Heavy Duty Magnetic Hooks

Magnetic hooks that actually hold. Gator Magnetics snap onto thin steel and carry up to 20kg — no drilling, no screws, no holes in a wall you'd rather not put holes in. Lift the lever, place it, click it shut, load it up. Moving it later takes about three seconds.

Why these hold when other magnetic hooks don't

Most magnetic hooks quote pull force — how hard you'd have to pull the magnet straight off the wall — and they measure it on half-inch steel. Almost nothing in a real shed is half-inch steel.

A hook doesn't need pull strength. It needs shear strength: the downward load it carries once your gear is hanging on it. Gator magnets are neodymium, but magnetised with a patented pattern of multiple poles printed onto the same face rather than one pole on each side. That creates a focused magnetic field instead of a wide looping one, so the force stays at the contact surface where it does the work — which is exactly what matters on thin steel.

Every capacity below is a shear rating, tested on 16-gauge steel — about 1.6mm galvanised, which is what sheds, toolboxes, containers and vans are genuinely made of.

Choosing your size

• MEGA — up to 20kg. 3", 4.5" and 6", open or closed. Bikes, hoses, ladders, whipper snippers, heavy garden gear.
• MIDI — up to 11kg. 2.5" and 4", open or closed. Hand tools, cables, extension leads, work bags.
• MINI — up to 6.8kg. Compact and packable, for kitchens, laundries, offices and lockers. Single prong or dual prong — both hold 6.8kg.
• Baskets — up to 15kg. Small, large, or with a towel bar. Sprays, bottles, cloths, small parts.

A rough guide, using a shovel as the unit: a 2.5" open hook takes one, a 4" takes two, a 4.5" takes three, a 6" takes four.

Every measurement, side by side: the hook comparison chart lists capacity, projection, height and magnet size for every hook in the range, plus which hook suits which tool.

Open or closed?

Open hooks are for walls you use daily — hang it, grab it, gone. Closed hooks are for anything that moves: floats, work vans, trailers, or gear held on with a strap.

Will it hold on your wall?

A magnet needs a flat face to grip. That one fact decides everything, and it takes ten seconds to check.

Flat sheet and ribbed cladding — full strength. Wide flat pans between raised ribs: the profile on almost every modern shed, stable and workshop. The magnet sits completely flat and you get the full rating.

Shipping containers — full strength. Container walls are trapezoidal, with 72mm flat faces on 1.6mm steel — almost exactly the surface our 20kg rating is tested on.

True corrugated, the wavy profile — not recommended. On genuine sinusoidal sheeting the magnet only touches the crest of each wave, so the contact patch is tiny and holding power drops away sharply. It's the most common question we get, and that's the straight answer.

The measurement that decides it: a Gator needs about 50mm of flat steel for full contact. On ribbed or trapezoidal cladding, measure the flat face between two ribs. Fifty millimetres or more and you're getting the full rating.

The five-second test: stick a fridge magnet on the wall. If it sits flat and holds firmly, so will a Gator. If it rocks or slides off, you're on a curved profile — or a non-magnetic metal like aluminium or 304 stainless.

Got true corrugated, timber, brick or render? The Steel Wall Target gives you a flat steel face to work from. Fix it once, then move your hooks around it as often as you like.

Amarra DIY Hub is the exclusive licensed distributor of Gator Magnetics in Australia and New Zealand. Please be aware of imitations sold through third-party non-Australian websites — they won't hold like a genuine Gator.