TIL that $38 Pex crimp tool from Amazon actually held up on 20 fittings without slipping once

I figured I'd be replacing it after the first handful of joints but that little orange ratcheter did a full repipe on a 1970s mobile home in Modesto without a single leak, anyone else had a cheap tool surprise them?.

2 comments

2 Comments

alice_harris3516d ago

Actually I gotta push back on this a little because I think you got lucky more than anything. Those cheap ratcheting crimpers flex under load and the pivot point wears out fast even if they hold for a single job. I've seen guys try to use them on a second project and the jaws start slipping halfway through a crimp. The problem is you don't know when they're going to fail and a bad crimp on a pex fitting inside a wall is a nightmare. The $100+ ones have a rigid frame and replaceable dies for a reason. Your mobile home repipe worked great but one job doesn't prove the tool is good.

david_henderson616d ago

Are you talking about the same cheap crimpers I used or some other brand? Because the ones I picked up have a solid steel frame and the pivot point is actually reinforced with a bushing, not just a bare pin. I've done three full repipes with them now, including a 4-bath house last spring, and they haven't slipped once. The jaws are still tight and the ratchet mechanism feels just as crisp as day one. I get that the super cheap stamped steel ones are junk, but there's a middle ground between those and the pro grade stuff that actually works fine for the average guy doing his own work. A bad crimp is a bad crimp regardless of what tool you use if you don't know what you're doing.