A basin wrench will help you get at hard-to-reach nuts, especially up behind sink basins, but not everyone has the room for an extra wrench in the toolbox.  Superior Tools makes this 3/8″ drive attachment that turns your ratchet into a basin wrench — and you can make it any length you need by changing extensions.

The spring-loaded jaws fit 1/2″ to 1-1/4″ hex and square nuts and anything in between.  You can find this basin wrench attachment for about $12 at Sears.

Basin Wrench Attachment [Superior Tool]
Basin Wrench Attachment [Sears]

While the Gordon wrench will help you turn stuck shutoff valves, to reach the valve you still might have to bend like a contortionist.  Plus you probably don’t want to venture that close to the scummy area behind the toilet or under the sink.  Although the WaterShutOff wrench from Superior Tool may not let you apply as much torque on stuck valves, it can keep you 11″ farther away from all that unpleasantness that hasn’t seen the light of day in years.

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You probably won’t see a couple of plumbers in the back room with a bunch of these tools and a playground ball, trying to get twosies — but it’s fun to imagine.  These jack-lookalike tools are actually drum tap wrenches for removing cleanout plugs.

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For routine maintenance or emergencies, you can simply squeeze off polyethylene (PE) pipe, instead of locating a valve upstream.  Timberline designed their TR-650 tool for squeezing off 3″ to 6″ PE pipe without completely excavating around it.  You just open up an 18″ “keyhole” or trench, and slip the 17-1/2″-wide jaws down into the keyhole.

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If you’re a DIYer trying to solder some plumbing, you’ve probably found the most difficult part is getting the system drained.  If you leave any water in there, it turns to steam and makes a pinhole in your joint, which you won’t find till the system’s pressurized.  To prevent that frustration, Clean-Fit’s Water-Gate will seal off any pipe from 1/2″ to 4″ diameter.

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A couple years ago we posted about Ridgid’s plastic nut basin wrench.  Ridgid has since updated the 2006 model of this tool to be a “multipurpose under-sink plumbing tool,” and they renamed it the Faucet and Sink Installer.  The notched ends of this tool still fit 2, 3, 4, and 6-tabbed plastic mounting nuts on faucets, sprayers, and ball cocks — but now the tool does so much more.

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This isn’t the work of some strong man — Ridgid intended its offset hex wrench to look like this.  They claim the odd-shaped jaws give you a secure grip on multiple sides of hex and square nuts, unions, and valve packing nuts.  Plus it opens from 1-1/8″ to 2-5/8″ wide, allowing you to fit it around tub and sink drain nuts.

The 9-1/2″ long wrench weighs just 1-1/2 pounds, with smooth thin jaws to slip into tight places.  Ridgid offers a lifetime warranty against defects in material or workmanship — not bad for a $30 to $40 pipe wrench.

Offset Hex Wrench [Ridgid]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

The Pipemaster soldering tool probably came from this idea, familiar to everyone who’s ever soldered copper pipe: “If I could just heat the whole thing at once, I’d be done by now.”  Its jaws close around pipe to heat it up and make an even seal, rather than heating with open flame.

Just mount the correct heads for the pipe size on the Pipemaster –- the heads for 1/2″ pipe are standard — then plug it in, lay it on its steel bracket rest to keep it elevated, and let it preheat for a minute before use. Place the heads around the pipe close to the joint. Let the solder flow into the joint once the pipe is hot enough, and remove the heads from the joint. After cooling, the joint should be ready.

It sounds pretty easy, but we wonder if it works even half as well as it sounds.  Has anyone had some firsthand experience with it?  Let us know in comments.

Street pricing starts at around $95.

Pipemaster [Antex]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

The forged jaws of this thumbturn pipe wrench tighten as you apply torque to the pressed steel handle — and the jaws continue to tighten as you increase the force.  The knurled thumbscrew provides a convenient way to adjust the wrench without changing your grip.

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I know how to do some projects in theory — sweating copper-pipe joints, for instance — that I’ve never needed to test my skill at until I moved into a new house with a missing toilet and sink. Replacing the valves for the sink’s hot and cold inlets went like a dream, but when I got to the third inlet valve, the one for the toilet, I had to try it about ten times before I got it to work correctly. I have no idea what I was doing wrong, but here’s my tip: if you can’t seem to get the joint right, try some solder paste, and use a bunch.

My toilet works now, and it doesn’t leak. It might be a sissy way out, but it cost less than $10 — and it let me turn the water on for good.

Photo posted on Flickr by tanais.

Solder Paste [Solder-It]
Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Think of the right-angle pipe wrench like a super-heavy-duty basin wrench — it allows you to turn pipes and fittings in spaces where you can’t fit a normal pipe wrench. You may not need it every day, but when do you need it, you’ll be glad you have it.

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When you’re lying underneath a sink and working above your head, or if you’re even anywhere near your toilet, you want the right sized tool — you don’t want to be fumbling around, constantly adjusting your wrench. That’s where this 4-in-1 spud wrench might come in handy.

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After being disappointed with the electric bazooka, I did at least find a propane flamethrower!  This lovely tool burns propane at a rate of 5.7 lbs. per hour and puts out 125,000 BTU, to bend 1/2″ to 8″ schedule 40 or 80 PVC — or you can set fire to your boots, pants, and anything under the pipe!

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You probably have angle-stop valves under your sinks or behind your toilet for shutting off the water in an emergency or when working on the fixture — if you don’t, lucky you, you get to turn off the water to the whole house. These valves aren’t always the easiest to turn, and, better yet, the plastic ones can break on you, if you don’t have the right tool. The Gordon wrench fits angle-stop handles perfectly and gives you the leverage you need to turn the handle without damaging it or your hand.

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I found this swaging punch on Klein’s website, and it got me wondering just what swaging was. It turns out that swaging is changing the diameter of tubing by forcing it into a die — so swaging is somewhat like flaring. After you swage the tubing, you usually mate it with a fitting, then crimp or solder it. Although swaging can be a hot or cold process, you’ll probably want to use this swaging punch cold.

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Maybe I’m missing something — I don’t do much plumbing work, but this seems over-specialized to me. I know that, at least for residential, most pipe at this point is PVC, but I’ve always used a plain old pipe cutter regardless of what kind of pipe I’m working with.

I like specialty tools, because when they’re not too expensive they save my butt. This Black Rhino PVC cutter comes up at about $13, so it’s not too expensive, but do I need it? It seems to me this is like my left-handed board-stretcher — it’s the same as the right-handed one, and only worth a good laugh.

Is a PVC-only pipe cutter a hot item, or is this a board-stretcher? Let us know in comments.

PVC Cutter [Black Rhino]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

A water detector in the basement will save you a major headache — unless you’re not home to hear it. Leave on vacation for a week, and you could come home to a dead battery in your water detector, thousands of dollars of water damage, and a floating sofa. Like your basic water detector, a backup sump pump sounds a nice little alarm, but it also does something about the problem.

This pump from Wayne will sit quietly, charging a deep-cycle battery, until the power goes out and the water rises. Then the ESP25 system sounds an alarm and begins pumping water at up to 3,300 gallons per hour at zero feet, and over 1,000 GPH at 15 feet. It may not handle a full hurricane, but it should save you from most flooding problems.  At $220, it might pay for itself with reduced home insurance premiums alone.

Backup Sump Pump [Wayne]
Wayne [Corporate Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]