clockwise again to the third number. It’s probably why a lot of schools use it.

The problem is that they’re not really that sturdy. The seven-millimeter shackle itself is decently robust and Perez found it a little harder to cut with a bolt cutter. However, the pressure from the bolt cutter also broke the dial mechanism so we could no longer turn it. And that happened before he managed to cut the shackle completely.

At least it has decent weatherproofing. We soaked it in a mug of water and kept it exposed to the elements outdoors for 24 hours, and it came out unscathed without any signs of corrosion. Still, we wouldn’t recommend it for outdoor use, especially because there are a lot of affordable alternatives that are actually designed for outdoor use.

This guide’s writer, Michelle Rae Uy, has spent most of her life using padlocks. She’s even developed the habit of bringing a couple of small, TSA-approved ones with her when she’s traveling abroad, especially if it’s to a country where luggage theft is rampant.

To learn more about padlocks, we also enlisted the help of two padlock experts. We talked to Luis Bravo, owner of NELA Locksmith in Los Angeles and a licensed locksmith with seven years of experience. With a focus on emergency services, Bravo works with many property management companies to secure their premises, change locks and upgrade their security. Fun fact: he’s a self-taught lockbreaker who learned to use shims at a young age. And there’s Luis Perez, a maintenance technician based in Los Angeles. Perez learned to break and pick locks as part of his job and has all the tools we needed to put our test units through the paces. Using bolt cutters and angle grinders is best left to professionals who know all the safety procedures, and Perez kindly lent us his time and experience to help with our stress testing.

To find out more about the art of lock picking, we also scoured YouTube and watched videos of highly skilled lock pickers trying to break into padlocks without physical force. YouTube creators like The Lockpicking Lawyer, Mike Shake, Daz Evers and Albert Lebel taught us there is no such thing as an unbreakable or pick-proof padlock.