Tool Tiempo

Visiting a wholesale plumbing supply recently (it was a Friday and they had free hot dogs, chips galore and salads), a tool vendor had a display table set up. (That’s how these things work: The vendor foots the grocery bill and the supply house provides the venue and the plumbers are their ‘mark’. Some tools and widgets are bought by the plumbers and the plumbers get a free lunch.) This happens invariably on Fridays, most often during the summer months. But, sometimes an impromptu event goes live at an unpredictable date.
 
On this particular pig-out (PtP has a hella appetite), the Ridgid Tool Rep was displaying. The author has always trusted Ridgid brand tools. They’re tough stuff. I prefer their pipe wrenches over all others. This day my eye was snagged by two items, a copper tubing deburring tool and a new ‘version’ of their famous and industry best, basin wrench, model #2017  (Photo 1, below left).

The author has owned the original version wrench (Photo 2, below right) for 30 years or more. It’s indestructible and it’s the best one out there. Of course my curiosity was instantly piqued. For 40 years yours truly has been installing new, and replacing existing faucets.

Photo 1: Model #2017

Photo 2: Original Model #1017

The “re-invented” Ridgid #2017 “LED” Basin Wrench on display that day, (Photo 1, above left) had two features which differentiated itself from the original #1017 that had served yours truly, faithfully, for decades: 1) an LED light, and 2) a ⅜” socket at the handle base which hosts a “gimbaled” slide-bar handle. (PLUS: the ability to remove this handle and attach a ⅜” ratchet or breaker bar.)
 
PtP confesses that when extra leverage was required to unthread “stubborn” valve “lock/mounting nuts” and an adjustable Crescent™ wrench was applied to the bottom of the SQUARE shaft of the original #1017 telescoping basin wrench, getting the adjustable wrench installed WITHOUT losing the purchase of the spring-loaded ‘claw’ (Photo 3, below) of the original #1017 on the valve’s (usually lavatory or kitchen sink) lock/mounting nuts, sometimes required more than one or two attempts at this task.

Photo 3: Drag Claw of #1017

Did my original #1017 ever fail me? I can’t remember one “specific” case. (Though PtP DOES recall several occasions where he had to grind the teeth (on one side) of a good quality reciprocating saw blade (Lennox) so he could “saw off” a faucet body (and not harm the vitreous surface of the bowl) when the lock/mounting nuts of the defunct valve were too corroded (majority cases: ‘pot metal’ see “Brass Is Best” article) to allow conventional removal of the valve. (This also extended to valves on legged tubs.)
 
After this late opportune ‘feast’, PtP sent an ‘inquiry’ to Ridgid Tool Company asking if they would provide yours truly with a “loaner” so he could use their new offering in ‘real world’ situations. The company ignored PtP. Surprising?  Not really. How many individual plumbers can get the attention of these big, major league manufacturers?  (The author DID recommend them however in his best selling, original Taunton, “Plumbing A House” book.)  (Home Depot, Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.)
 
PtP DOES, though, have a few comments to make on this new tool offering:

1. After handling the new version for the first time, the author’s initial  response was: this tool is very “bulky” compared to his decades long use of the original.
   
2. Pushing the “buttons” to extend the new tool felt ‘overly laborious’ compared to his ‘trusted’ side kick, the original #1017.
   
3. The next question involved the LED light of the new offering:  Does this aspect REALLY make this new version a ‘big’ improvement over the original?  After handling and giving this newcomer a critical observation, PtP found himself questioning the value of the LED addition. It immediately appeared that the position of the light could possibly (in some situations well-experienced by the author) actually COMPLICATE the placement of the spring loaded claw on perspective lock/mounting nuts.
   
4. The author has for decades kept a ‘look-out’ for the ‘perfect’ plumber’s flashlight being offered by industry. (Industry has NEVER risen to this occasion.)  As far back as the publication of the author’s book, The Straight Poop, A Plumber’s Tattler (see Amazon and others), job-site illumination for plumbers has remained wanting; but, PtP recommended (in “The Poop”) a manufacturer that offered a product that best satisfied THIS plumber’s needs. In conjunction with, subsequent purveyors such as REI.com have afforded the author additional, excellent headlamps that never fail him in this under-sink realm.
   
5. If manufacturers of the present technology employed for ‘basin wrenches’ wanted to make a really ‘ground breaking’ improvement in this archaic design, PtP has some suggestions. In the interim, if the reader has no $$$ constraints, the new LED #2017 (trusting in Ridgid’s reputation) would be a sound choice.
   

P.S. The cost twixt the LED #2017 and the original #1017 is a good time in a Berkeley bistro. But, if you are so endowed ($$$) the author, trusting in Ridgid Tools, would say: Go For It!
 
Until Next Time,
 
PtP