How To Choose The Best Locks For Your School Locker, Gym Locker or Employee Locker.

“First let me tell you that lockers do not come with locks.  Locks are an option and like cars, lockers can be purchased with several choices so locks are definitely an option and that is so you can choose what works best for you,” explains Schroeder.  “Certain lockers, depending on the type of latch channel it has, require a certain type of locks, so you can definitely put most locks on most lockers, but you do need to make sure you are getting the right type of lock for the latch channel that you have.”

Once you have identified the latch channel with your sales rep, then you can begin hunting down the options for actual locks.

“Typically we find in places that people want a lock to be as administration free as possible, an electronic lock is a great option,” said Schroeder.  “We see that in a lot of spas, health clubs, sometimes in hospitals and places like where the person that comes in, they type in their four digit code, they lock things up, they come back and type their code back in to open it, and then after that it is ready for the next person.  So those electronic locks are user-friendly, very easy to operate and don’t require a lot of personnel to oversee it.”

Going down the list, the next great option is a key retaining lock.

“There are options where people will want to have a key left in the locker.  It’s called key retaining, and patrons will typically come up, they put their stuff inside and turn the lock and it is locked they take the key, and then they bring the key back to open the locker,” explains Schroeder.

However there is a potential downside with this option.

“One of the concerns on that style is letting the users actually take the key where it can be then lost or misplaced,” said Schroeder.  “So if a patron wants to use the locker, take their belongings out and then take the key, they can and then you have to replace it so the locker locks again.  There is no stopping that kind of mischief.”

Then there are the normal combination locks that most people are familiar with.

“We have the combination locks that are very popular with schools and sometimes with restaurants or where employees are using lockers and even factories, and those can be done a couple of ways; you can do hanging padlocks which are very simple solutions and everyone is familiar with those—you’ve got your combination of three numbers, left-right-left,” said Schroeder.  “These are very user friendly.  The problem with those is that people will sometimes forget a combination.”

In those cases where there are many students, or employees, that tend to forget their combinations, a relatively unknown option can help reduce replacement locks and easily solve a few headaches as well.

“The good news is that they do make some with a master key option and those cost a bit more,” said Schroeder.  “With the master key option if someone does forget a combination, they can find an administrator that has a master key and can get them into the locker without cutting the locks with bolt cutters.”

But what if you suddenly want to buy more rows of lockers as your business grows and you don’t want a slew of different master keys fitting different additions of locks?  Well, there is a solution to that issue as well.

“Depending on the type of locker you are ordering, you will be able to register with the company and in the future if you want to buy more lockers and you want them to be keyed with the same master key, you can have that master key be kept on file with either company,” explains Schroeder.

That brings us next to the simple, built-in combination locks.

“The built-in combination locks are very popular in schools,” adds Gregg Lowry, a sales professional with UsedLockers.com.  “Basically it is a combination lock that is already installed into the locker door and depending on the manufacturer you buy those from, those will allow five to seven different combinations that you can channel through.  So if a student or an employee were to leave, you can change that combination for added security.  And of course they have a master key override.”

The built in combination locks are the perfect choice if you own a manufacturing company, an auto repair shop, a retail business and especially any type of school, recreation center or studio.  But what if you own a business like an amusement park, bowling alley or water park and need a style of lock that accepts coins and not an actual detachable lock, key or key code?

“There are coin locks and you can do this to most lockers, aftermarket,” said Schroeder.  “We sell coin operated lockers and they are specifically made that way, but we also represent  another company where you can add coin operated locks after the fact and some will have a cashbox with them and some have a coin return and these are popular with amusement parks, gaming centers, skating rinks and places like that.”

These coin locks can also work as a complimentary lock as well.

“There are non-revenue generating coin locks,” said Schroeder.  “Sometimes you will see them in a college or a bookstore because management doesn’t want them to take a backpack inside, so they want them to lock up that bag so they’re not trying to make money on it, they’re just trying to prevent theft and in those cases the coins are returned once the locker is opened to retrieve the backpack.”

Then there are the venerable workhorses of any locker which are those after-market locks that your clients can buy in any hardware store that just slip through the latch hole and can be operated with either a combination, or a key.

Depending on the type of lock, normally the price for locks, per 100 lockers, is not as bad as you may think.

“Well if you want to do just a standard hanging combo lock with no master key option, you could be looking at an additional $395 and you could go up to about $1100 dollars if you wanted to do something with a master keyed option and multiple combinations,” said Schroeder.  “Electronic locks are definitely the prime option but over the course of time they do offer you more value as well.”

So just what type of company would see the long term value of a premium electronic lock?  Schroeder explains…

“We recently did a very large job for a company whose name we cannot mention, but they are a group of retail stores on the East coast and basically have shifts that run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  So the problem was is that no one employee is assigned to any one locker because of these constant shifts and because they have thousands of employees and all day long funneling through those lockers—all with different people using them from shift to shift,” said Schroeder.  “The store management also wanted to be able to inspect the lockers to see what the employees had in them for security, shrinkage, theft and that sort of thing.”

This company’s solution was to invest more in the electronic lock option, and save labor costs while eliminating headaches in administration issues as well.

“So they used electronic locks and it has been very beneficial for them because they can just go in, type in their code and leave and then the next employee can type in their code and leave,” said Schroeder.  “So they don’t have to have a lot of administration issues as you can imagine, anytime you have thousands of employees slowing it down to having problems like losing their combinations and that type of thing.”

That leaves the question of how the locks get onto the lockers.  Since locks are an option and the lockers are built without them, how much more is the labor to put them on at the plant?

Now that you have chosen which type of lock, how do the locks get installed?

“We have several different manufacturers and some of them will install the locks at the plant, and some won’t,” said Schroeder.  “So a big concern for the customers how difficult is it to install a lock because sometimes we drop ship the locks separate from the lockers and we do have ways to install that for them, but it’s also something that we try and let the customers know how easy it is and it is a very simple process to put the built in locks in the locker.”

Typically if locks are added on at the plant, the installation cost will be just the cost of the assembly of the lockers and there normally won’t be any additional installation costs.  We have found that sometimes if you get into the electronic locks or something pretty complicated, there may be some additional costs but you won’t pay more than a couple of dollars above the total assembly cost of $2 per frame, per door.