Charging lockers solve a problem almost every school, office, gym and visitor site now shares: too many devices, not enough secure places to store and recharge them. A charging locker stores a device behind a locked door and charges it at the same time, so it comes out ready to use.
This guide explains how charging lockers work, how to choose between mains and USB charging, how to size the compartment and the door count, what the electrical requirements are, and where a charging locker beats a charging trolley. It covers laptop charging lockers, phone charging lockers and mixed-device installations.
What is a charging locker?
A charging locker is a steel locker with a power supply wired into every compartment. Instead of an empty cubby, each door hides a charging point — a UK 3-pin mains socket, USB ports, or both. Users lock a laptop, tablet or phone inside and it charges securely while stored. It does the job of a locker and a charging station in one footprint, which is why charging lockers have replaced trailing extension leads and shared charging trolleys in a lot of buildings.
The range we stock is the Probe PowerBox. The carcass is cold-rolled mild steel, powder-coated, and every compartment combines a charging outlet with a Type A cam lock.
Mains vs USB charging: which do you need?
This is the decision that matters most, because it is the one you cannot change later without replacing the unit. The PowerBox range comes in three charging configurations.
- 3-pin UK mains. A full plug socket in each compartment. Best for laptops and anything that charges from a mains adaptor. Users bring their own charger, so one locker handles almost any device — including devices you have not bought yet.
- USB-A + USB-C. Dual USB ports per compartment. Best for tablets, phones and USB-C laptops. No bulky plug adaptors, cables stay tidy, and there is no charger for a user to walk off with.
- 3-pin mains + USB-A + USB-C. A mains socket and both USB types in every compartment. Best for a mixed fleet, or where future device types are uncertain.
The practical rule: if the fleet is uniform and you control it, specify USB. If it is mixed, or users bring their own devices, specify mains or the combined option. A 3-pin socket is the lowest-risk choice because it accepts whatever charger the device came with.
Phone charging lockers vs laptop charging lockers
Physically these are the same product family — the difference is compartment size and door count, not a different range.
A phone charging locker wants high density and small compartments: more doors in the same shell, because a phone needs very little space and you are usually serving a lot of people briefly — receptions, gyms, leisure centres, visitor entrances, production floors where phones are not allowed at the workstation. The 16-door configuration is the usual answer, and USB charging suits it because almost every phone charges over USB-C now.
A laptop charging locker wants the opposite: fewer, deeper compartments. A 15-inch laptop with a charger needs real depth, which is why the deeper 450 mm footprints matter more here than they do for phones. Four, eight and ten-door configurations are the common choices, and a 3-pin socket avoids the question of whether a given laptop will charge properly from USB-C at the power it needs.
Do you actually need charging, or just laptop lockers?
Worth asking before you spend the money. If devices are stored overnight and charged at a desk during the day, plain laptop lockers from the standard steel ranges will do the job for less — you are paying for a locker, not for wiring. Specify a charging locker when the device has to come out of the compartment ready to use: hot-desking, shift handovers, classroom sets turned around between lessons, radios and scanners that must be charged before the next shift, or visitor phones handed in at reception.
The same logic applies at the small end. A mobile phone charging locker earns its place where people are separated from their phone for a defined period and want it charged when they get it back — gyms, production lines, exam halls, secure sites. Where phones are simply stored, an ordinary small-compartment locker is the cheaper answer.
How many doors do you need?
Door count sets both capacity and compartment size — more doors in the same shell means more devices but smaller compartments. The PowerBox range runs 4, 8, 10 and 16 doors.
- 4 door — large compartments for bulkier laptops, cased tablets or shared team kit. Compact footprint.
- 8 and 10 door — the most common sizes. A classroom set, a department, or a meeting-room device pool.
- 16 door — high density. Phones, tablets, radios; receptions and visitor areas where you charge many small devices at once.
Count the devices you need charging at peak, then add headroom. Specifying spare compartments now is cheaper than adding a second unit later, and a bank of matching lockers looks and works better than two mismatched ones.
Compartment footprint: the size decision people get wrong
Door count is only half of it. PowerBox units are specified by width and depth as well: 300 × 300 mm, 300 × 450 mm, 380 × 450 mm and 450 × 450 mm.
Depth is what usually catches people out. A phone fits anything. A laptop plus its power brick plus the slack in the cable does not — and a device that has to be wedged in at an angle to let the door shut is a device that gets damaged, or one whose owner stops using the locker. If you are storing laptops, start at the 450 mm depth and only come down if you have measured the actual machines. Going wider or deeper is a far cheaper upgrade than discovering the compartment is too small after installation.
Flat top or sloping top?
A flat top lets you stack units, sit them under shelving, or use the surface as a ledge — good for storerooms, IT suites and back-of-house. A sloping top stops clutter and dust collecting and discourages people leaving things on top, which keeps public-facing areas such as receptions, corridors and gym floors tidy. Across the locker ranges we stock, the sloping top carries a small fixed premium per column regardless of door count.
Locks and security
Every PowerBox compartment has a Type A cam lock. That gives each user their own locked compartment rather than shared access to an open charging bay, which is the whole point: a charging trolley in a corridor secures the trolley, not the individual device. If you are weighing up lock types more broadly — cam locks, hasps, coin return, combination and electronic options across the wider locker ranges — our guide to locker lock types goes through the trade-offs.
Electrical requirements and installation
A PowerBox unit uses certified internal wiring fed from a single mains supply, with an external safety isolator, and is CE/UKCA marked. That single-feed design is what makes a charging locker practical: one supply point, not sixteen.
Plan the location before you order. You need a suitable socket or fused spur within reach, and for a bank of lockers — or a high door count on mains sockets — get a qualified electrician to confirm the circuit can carry the connected load. Site the unit where users can reach it easily but where it is not obstructing a fire exit, a walkway or an escape route, and where the isolator stays accessible.
Charging lockers vs charging trolleys
Both charge multiple devices; they solve different problems.
A laptop charging trolley is mobile. Its advantage is that a class set of devices can move between rooms and be charged wherever it is parked. Its weakness is that it secures the trolley as a whole — every device inside shares one lock, and any authorised user can reach all of them.
A charging locker is fixed, and gives every device its own locked compartment. That is what you want where devices belong to individuals, where you need an audit trail of who had access to what, where the devices are personal property rather than institutional, or where a permanent charging point is needed in a shared space.
Plenty of sites run both: trolleys for shared teaching sets that move, lockers for personal, staff and visitor devices that do not.
Where charging lockers are used
- Schools and colleges — secure storage and charging for laptop, Chromebook and tablet fleets, and phone lockers where devices are handed in during lessons.
- Offices and co-working spaces — hot-desking device storage and visitor charging points.
- Gyms and leisure centres — members charge a phone while they train instead of leaving it on a bench.
- Warehouses and production — charging two-way radios, scanners and work phones between shifts, in a locked compartment per user.
- Receptions and visitor centres — high-density phone lockers that keep devices safe and charged.
Colours and finish
PowerBox carcasses come in black, silver and white, with seven door colours: red, yellow, white, blue, black, green and silver. Colour is worth a moment's thought rather than defaulting — colour-coding doors by department, year group or shift makes allocation visible without a sign, and choosing a carcass that disappears into the wall matters in a reception in a way it never does in a storeroom.
A quick specification checklist
- Match charging type to devices — mains for laptops and mixed fleets, USB for phones and tablets, combined where you are not sure.
- Count devices at peak and add headroom before fixing the door count.
- Measure the largest device with its charger and specify compartment depth from that.
- Flat top for storerooms and stacking, sloping top for public areas.
- Confirm the supply point and have an electrician check the circuit for larger installations.
- Standardise on one range across the site so you can extend the bank later.
Ready to choose?
Browse the full range of charging lockers — Probe PowerBox units in 4, 8, 10 and 16 doors with mains and USB charging — or see the wider lockers collection if you also need general-purpose storage without charging. For sizing, our locker sizes and dimensions guide covers footprints and heights in detail, and how to choose lockers for the workplace covers formats, locks and configurations across the ranges.