Did you know that Stanley makes FatMax 10″ Groove Joint PushLock pliers? Despite their resemblence to Irwin’s GrooveLock pliers, these FatMax pliers incorporate a few features that may be enough reason to add a pair to your collection.
The Jet Swet system allows you to swet/solder on a copper line without draining the entire water system. (I really wish I’d heard about this before I re-routed all the copper lines in my basement.) Just insert the Jet Swet through the valve or pipe and compress the Jet Swet gasket to instantly shut off the water. It’ll hold back up to 65 pounds of water pressure — plenty if you’re in an established neighborhood. (Be careful if you’re in a new-build; they often boost the pressure in anticipation of the development filling up later.)
The 6100 kit comes with six tools in sizes 1/2, 3/4, 1, 1-1/4, 1-1/2, and 2″, all housed in a plastic carrying case. And Accent Shopping carries them right now for $225.
Jet Swet 6100 [Brenelle]
Jet Swet 6100 [Accent Shopping]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Ever had to stop a plumbing project because you broke a threaded nipple off inside a fitting? As often is the case, there’s a very specific tool designed to save your ass in this instance: for a few bucks you can snag an internal pipe wrench, which locks into the stub with an eccentric mechanism and backs it right out.
It saves not only the cost of a new fitting, but also the time and hassle of tearing everything apart. Street pricing hovers around $5.
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon
Tired of tearing your hands up on cheap-ass, not-fully-smoothed cast faucet knobs? You could replace the faucet with an expensive modern one, but if the valve’s still good, why not try Faucet Mitts? Just soften these rubber covers in warm water then just slip ‘em into place. They’re four bucks a pair and are way, way easier on your hands.
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon
If you’ve ever wanted to see a Ridgid specialty tool firsthand before ordering it, you may soon get your wish. According to Ridgid’s website, all you have to do is select the products you want to see in action, and they’ll send over a representative with the tools.
The next time you’re in the hardware store, look for multi-purpose brushes in the plumbing section. These 4″ tin-handled brushes are commonly known as “flux” or “acid” brushes, and you can use them to spread pastes, greases, and liquids — almost any basic brushing task. And they’re cheap enough to throw away if when they get nasty.
This weekend I ended up with some water in my basement, and vacuuming all that crap up and hauling it up the stairs got me thinking about drill-powered water pumps I’ve seen — you know, simple impeller pumps turned by a corded or cordless drill featuring common 3/4″ garden hose and fittings. They seem like they’d work for a variety of water-moving tasks around the house, like emptying a stopped up sink, cleaning a fish tank, or evacuating my shop vac.
But I can’t help but think: are they powerful enough for real tasks?
Has anyone had any experience with these? Are they useless junk or a valuable asset to your toolbox? Does brand matter, or are they all made in the same Chinese factory? Let us know in comments.
Drill Pumps [Google Products]
I love taking an absurdly long hot shower after spending a day in the shop. I can do so because the people who built my house expected a bunch of kids to live here, and they installed two big-ass hot water heaters. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’m shelling out cash to keep 110 gallons of water hot all the time, even when I’m out of town.
Rheem’s tankless water heaters sound like a better answer. Through the use of a very efficient heat exchanger, they heat quickly enough to provide a continuous supply of hot water on demand, meaning I keep my long showers and pay less for my gas bill. Did I mention some of them qualify for a $300 tax credit, too?
Take a standard 10″ adjustable wrench and cross it with a set of locking pliers, and you’ve got Stanley’s new product: the MaxGrip locking adjustable wrench. As you might imagine, the locking portion of the tool provides a bit of extra force to help keep the jaws attached to the fastener.
I found this “air drain blaster” for $16.48 at Drill Spot this weekend. It essentially replaces the (not so) good ‘ole plunger by directing a blast of air down the drain. It ships with four differently-sized drain attachments — one of which will hopefully fit your drain.
Air Drain Blaster [Drill Spot]
Street Pricing [Google Product Search]
Having experienced a “doh!” moment this weekend with some mapp gas, copper pipe, and, um, flammable materials, I found this flame shield blanket for $18.44 from Plumbing Surplus. Now I won’t burn down the house next weekend when I give the project another try. The blanket measures 18″ x 20″ and protects joists and studs from burn damage, flames, and sparks.
Flame Shield Blanket [Plumbing Surplus]
Phillip wrote to let us know that RIDGID’s running a contest on their site offering one lucky winner a free SeeSnake — their new borescope — in exchange for their personal information and a short essay explaining how you’d use the ’snake.
The unit itself looks pretty sweet. It features a waterproof camera head and cable. The camera head is shaped like a gun with a 2.5″ color LCD on the back to show you what’s going on at the other end. It runs on four AA batteries and comes with a 3′ flexible camera cable, complete with adjustable LED lighting.
We’re sure you’re familiar with RIDGID’s power tools by now, but did you know they also make a few hand tools? We were specifically impressed with their aluminum pipe wrenches — great for working on pipes over your head where it hurts to hold the wrench up.
Phillip writes: “If you’ve ever broken a PVC pipe, you know what a pain it is to repair the damage. The Come Unglued tool can reverse the welding effect of the PVC cement by delivering a precisely controlled amount of head heat to undo the glue. This is awesome.”
The big upshot here, of course, is that you can save the fitting, which is likely already cemented into a pipe system.
Phillip writes: “RIDGID’s plastic basin wrench is a life-saver during the installation of a kitchen faucet or sprayer.”
As you can imagine, this device fits around a pipe to grab difficult-to-turn-in-tight-places plastic mounting nuts on facuets and such.
I feel stupid. I’ve fought with these before, and as much as I’ve talked to RIDGID over the last month, I still didn’t know about these. At $20 street, I’ll damn well have one before I install my next faucet.
Plastic Nut Basin Wrench [RIDGID]
Street Pricing [Froogle]
Tjdunlap submitted this tool he found via Workbench Magazine. He writes: “The Antex Pipemaster is designed to complement the torch in the tool kit of the plumbing contractor or home improvement enthusiast. As an alternative to the torch, the pipemaster elements heat the heads to a temperature that allows solder to be applied to copper pipe joints.”
The inventor of this little gizmo submitted it — the FlexiSnake: a miniature, disposable drain snake. The idea is that while it’s not a rotary tool like the ones we’ve covered in the last few days, it’s so much smaller and cheaper that you could use it before things get totally out of control.
It’s mainly designed to clear the hair clogs that commonly occur in bathrooms, and to that end it features a flat pad that’s small enough to slip down the drain, but spikey enough to grab hair.
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