Okay so this is maybe a dumb observation, but have you ever looked—like really looked—at the bottom of a padlock? Not when you’re in a rush and the thing won’t open, or when you’re mid-argument with it in the rain (been there), but just… at rest. I don’t know why I noticed this, honestly, but one day I was standing in my garage staring at this old rusty lock, and there was this weird little hole on the bottom. Two, actually. Just… there.
I thought it was maybe a defect. Or something leftover from when they mold the metal or whatever they do. Manufacturing scrap. One of those details no one explains.
But turns out—it’s on purpose.
Water, rust, and why that hole kinda matters
So here’s the deal. If your padlock is ever outside—and most of them are, right? Like gates, sheds, lockers at the marina, random fences in the rain—then water gets in. You don’t even have to see it happen. It just… does. Rain blows sideways, condensation creeps in, whatever.
