Are Cheap Padlocks Any Good | When a £20 Lock Is Fine and When It Isn't
CEN grades, closed vs open shackle, and the honest answer on cheap padlocks. A security specialist explains where budget locks are fine and where they'll cost you.
Walk into any Screwfix or B&Q on the Clements Road retail strip and you'll find padlocks from about £4 to well over £100, sitting side by side on the same shelf, looking superficially similar. The £4 one has a shiny body and bold packaging. The £90 one looks almost identical. Customers pick up the cheap one, squint at the back of the box, and put it on their shed. I see the results of that decision fairly regularly.
So, are cheap padlocks any good? Sometimes, yes. The honest answer is that it depends entirely on what you're securing and what a thief is likely to bring with them. Let me explain what the numbers actually mean, and where the line sits.
What CEN Grades Actually Test
Padlocks sold in the UK and Europe are graded under EN 12320, a European standard that assigns grades from 1 to 6. Grade 1 is the lowest. Grade 6 would stop a determined attack for a meaningful length of time with serious tools.
The test is not just "can you cut the shackle with bolt croppers." It covers:
- Pulling force on the shackle (tension)
- Rotating force on the body
- Drilling resistance at defined points
- Picking and manipulation resistance for the lock cylinder
- Impact resistance (think hammer)
A Grade 3 padlock has passed a substantially harder set of tests than a Grade 1. That's the part the packaging rarely makes clear. Most cheap padlocks don't print their CEN grade at all. That's not an accident.
For context:
| CEN Grade | Approximate minimum retail | Typical use case |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | £4 to £15 | Low-risk, low-value access |
| 2 | £15 to £35 | Sheds, garden gates, lockers |
| 3 | £35 to £70 | Outbuildings with tools, vans |
| 4 | £70 to £120 | Commercial stores, higher-value plant |
| 5 to 6 | £120+ | Specialist/security industry use |
The prices above are rough. You can find a Grade 2 padlock for £18 if you know what to look for. You can also pay £40 for a Grade 1 dressed up in premium packaging. Price is not a reliable proxy for grade.
Open Shackle vs Closed Shackle: The Gap Matters More Than You Think
The shackle is the curved metal loop. On an open-shackle padlock, most of that loop is exposed. On a closed-shackle (also called shrouded or close-shackle) design, the body of the lock covers most of the shackle, leaving only a tiny section accessible.
Bolt croppers work by getting their jaws around the shackle and applying leverage. If there's no room for the jaws, the cropper is useless. It's genuinely that simple.
A cheap open-shackle padlock, even a Grade 2, can be cut in under ten seconds with a decent pair of bolt croppers. The ones with a 6mm or 7mm shackle go even faster. I've seen garden gates in Goodmayes and Seven Kings fitted with padlocks that a child's hands could almost grip around. They weren't providing security. They were providing the feeling of security.
A closed-shackle padlock at Grade 3, from a brand like Abus (their 83CS series), Squire (the SS50CS), or Mul-T-Lock's Hasp range, changes the calculation entirely. The cropper can't bite. The attacker moves on to grinding, which is loud and slow.
If you're buying a padlock and you can see a lot of shackle, ask yourself whether bolt croppers could reach it. If yes, the grade on the box matters less than you'd like.
Where a Cheap Padlock Is Genuinely Fine
I'm not going to pretend you need a £90 Abus on every gate. That would be silly.
A Grade 1 or Grade 2 open-shackle padlock is absolutely adequate for:
- An internal locker (office, gym, school) where the environment is supervised
- A front garden gate that's just a courtesy barrier, not a security boundary
- A low-value outbuilding where there's nothing worth stealing and the padlock is just keeping the door from blowing open
- Keeping children from wandering, not keeping thieves out
In those situations, a £12 lock from the Aldborough Hatch Toolstation is perfectly rational. You're not asking it to resist a determined attack. You're asking it to look closed.
Where Cheap Is False Economy
This is where I see real harm done. The shed at the back of a terraced house in Loxford or Cranbrook, containing £800 worth of power tools and a bike. The padlock on it cost £14. There's an open shackle showing 25mm of accessible metal. I've been called to the property after the fact, when there's nothing left to secure.
The specific situations where you should not go cheap:
Sheds with tools or bikes. A professional bike thief carries bolt croppers as standard. Your Dewalt collection is worth more to them than the awkward trip to the property. Minimum Grade 3, closed shackle, with a hasp rated to match. An Abus 83CS/55 paired with a sold-secure rated hasp is around £65 to £80 total and makes most opportunists walk away.
Van locks and external storage. Tradespeople with vans parked on Barkingside or Newbury Park streets overnight need Grade 4 minimum if the van is carrying tools. Some of them fit an additional closed-shackle padlock on a van door hasp for that reason.
Gates that protect a rear garden with access to the back of the house. A back-garden gate that lets someone work out of sight of the street is a different proposition from a front gate. Rear access is how most burglaries in IG postcodes proceed. That gate padlock should be at minimum Grade 3, closed shackle.
Any padlock on a hasp where the hasp itself is rubbish. A £90 padlock on a £6 hasp fitted with short screws is still a weak system. Thieves attack hasps. They'll pull the hasp plate off the door frame rather than cut the lock. The padlock grade means nothing if the hasp gives way first.
The Sold Secure and SS312 Angle
For bikes and sheds specifically, Sold Secure's grading (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond) is more useful than CEN grades because it tests the whole system under attack. A Sold Secure Gold padlock has been tested with the kind of tools an opportunist thief actually carries. Diamond-rated products have been tested against more persistent attack with angle grinders.
Abus, Squire, and Mul-T-Lock all have Sold Secure Gold and Diamond products. Expect to pay £55 upwards for a Gold-rated closed-shackle padlock. It's real money. It's also less than the excess on most home contents insurance.
The One Number to Look For
If you take one thing from this: look for the CEN grade on the packaging before you buy. If it isn't printed, assume Grade 1. Then look at the shackle and ask whether bolt croppers could reach it. Those two checks, taking about thirty seconds in the aisle, will steer you away from the bad decisions.
A £20 padlock can be worth buying. A £20 padlock on your tool shed almost certainly isn't.
If you're unsure what you've currently got fitted, or you want a second opinion on a shed, gate, or outbuilding in the IG1 to IG6 area, Rapid Response Locksmiths covers Ilford and the surrounding postcodes, with an average arrival under 30 minutes where possible. Pricing is given honestly on the call before anyone comes out.
Priya Nair, Security and standards specialist
Priya is the one who reads the test reports. She handles the survey work, the insurance questions and anything where the British Standard actually matters, and she will happily explain why the number on the box is not the number that counts.
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