The lock is the only part of a locker your users touch every day, and it is almost always the part chosen last. Height, door count, colour and finish get decided carefully; the lock gets picked from a dropdown in the final minute of the order. Then it becomes the thing you deal with every week for the next fifteen years — the lost key, the forgotten code, the leaver who never returned anything, the door that has to be opened because someone is off sick and their PPE is inside it.
This guide is written from the specifier's side rather than the lock retailer's. It sets out the lock types you will meet when buying commercial lockers, what each one is genuinely good at, and — the part that matters most and gets discussed least — what happens on the day it goes wrong.
One thing up front, because it shapes everything below. Every Probe locker in our range ships with a Type A cam lock as standard. We are not a lock retailer and we do not sell replacement locks, so this guide is not a menu we are trying to sell you through. Where a different lock is the right answer, it says so plainly, and where the right answer is a lock specialist rather than us, it says that too.
The one question that actually decides the lock
Every lock type is really a different answer to a single question: when a user cannot get into their locker, who sorts it out and how long does it take?
That is the whole decision. Security differences between commercial locker locks are much smaller than the marketing suggests — a determined attack on a steel locker rarely goes through the lock, it goes through the door edge or the fixings. What genuinely differs between lock types is the administrative load: who holds the fallback, how quickly they can act, and what it costs each time.
So before comparing lock types, answer three things about your site:
- Is the locker allocated to a named person, or used for one shift and released? Allocated lockers tolerate keys. Daily-use lockers do not, because keys have to be issued and recovered every single day.
- Is there someone on site who can open a locker within the hour? If yes, almost any lock type works. If not — a remote depot, an unstaffed changing room, a school block with no keyholder — the fallback has to be built into the lock itself.
- What is actually inside? A coat and a lunchbox is a different risk from a laptop, a set of keys or a controlled substance. Match the effort to the contents, not to a general feeling about security.
Our guide to staff and workplace lockers works through the allocated-versus-daily-use distinction in more depth, because it drives locker size and layout as well as lock choice.
Cam locks — the commercial default
A cam lock is the small barrel lock you turn with a key, rotating a flat metal tongue — the cam — behind the door frame to hold the door shut. It is by a wide margin the most common lock on UK commercial lockers, and it is what every locker in our range is fitted with.
The term you will see quoted is Type A. In locker specification, Type A describes the standard keyed cam lock format: two keys supplied per lock, each lock differed within a bank so users cannot open each other's doors, and a master key available so an authorised keyholder can open any door in the suite. Every Probe locker we supply — standard metric, standard imperial, perforated, vision panel, wide format and the PowerBox charging range — carries a Type A cam lock on every compartment.
What it is good at. It is cheap, it is mechanical, it has nothing to charge or reset, and it will still be working in fifteen years. It has no battery to fail at the worst moment and no code to be shared around a workforce. For an allocated locker issued to a named person, it is very hard to beat and there is no honest argument for spending more.
Where it stops being the right answer. Keys. If your lockers turn over daily — a gym, a shift-based changing room, a hot-desking office — you are now running a key-issue desk, and the real cost of a cam lock arrives as an ongoing admin burden rather than as a purchase price. Keys are also the reason cam-locked lockers get drilled: not because the lock failed, but because the key went home in a coat pocket.
Padlock hasps and latch locks
Instead of a built-in lock, the door carries a hasp or latch and the user supplies their own padlock. It is the standard arrangement in a lot of gyms, leisure centres and construction welfare units.
What it is good at. It moves the entire key problem to the user. Nobody on your side issues, tracks or replaces anything. If a user loses their padlock key, that is their padlock and their problem, and your facilities team is not involved.
Where it stops being the right answer. Three places. First, you lose control — you cannot open a locker in an emergency without cutting a padlock you do not own, which has obvious consequences if you need access to something urgently. Second, users leave padlocks on empty lockers, and a changing room slowly fills with locked, empty compartments that nobody can clear without bolt croppers and a policy. Third, the security of the installation becomes the security of the cheapest padlock your users are willing to buy, which is usually not much.
If you go this route, publish a clearance policy on the wall from day one — the date padlocks are cut off each week or term — because retrofitting that policy after the lockers fill up is a genuinely unpleasant job.
Built-in combination locks
A mechanical dial or four-digit combination built into the door, with no key to issue. Two distinct sub-types, and the difference matters more than most listings admit.
Fixed-code locks are set once and stay set. They suit allocated lockers where the same person uses the same compartment for a long period, but the code has to be changed by hand when the user changes, which is exactly the work you were trying to avoid.
User-resettable locks let each user set their own code when they take the locker and clear it when they leave. This is the arrangement that actually works for daily-use lockers, and it is what most leisure operators end up with.
What it is good at. No keys, no issuing desk, no battery. For high-turnover use it removes the single biggest ongoing cost of a locker installation.
Where it stops being the right answer. Codes get shared, and they get shared quickly — a code known to one shift is known to the whole shift within a fortnight. Combination locks are therefore a poor fit anywhere the contents are genuinely valuable or where you need to know who opened what. There must also be a documented override route, held by a named person, or a forgotten code becomes a drilled lock.
Digital and electronic locks
Battery-powered keypad locks, RFID card and fob readers, and app-based systems. This is the fastest-moving part of the market and the part where the sales pitch runs furthest ahead of the operational reality.
What it is good at. Genuinely useful things that no mechanical lock does. Access can be tied to an existing staff card or building fob, so a leaver's access dies with their card. Some systems log which credential opened which door and when, which matters in regulated environments. Codes and credentials can be changed centrally rather than locker by locker.
Where it stops being the right answer. Batteries. An electronic locker lock is a maintenance item with a replacement cycle, and a bank of two hundred of them is a recurring job somebody has to own. Ask three questions of any digital system before you commit, and do not accept vague answers to any of them: how does the lock behave when the battery dies — does it fail locked or unlocked? What is the mechanical override, and who physically holds it? Are the credentials and the management software tied to one manufacturer, and what happens to your two hundred locks if that manufacturer stops supporting them?
Electronic locks are the right call in a genuine access-control environment. They are frequently over-specified for a changing room, where a resettable combination does the same job with no batteries and no software.
Coin-operated locks
Two variants that are often confused. Coin-return locks take a coin or token to release the key, and return it when the locker is emptied and the key replaced — the coin is a deposit, not a charge, and its job is to make people return keys and clear lockers. Coin-retain locks keep the coin, so the locker is genuinely rented.
What it is good at. Coin-return is a behavioural tool rather than a security one, and as a behavioural tool it is remarkably effective — a small deposit clears a changing room far more reliably than signage does. Coin-retain generates revenue where the locker is a paid service.
Where it stops being the right answer. Cash handling, in a world where fewer users carry any. Token systems solve that but require a token issue point. Both add a mechanism that eventually needs servicing. For staff facilities rather than public leisure, the admin usually outweighs the benefit.
Master keying — the part that quietly decides your admin load
Whatever keyed lock you choose, the suite arrangement behind it matters as much as the lock itself, and it is rarely discussed until something goes wrong.
In a standard keyed locker installation, each lock is differed — every lock has its own key, so users cannot open one another's doors — and a master key opens all of them for the authorised keyholder. That master key is the single most important object in the whole installation, and it deserves a named owner, a documented location and a written procedure for use, all agreed before the lockers are installed rather than after.
Two things to settle at order stage, because both are painful to fix later:
- Are new lockers being added to an existing suite? If you are extending an installation, the new locks need to work with your existing master key. Say so when you order — it is straightforward to arrange in advance and awkward to correct once the lockers are on site.
- How are replacement keys ordered? Each lock carries a key number. Record those numbers, as a list, somewhere that is not the inside of the locker door. Sites that skip this end up replacing whole locks for the want of a two-digit code.
Matching the lock to how the lockers are actually used
| Use pattern | Typical fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Allocated staff locker, named user, long tenure | Keyed cam lock | Issue once, master key covers exceptions, nothing to maintain |
| Daily-use changing room, different user each shift | User-resettable combination, or padlock hasp | No key issue desk; users manage their own access |
| Public leisure and swimming | Coin-return, or resettable combination | Clears lockers reliably at the end of each session |
| Schools | Keyed cam lock with a robust key policy, or resettable combination | The fallback matters more than the lock; a keyholder must be reachable in the school day |
| Devices, laptops, radios, tools | Keyed cam lock on a charging locker | Individually locked and individually charged; the compartment does two jobs |
| Access-controlled or audited environments | RFID or credential-based electronic | Access dies with the credential; some systems log events |
Our sector guides work through the rest of the specification alongside the lock: school lockers, gym and changing-room lockers, and the general how to choose metal lockers guide.
What our lockers ship with, stated plainly
Every locker in the KC Supply locker range is a UK-manufactured Probe locker fitted with a Type A cam lock as standard on every compartment. That applies across the range — solid door, perforated, vision panel, sloping top, flat top, single through triple width, and the USB-C and mains PowerBox charging lockers, where each compartment pairs a charging outlet with its own Type A cam lock.
If your specification calls for a lock type outside that standard, ask us and we will find out what the manufacturer offers rather than guess in a listing. We would rather tell you we need to check than sell you a locker on an assumption about its lock.
Replacing or upgrading a lock on lockers you already own
This is the intent behind a large share of "locker locks" searches, so it is worth answering honestly: we supply lockers, not replacement locks. If you have existing lockers and need new locks or new keys, a lock specialist will serve you far better than we will.
When you approach one, have these four things ready — they are what you will be asked for, and having them turns a long conversation into a short one:
- The key number stamped on the existing key or on the lock face. This alone often solves a replacement-key request outright.
- The barrel diameter and the door thickness the lock has to pass through.
- The cam length and its orientation — how far the tongue reaches and which way it turns.
- The locker manufacturer and approximate age. Locker locks are not universal, and the manufacturer narrows the search enormously.
Be realistic about the economics on older stock. Where a bank of lockers is twenty years old, doors are dropping on their hinges and half the keys are gone, re-locking is often more expensive than replacing — and it leaves you with twenty-year-old lockers. If you are weighing that up, our comparison of steel storage cupboards versus lockers and the guide to metal storage cabinets may help you decide what to replace them with.
3-point locking — a latching method, not a lock grade
People regularly ask for “3-point locking” as though it were a security rating. It is not a lock at all — it is a latching mechanism. One turn of a single lock drives rods that engage the door frame at three points, typically top, middle and bottom, instead of engaging at one point in the middle.
On a compartment door of locker height this is unnecessary. On a full-height cupboard door of 1.8 to 2 metres it matters a great deal, for a reason that has nothing to do with picking or forcing the lock: a tall door latched only at its midpoint can be sprung at the unsupported corners, and over a few years of daily use it will bow. Three-point latching holds the leading edge along its whole length, which keeps the door square and keeps it closing cleanly.
The important consequence for specifying is that you choose both. Three-point locking is paired with a lock cylinder — usually a cam lock or a shutter lock — because the rods still need something to turn them. Asking a supplier for “3-point locking” without naming the cylinder leaves half the specification open.
You will find 3-point latching on our industrial cupboards, large volume wardrobe units and bin cupboards. If you are still weighing a tall shared cupboard against banks of personal compartments, our guide to steel storage cupboards versus lockers sets out that decision properly.
Locking on workshop cupboards and drawer cabinets
Workshop storage locks differently from locker-room storage, and it is worth knowing the vocabulary before you specify a Bott installation.
- Cupboards in the Cubio and Verso ranges use 3-point locking, with master locking available as an order option — the same argument applies here as on lockers: specify it at order or replace cylinders later.
- Drawer cabinets use central locking with drawer blocking. One lock secures the whole cabinet, and the blocking mechanism prevents more than one drawer being opened at a time. That second part is a stability feature rather than a security one — a loaded cabinet with three heavy drawers out at once is a cabinet that wants to tip forward. Master locking and electronic locking are offered as upgrades on these ranges.
The practical point: on drawer storage the lock and the anti-tip behaviour are the same mechanism, so do not treat central locking as an optional extra you can leave off to save money. Our guide to metal drawer cabinets covers drawer selection and load ratings alongside it, and the current range sits in drawer cabinets.
Two details that catch people out at order stage
Padlock shackle diameter. If you are buying padlocks in bulk to go with hasps, check the shackle diameter the hasp will accept before you order. A heavy 10 mm shackle will not thread a hasp cut for 6 mm, and discovering that after two hundred padlocks have arrived is an expensive afternoon. The same applies to our storage cages and cylinder cages, which are supplied with a hasp and staple and no padlock, precisely so you can match the padlock grade to what is inside.
The key register. Every keyed cam lock ships with two keys, a key number, and an eventual lost key. Replacement keys and matching cylinders are ordered against that number — so the register of key numbers is the thing that decides whether a lost key is a five-minute order or a drilled door. Decide who holds that register before the lockers arrive, and keep it somewhere that is not inside one of the lockers.
Before you order — the short checklist
- Name the keyholder. Not a department, a person, with a deputy. Do this before the lockers arrive.
- Record the key numbers as a list, held away from the lockers.
- Write the clearance policy if you are using padlocks or daily-use lockers, and put it on the wall.
- Check suite compatibility if you are extending an existing installation.
- Match the lock to the turnover, not to the perceived value of the contents — turnover is what generates the ongoing work.
- Plan the seating and layout too. Lock choice affects dwell time at the locker face; our changing room benches guide and the cloakroom bench range cover the rest of the room.
Frequently asked questions
What lock do commercial lockers come with as standard?
In the UK, the standard fit on commercial steel lockers is a keyed cam lock — usually specified as Type A, with two keys per lock, every lock differed within the bank and a master key available for authorised access. Every Probe locker in our range ships with a Type A cam lock on every compartment. Combination, coin and electronic locks are alternatives, not the default.
What is a Type A cam lock?
A cam lock is a small cylindrical barrel lock whose key turns a flat metal tongue — the cam — behind the door frame to hold the door closed. "Type A" is the specification convention for the standard keyed locker version: two keys supplied, locks differed across the bank so no user can open another's door, and a master key available to the keyholder.
Are combination locks better than keys for lockers?
Not better, different. Combination locks remove key issue and recovery, which makes them the stronger choice for daily-use lockers where a different person takes the compartment each shift. Keyed cam locks are the stronger choice for allocated lockers held by named users, because a key cannot be shared around a workforce the way a code can. Choose on how often the user changes, not on which feels more secure.
What happens if someone loses a key or forgets the combination?
That is a question of process, not of lock-picking, and it should be answered before the lockers are installed. On a keyed installation the authorised keyholder opens the locker with the master key and a replacement is ordered against the key number stamped on the lock. On a combination installation there must be a documented override held by a named person. On a padlock installation the padlock belongs to the user, so the resolution is the user's, and you need a written policy covering when your team will cut one off. If no fallback exists, the outcome is a drilled lock and a bill — which is why naming the keyholder is the first job, not the last.
Can you change or upgrade the lock on lockers you already own?
Usually yes, but locker locks are not universal, so it depends on the barrel diameter, door thickness, cam length and cam orientation of the existing lockers. We supply lockers rather than replacement locks, so for a re-lock we would point you to a lock specialist with those four measurements plus the locker make and age. Where the lockers are old enough that hinges and doors are also failing, price replacement alongside re-locking before you commit.
Do schools and gyms need different locks from workplace lockers?
The lock types are the same; the fallback requirement differs. Schools need a keyholder reachable within the school day, which usually points to keyed cam locks with a properly run key policy, or user-resettable combinations. Gyms and leisure centres turn lockers over several times daily, so key issue is impractical and coin-return or resettable combination locks tend to win. Workplace lockers allocated to named staff are the classic case for a keyed cam lock, since the locker is issued once and stays with the user.
Need a hand specifying a locker installation? Get in touch — we are engineers, and we will give you a straight answer, including when the answer is that you do not need what you were about to order.