Public Storage offers premium locks that are among the best you can buy. They are made to strict specifications by a company committed to optimizing and testing its products, and they are conveniently sold at all of our locations. If your storage unit takes a padlock, you can buy ours or buy one wherever you choose.

Our select vendor, Pacific Lock, is a trusted as a supplier to the U.S. Military and is respected by independent lock experts.

“This is a tough, tough lock. This is the leading edge of disc locks,” said Bosnian Bill, an independent YouTube personality who has picked and cut locks to an audience of 20 million visitors over time. However, with ours, he admitted defeat after Pacific Lock sent him samples and asked him to try his best to find weaknesses. “I always say ‘we don’t need no stinking key,’ but for this one, we probably do.”

Public Storage sells two types of locks made of hardened steel. Our weather-resistant disc padlock pictured above is shaped to fit our units and minimize the size of the exposed U-shaped shackle that passes through the door.

“Those are not like locks you’re going to find in a hardware store unless it’s a top-end place,” added Bill, who is a professional security systems evaluator and engineer. Though we recommend ours, you are welcome to buy your padlock at another store.

Some locations, however, take only cylinder locks, which are more trusted because they fit tightly into the door itself to eliminate any raised area that can be tampered with.

Cylinder locks are usually best purchased at our locations because the versions we sell are customized for our facilities.

“Pacific Lock rigorously tests these products to ensure quality. If they hit a certain failure rate, Pacific doesn’t hesitate to reject a whole palette or even a whole shipment,” said Larry, Public Storage’s retail manager who oversees lock procurement for our stores.

In addition, unlike some lesser locks from other stores that come with only a couple dozen key options, there are more than 20,000 different keys distributed with our locks, thanks to additional quality parts inside our locks. The key blank is also intentionally difficult to find and copy. These measures make our locks more expensive to make, but they also prevent someone from buying the same brand and easily using their key to enter your unit. Only you hold the key.

At Public Storage, we know when you come to us to rent a storage space, you may have a lot on your mind and might not think to bring a lock with you. We require that you put an appropriate lock on your storage space – even if it’s empty at first. To make it easy, we will provide you a lock for a small fee (refundable within 30 days if unused) when you rent your storage space.

How Public Storage Locks Are Made

• A progressive dye stamp – one machine, as opposed to 12 machines in a production line—is used to leave little room for error.
• Machine welding instead of hand welding is used to produce a stronger seal.
• Cylinder locks are plated with chrome. Disc locks are stainless steel.
• The locks have drain holes to allow rain to flow through rather than sit inside and cause damage.
• More precise manufacturing makes the locks hard to pick.
• More (6) internal security pins that are more substantial make them harder to pick and increase the number of keys possible.