Found a $2 trick to keep my hostel locker from jamming in Barcelona

At a hostel in Barcelona last week, my locker kept sticking every time I tried to spin the dial. Tried rubbing a pencil tip over the inside of the lock mechanism, the graphite worked like a charm after about 20 seconds. No more fighting with the thing at 6 AM before my flight. Anyone else got a weird hostel hack that saved them?

2 comments

2 Comments

betty_fisher59d ago

The graphite thing is smart, but did you actually pop the lock open first and rub it on the inside parts? Because most people just scribble on the outside. That's just going to make a mess and not really help. You gotta get inside the mechanism where the pins are. Otherwise it's like putting a bandaid on a broken bone. So did you take it apart or just hit the dial with a pencil?

josephs269d ago

Blinked twice reading that, @betty_fisher5. You can actually pop a lock open and rub graphite inside the pins? I always just scribbled on the key and hoped for the best, which explains why my old filing cabinet still sticks like crazy. Guess I owe you a thank you for pointing out the obvious I was too stubborn to see.