When it comes to locking up your work trailers, storage units, bins or even your bicycle choosing the proper padlock is essential. When you put your head down on the pillow at night you want to rest assured that what ever it is that you’re locking up will still be there in one piece in the morning.

First and foremost, you must come to accept, like so many other things in life, that  not all padlocks are alike. For example, one might be able to find a padlock at a hardware store for $5-6 or maybe two for $10. Just don’t think that a cheap padlock is of good quality. More likely than not a padlock that costs you this little offers little in the way of security as well. Often these inferiors padlocks can be simply pounded off or cut with a pair of bolt cutters rather quickly. Be warned if you do choose to use such a padlock make sure that what ever your securing with it is of little or no value.

With that being said lets explore how one may go about finding a quality padlock. What should one look for when deciding which padlock best meets their needs and requirements? Any padlock you get needs to have a case hardened shackle. A case hardened shackle is one that is much more difficult to cut with a pair of bolt cutters. This type of shackle comes standard on both Master Lock as well as American Lock Padlocks. You may also consider the use of a padlock that features a shackle guard. A shackle guard further prevents the cutting of the shackle buy insulating it from such attacks. This type of shackle is available from both of the major manufactures.

Cutting the shackle isn’t the only threat to a padlock. Like most cylinder locks a padlock runs the risk of being picked open. The majority of Master Lock padlocks can be picked by someone with the proper tools in a matter of seconds. Ultimately this is one of Master Locks greatest weaknesses. Recently Master Lock has tried to respond to the threat of picking attacks by adjusting the spring tension and adding special driver pins in their lock cylinders. While this has resulted in decreasing the probability of them being bumped it has done little to nothing against the use of traditional tools.

American Lock padlocks come standard with pick resistant pins called spooled driver pins. Spooled driver pins make it extremely difficult to pick the cylinder even with the proper tools. Spooled driver pins also make American Padlocks difficult to bump even with specially cut bump key.

Most of the standard Master Padlocks can be rapped with a wooden handle or a hammer in a precise manner and the lock will release the shackle.  This is due to the fact that the shackle retainers are spring loaded and the inertia from the blow causes them to release the shackle. The fact that they are spring loaded is also the reason why these locks can be shimmed open.

American Lock withstand the brute force attack because in the place of the spring loaded retainers they utilize ball bearings. These ball bearings only allow the shackle to be released when the cylinder is turned to the unlocked position. The ball bearings also make these locks impossible to open via shims.

Take it from me, a local Sacramento Locksmith, when your locking up your valuables and want to guratee they’ll still be there in the morning go with American Lock Padlocks