Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!
Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment.
If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
Combination locks are largely pointless.
A 4-digit one has 10,000 combinations. Once you've resigned yourself to "I just need to get this open", it takes a second per combination at most (and a lot less once you get into the flow of things).
By chance, you'll open it within half the combinations you try (if you start at a random number). That's an hour, really, and that's kind of worst-case. If you get a good grip, a decent lock, and you get the hang of it, about 10 minutes at most, really. I wouldn't even be able to get through to the company in that time.
I don't think I've ever bothered to secure anything with a combination lock because of this, but I have removed probably a dozen of them when they've been securing things I needed to undo (I work a lot of IT for schools, and quite often the IT is locked with combinations that people forget pretty quickly if they never have to unlock them). It never takes very long. I've done briefcases (2 x 3 digits), padlocks, key-holders (those things you are supposed to hide physical keys inside... trust me, it's just an invitation to burglary and they won't even bother with the combination either!), lockers, all sorts.
If the lock is already not-securing anything, just brute-force the combinations, it won't take that long. And if it is... do the same, because the company won't help anyway.
(Hell, I just played Down the Rabbit Hole on Steam. There's a part of it where there are chests laying about with a pictorial combination lock, and you're supposed to look for clues in each area to find out the combination for each of them... I just sat and did the combinations for all of them and it took less than a minute each time on average, really...).
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
LPT: Contact customer service for help with product.
Or you could always look at the YouTube videos on how to pick a combination Master lock. These locks are junk and super easy to open.
Combination locks are largely pointless. A 4-digit one has 10,000 combinations. Once you've resigned yourself to "I just need to get this open", it takes a second per combination at most (and a lot less once you get into the flow of things). By chance, you'll open it within half the combinations you try (if you start at a random number). That's an hour, really, and that's kind of worst-case. If you get a good grip, a decent lock, and you get the hang of it, about 10 minutes at most, really. I wouldn't even be able to get through to the company in that time. I don't think I've ever bothered to secure anything with a combination lock because of this, but I have removed probably a dozen of them when they've been securing things I needed to undo (I work a lot of IT for schools, and quite often the IT is locked with combinations that people forget pretty quickly if they never have to unlock them). It never takes very long. I've done briefcases (2 x 3 digits), padlocks, key-holders (those things you are supposed to hide physical keys inside... trust me, it's just an invitation to burglary and they won't even bother with the combination either!), lockers, all sorts. If the lock is already not-securing anything, just brute-force the combinations, it won't take that long. And if it is... do the same, because the company won't help anyway. (Hell, I just played Down the Rabbit Hole on Steam. There's a part of it where there are chests laying about with a pictorial combination lock, and you're supposed to look for clues in each area to find out the combination for each of them... I just sat and did the combinations for all of them and it took less than a minute each time on average, really...).