I always discard 1 and 5 star reviews and look at the 2-4 star reviews. I think they're less likely to be fake and people actually put thought into the rating. Most people tend to give a 5 when it works for them and a 1 when anything goes wrong.
@@LVIS-a When he sees something worth commending he does, there just isn't the quality and care taken to produce things that there used to be. More often than not with a lot of people the negative outshines the positive unfortunately.
GAGAGAGAGAGA! I will now count to 3 and then I am still the unprettiest RU-vidr of all time. 1...2...3. GAGAGAGAGAGA!!! Thank you for your attention, dear m3r
When reading Amazon reviews ask yourself, is the "average person" able to give a meaningful opinion on the function of this product. For locks, that's a hard "no".
I mean, the average person still should understand that this thing is pretty fragile and incredibly cheap looking. Also very easy to steal the whole box, I dont quite understand the purpose.
Exactly! ( Well put...), and then even when it is possible, one must weed through all of the reviews looking for signs of life. Meaning for those few who truly are able to speak to its function, both good and bad -OR- simply make sure that the item has a very good Return policy :)
High ratings on online retailers often seem to be “it was fast delivery even though it said 420 days delivery I got it within 2. Haven’t tried it yet though but it look good.”
Or when you get negative reviews saying something along the lines of, "the delivery man pissed on the package and threw it at the door 1 star". As though it has anything to do with the product itself.
@@lethauntic don't you know that *insert postal service of your choice* is 100% owned by the company you ordered your thing from thus making them responsible? of course it is their fault... common sense really. but in all seriousness, it is really dumb how so many reviews depend entirely on the delivery experience.
The amount of "Haven't tried it yet but it looks good. 5 stars" reviews you see is honestly staggering. Who the hell rates a product before you've even opened the packaging?
@@bleep0004 I think by pulling on the bar with the piece of metal he accomplishes what tensioning does, where individual pins/wheels want to fall into place as it's the path of least resistance. But I'm not 100% sure.
@@bleep0004 Poor tolerances mean that the margin for error in this lock is so great you can even be a number off and the wheels will still fall into the correct positions. Basically the true gates are made very sloppily.
I think presently it would have about 3 locks on it, one of which is only for securing trailers to truck hitches, and one costs like $4000 for a padlock (but hey, he couldn't shoot it open with anything short of a shotgun), and the last is that Bowley that literally the entire locksport community worked together and still couldn't pick.
@@gwentarinokripperinolkjdsf683 You read my mind, I was just about to write, “Paclock.” They are available through Home Depot here in the US, and they can be rekeyed with a UCS compatible cylinder. The cylinder in the lock has six serrated and spool pins. If I recall, LPL reviewed a Paclock and it took him like a minute or so to pick it, so in other words, fairly secure. I was pretty impressed with the review of the Abus Rock, but 83CS/80 is not readily available in the US; have not seen it is person, it is over $100 US. The Paclock 3/8 inch shackle is about $35 US.
Nice. As an employee of Amazon, I'm going to show everyone else who works at my facility how easily it is to bypass these things at our warehouse. 👍🏻👍🏻
I’ve been watching your videos for about a year now and I used what I’ve learned about the weaknesses in code wheel locks like these to crack open an old suitcase for my grandmother that contained love letters between her and my deceased grandfather. Just wanted to thank you for all of the enjoyment I’ve gotten out of watching your stuff and the practical knowledge that helped put a smile on my grandmother’s face!
Seeing the video preview picture: "Ooo he's going to stick a piece of redbull can between the wheels" Lpl: *sticks an actual tool in there* "Well, that's more dignity than it deserves"
@@James-lr3xg nah, it's to promote his own product. He has other videos where he picks code wheels with a red bull can (he specifically names it as red bull so I don't think it's like a trademark problem or something)
is not even that, u can decode it just by the feel, torque on the open button, turn the dials till u can feel it drooping, i've saved me a lot of times on these types of cheap locks
@@camialeh I did this exact trick(torque on the chain) to open a bike lock we had lost the combination to, it took me ~10min as it was my first ever try at something like this, but it scared me how easy it was.
@Dyanosis I tried to add some explanation as to what I meant by that, but it killed the joke. I added the link to the moment with the hopes that it would be enough to leave it implicit. But I’ll take the red X prof. Since you insist on grading a RU-vid comment.
I recently purchased one of your wafer practice locks as well as your Genesis set. Love it so far! I ended up buying a few books, more practice locks, and a comb set from your friends at Southern Specialties. Thank you for inspiring me to start this new hobby! It is very rewarding and keeps my mind working.
I read the 1 stars and decide if I would give 1 star in the same situation. Surprisingly, sometimes I think the reasons of one star reviews aren't fair with the rate. Hence, I know that's a good product.
Yes. The bad reviews are the ones where you can see if there are patterns pointing toward common product flaws. I did many tests on many products and what I found out is : if you analyze buyers' profiles you'll see many of them reviewed the same products. Pick one product, analyze all the reviews. You'll discover a bunch of the reviewers bought and reviewed positively many of the same items. Re-do the same process with the similar items they reviewed and you'll find the same pattern. Good reviews have no meaning.
@@Oli-Ravioli I suppose I should add that it's good to read between the lines to differentiate between problems with product quality and user attitude issues.
Agreed - the one star reviews are always the starting point. Although as others have noted, they are not always reliable. But that helps too - if the worst that happened was that the delivery never arrived, or external packaging was damaged a bit then the product _might_ actually be OK. Although I'm getting increasingly cynical. A lot of the time in the one star reviews I'm seeing bad QA for products that are already at the limit in terms of quality of materials and manufacturing. Again, a high percentage of one star reviews help get an idea as to just how bad the manufacturing actually is.
@@empoleonmaster6709 google "amazon fakespot apple". Shortly :Fakespot is a service for filtering and hiding fake product reviews. Not long ago Apple removed the app from its App Store at Amazon's request.
@@miha493 I knew fakespot was a website, but I didn’t know there was also an app. But I guess it doesn’t matter since you can use the site even if the app is no longer available.
I found that surprising, too. I think what's happening there is that when he's just pulling on the bar, the part of the bar that needs to move through the gate is just barely inside the wheel area, like the edge of a wedge. The gates themselves might only be wide enough that the bar can barely pass through, but when just the edge is in there, there might be a lot more play. Then the combination is fully entered (or enough that the edges of the bar protrusions are somewhat inside the gates, the bar can move far enough so the tabs _are_ inside the gates, and this wedging action lines up any crooked gates with the the bar. The tolerances must be pretty lose, considering 1) a wheel can be a whole number off for this to work and 2) unless left-to-right was a lucky coincidence, it seems the wheels can be decoded in any order.
The tolerances are so loose that he was "close enough" so when he tried to open it they fell into the right gates, so the action of the lock turned the wheels. Maybe. I'm mostly guessing here, but it sounds right to me.
@asdrubale bisanzio good on you man. you'd be a sham to shame a man's nan, a nan's one's oldest fam. "no shame on nan" is for sure the right plan. have some flan.
oh thank you so much for this vid, it took me only 10 minutes of tool making and 20 minutes of picking, instead of trying combinations for hours, to open the lock our previous tenant has left
So I bought a bike lock today, it was extremely stressful thanks to my newfound fascination with the LPL. Never have I looked into all the cores while lock shopping.. thanks a lot man! 😆
Hi LPL! My first lockpick set just arrived yesterday, picking every lock I can see around me since.... I just wanted to thank you for your videos, and to introduce me into this suprisingly satisfying hobby!
Just from the sound of the lock when he was scrambling it I could tell it would only take a single good hit with a generic dollar store hammer to shatter the box.
I love the fact that you don't do any unnecessary lead-ins, no flash of logo, no pointless self promotion that so many others do on their channel. It seems most YT'rs have no idea what to do, so they imitate the nightly news from 1995, or worse still they imitate each other. I keep a finger on the right arrow button to jump through their awkwardness and imitation intros. "Tap, tap, tap, tap." If a video is still trying to convince me I am watching something good with pointless intros after 4 taps (20 seconds), I close that video. Your videos are straight to the point, and seem to rely on viewers being interested in your subject. I'm always happy to see a new stuff from your channel.
Used to do something similar to old combination bike locks back in the day, pull the chain tight and slowly work through the dials. I did this recently with this exact lock box, but I had no tools. Just held the black button down. Like the bike locks, one dial will hold more than the rest, you’ll feel a light click on the black button, then rinse and repeat finding the next most holding dial. Not as quick as LPL, but you’ll be able to do it pretty quick once you get the feel for it.
We use one of these at work for a relatively low security in building cabinet. The lock housing is built in such a way though that the key we keep inside it was able to get wedged into the space between the back of the box and a moving part of the lock. This forced it to be stuck in place via friction and a spring loaded part of the lock. My manager (knowing I have a vague understanding of how locks work and a better understanding of small jeweler's tools told me to get it open by any means necessary. Thankfully it wasn't mounted to anything so I eventually just used the screw holes and some needle nose pliers to push the key out of the way. We put in a sticky note that said to keep the key below a certain point and now it doesn't get stuck anymore.
And I bought another item from Covert Instruments! It is appreciated that LPL uses his own tools in the videos. It has helped me with technique and not allowed me to blame my tools.
When reading reviews, it's always better to look at the lowest ratings first: they keep you from hyping yourself up too fast into buying the product, focusing on one or more cons that were experienced. Also, if the lowest reviews are all for bullshit reasons (where I live, french speaking people give one star reviews for games that haven't been translated into french) or for reasons that don't affect your use case, you have more reason to assume the product will be fine for you. There's also no reason to restrict yourself to the reviews on one website.
I have one of those, for my son to use when he’s home earlier than me. He’s too forgetful to keep track of keys. Even though the lock box is hidden pretty well, and the chance of a burglar skilled enough to pick the box, after deciding to search for its location instead of smashing a window, I’m less relaxed about having one of those now. It’ll be changed when, and if, I find a safer alternative, but after following your channel for a few years, I’m uncertain such a product exists.
Dude....freaking amazing....someone would pay good money to find all their items gone and no way of telling what happened.....unreal...thank you for your videos....
As a real estate agent, I’d like to know which lockbox LPL does recommend so I can secure my clients’ homes but still allow other agents to access them without much hassle!
those bought "good" ratings are the reason why I always look at the worst ratings (with one or two stars) and look thorougly for the reasons why people depreciated the product
I have one of these locks, Master branded. I couldn't find anything skinny enough to fit in the narrow slots, so I just used my eyes and a flashlight to spot a reflection, and then rotate the wheels together until it opened. Like most locks, just barely enough to keep an honest man honest.
I accidentally closed my box while it was reset and didn't see the code. I used your trick and it worked (takes getting used to for sure). I ended up making a tool like yours out of the top of a cat food can lol. It was the perfect thickness to get through and still not break.
His scrambling bothers my OCD because he's moving all the wheels similar amounts which means the numbers won't be far off from each other, so it's not as randomized.
I know exactly what you mean, but I just look at it as he was just showcasing how simple it is to pop open without knowing the combination and so even if they were all the same number, he would've been clueless as to the combination (would've been more OCD friendly and satisfying if all the numbers were the same though)
@@Draakiin Yeah it's totally irrelevant to him being able to open the box, he could scramble it as much as he wants and still do it. He's so exact about everything else though that that little bit bothers me, lol.
Fifteen or so years ago, when these boxes where not very known yet (at least where I live), my home care organization started to *require* key lockboxes for their clients. I had one a bit similar to this. Never felt safe with it, my only saving grace was the way my front door was located. First thing I thought was: right, so thieves and burglars can now not only know that there is a housekey inside that thing, but also I can now advertise the fact that "the person who lives here is dependent on home care and cannot come to the front door themselves". Nice. However.. now in my new house, I have an automatic door opener that I can open with an RF remote. That doesn't feel safe either. I also cannot lock the door at night, because the nurse puts me to bed and I cannot close the door behind her nor would I be able to open the door from my bed in the morning when my nurse rings the doorbell if it was locked. I've been looking at smart locks that can move a deadbolt to the locked position using an app or remote, but I'm not sure these are much safer.
The Masterlock versions are commonly used on holiday homes around here, and I've had to open a couple that guests have changed. The first time had I had zero knowledge on lockpicking, and just forced it open with a screwdriver forced into the top and levered down. The second time it took me a couple of minutes with a sparkplug feeler gauge to do the same as in this video.
Thanks to videos like these I was able to open a briefcase in a second-hand shop. I didn't have a notch decoder, but just trying to force the thing open was enough to tension the lock so I could find the loose spot in the travel.It took considerably longer than picking this one, possibly due to poorer tension, probably due to the lock being better and my skill not being LPL's.
This looks like the masterlock keybox I took to work so my clients can play with decoding it using a simple metal strip and a 5 second explanation how to do it.
We use this at work to hold the spare key to a golf cart but it is at the far end of our garage that only has one entrance and has a camera looking at it 24/7.
I actually bought this lock (under a different name) a few years back. It was to keep a spare house key inside my garage. We sold that house a couple of months afterwards, so I guess it's their problem now. 😅
How do you sleep at night...watching your videos a ton and you make lock companies so legit...someone is going to knock on your door someday...love watching your videos...its like being in presents of greatness..keep up the great work👍and be careful✌️
LPL since we can't rely on Amazon reviews or brands I think a video showcasing your recommended locks for different price points would be a great idea.
![[1332] 4.8/5 Amazon Stars… 0/5 LPL Stars: Rudy Run Key Lockbox](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
