iCrimp F2098 Ratchet One Hand PEX Cinch Clamp Fastening Tools for Clamping Pipe Tubing 3/8", 1/2", 3/4", 5/8" and 1" Easy Operation Stainless Steel Clamps with Holster

this pex clamp tool was pricey but it worked well, better than expected......it had some unfamiliar adjustments, and a carrying holster, and was well thought out.....it made a couple awkward tough jobs easier and was worth the extra money

So I'm repiping my house ... okay, that's my excuse when I lost a galvanized pipe due to some yahoo (not me!) decided to connect copper to steel and disappeared.Since no one ever goes looking for a problem until after it occurs, time was of the essence and I did NOT have this product. So first off I fixed the problem and then saw other connectors with the same problem. Off I went for a cheaper pex clamping fastening tool - and it worked.It worked if you could get two hands around it and in certain tight spots, particularly around corners and where you have your sills / trusses / cross members ... no luck. In addition, you'd have your hand all stretched out with a little pex clamp in there and trying desperately not to drop it in the dirt ... again.Well, this baby solves all of those problems. You don't have to have 12" mitts in order to get it started, and you can just tighten the clamp "just a little" in order to have it fit / sit and spin on the pex. This helps you get into position so you can actually start wrenching down on that steel clamp.The holster, meh. It goes into the tool bag with everything else. The go/no-go gauge ... it's going to get lost so figure out how to keep safe a small flat and black piece of metal the size of a credit card ... somewhere. Then promptly forget about it.But the ratcheting and clamping force, great!There's a dot that lines up and you're supposed to eyeball, but when you're trying to line up the steel clamp with the pex (maintaining proper coverage), you'll realize that it's only on ONE SIDE. Then reality will set in and you'll just go whole hog and squeeze and ratchet and compress and recognize that it'll reach a point where it's fine. You don't need that dot unless you are ... bored. And when we're doing plumbing with pex, we're never bored, right?

This is a gamechanger for tight spots and makes placing the ring with one hand and crimping with the other a breeze. Often the traditional rings will slip out of place when crimping, these make it easy. No need to open the handles like on a traditional crimper so under a sink is a piece of cake. Easy to crimp with one hand.

This is a good product however there is another version that is even more compact if you are working in atight space.

I have a large project that has many 1" clamps. I'm not a tough guy, but I'm not puny, either -- and the standard-fare Apollo clampers were *tough*. Too tough to even be used in some areas if the angle was wrong, even if the tool itself could fit. So, after a lot of searching, I found these, which are great so far.Many "ratcheting" crimpers only do ratchet locking, and don't use any kind of ratcheting mechanism to improve leverage. These ones actually give you additional leverage. On top of that, you don't need to move the handles very far from fully-closed to get a click onto the next tooth internally, which means these work very nicely in tight spaces. Although you might still need two hands (or strong hands) for the last bit of cinching on a 1" pipe, these provide enough leverage to be meaningful, and should be one-handed for clamps smaller than 1". Also, on any size clamp it's easy to do one-handed during the beginning, when you're trying to make sure your clamp is in the right place. This frees up your other hand for holding the pipe and/or clamp.Instead of a battery-operated LED to display when you've reached your mark like some have, there's a visual dot-and-slot indicator, and a manual testing gauge to check your work. The dot-and-slot indicator works nicely. For 1" clamps, as soon as the dot is wholly visible, the clamp is tight enough. For smaller clamps, you might want to go a tad further. In any case, I like the manual dot-check, but some people might miss the LED indicator.As to durability -- if they break or wear out too soon, I'll be back to edit this review, but they seem pretty decent so far.

Struggled with non-ratcheting plier type in hard to reach places as you need a lot of strength to close them especially if you can’t get close to them. This one is one handed operation (maybe one and a half) at arms length no sweat. Worth it and seems like good quality.

Bought this because my pex tool was too big for under cabinets. Works great.

Worked great, seem very well built. Instructions are not the best but they do have a max tension like many of the non-ratcheting crimpers but the instructions do not tell you that and read as though you have to check your tension. I used these on 1" pex and was the first time working with that size pex and they worked great. Also used it on some 3/4 and again worked as intended.