Best Type of Bathroom Lock

Traits of a good bathroom lock:

• It’s completely clear whether it’s currently locked or unlocked.
• Testing whether it’s locked or unlocked from the inside doesn’t cause it to unlock itself.
• Bonus: you can tell from the outside whether it’s locked or unlocked.

Without further ado, I present to you: the best type of bathroom lock.

Just look at it. This specimen was photographed in Tisch Library at Tufts University.

It really just checks all the boxes.

First, you can easily tell whether it’s locked or unlocked. The lock points towards the doorframe when the bolt is going into the doorframe (it’s locked), and away when not.

You don’t have to deal with being uncertain about whether the button being pushed in really means locked. Or even worse: whether a vertical or horizontal nub means it’s locked or not.

With this lock, you can often even see whether the bolt is there via the crack between the door and the doorframe. Extra confidence.

Next, you can tug on this handle and check that it’s really locked. Maybe I have trust issues with bathroom doors, but I’d rather have trust issues than having someone waltz into a bathroom I’m using.

Other locks are so thoughtful that they unlock themselves as soon as you try to leave. Not good. I want to be able to test that the lock is doing its job without the lock immediately unlocking itself.

Lastly, this lock has a wonderful bonus element: you can see whether the bathroom is occupied from the outside!

There are few things more humiliating than trying a bathroom door only to discover that someone is inside. And there are few things scarier than being inside a bathroom while someone is trying to get in by rattling the handle as much as humanly possible.