What do you use your 16" Channellock pliers for?

[Flinter987]

Here's another one. Our auto tech program required us to buy 2 - 16" channellock type adjustable pliers. I haven't had to use them yet and am having a hard time imagining what situations would require them. Where have you used them and in what situations did they come in handy. Thanks!

 

[ItsNemo]

I have the 460's and 480's...use them in place of pipe wrenches for turning large diameter items. Use them for gripping certain thick items to be held while performing some other task on them. Use them for bending things when I need more leverage. Use them as an impromptu hammer if they're already out.

 

[MushCreek]

I can see one pair, but why 2? I don't use mine much for automotive, but I have used them to twist rusted radiator hose connections.

 

[Old Man Roger]

You'll know when you need them, nothing else will work..lol They're also good for stubborn oil filters.

 

[markhm]

I don't understand why the program would require you to buy 2 pairs. But I own a pair and when nothing else will work to remove an oil filter and there is room to get this in there, my 16" pliers becomes the best tool I own.

 

[Kent_B]

Now I need some. I think they would be great on the newer Subaru FB25 with top mounted oil filter

 

[Fedwrench]

I think your school needs to update its tool list or they own Channellock stock

The simple answer is that you need two so that you can hold one side of some fill in the blank (fitting, hose, whatever is large and kind of round), while removing (twisting, rotating) the other side off/on.

As others have pointed out, they used to be handy for large spin on filters back in the day before oil filters pliers were widely available. I have a pair and I can't remember the last time i ever used them.

Good luck with your program

 

[Formula]

I use them for pushing back in caliper pistons.

 

[plinker]

I've used the for rotating exhaust tube in place, other pipe work. Didnt use them for filters as I have their biggest set of those pliers. They sit in my box until needed for whatever comes up.

Two seems excessive, but they arent really that expensive either, compared to other pliers.

 

[Aqua-Andy]

one pair I can see. Two? No.

 

[speed bump]

Ford diesel oil filters or turning big lock rings are my two primary automotive uses. I do own two sets but I can't remember why I do (probably a field project). Otherwise I break out pipe wrenches.

I use them a lot for manipulating sheet metal and as a short pipe wrench for turning pipe.

 

[Rickster]

In the back of my pliers drawer with a bunch of other smaller oddball pliers I never use stacked on top.

 

[-OSIS-]

I use big pliers on everything. Unseizeing alternators, removing exhaust, removing o2 sensors, oil filters etc. The list is endless. Oh ya forgot too brake calipers.

 

[bcradio]

Mine are only used to decorate the toolbox drawer.

The largest I have ever needed to use was my 12" cobras

 

[Flinter987]

I think your school needs to update its tool list or they own Channellock.


They did make some updates this year but I'm not Sure If that changed or not.


Good luck with your program.


Thanks!

 

[maintguy]

Hell even in industrial maintenance. I hardly use my 2 pairs. When I was doing a lot of plumbing. I would mainly use them for basket strainers.

My 20 inch pair was only used a few times on a steam boiler job

 

[hangfirew8]

About once a year I pull mine out and it solves some problem. Sometimes the problem is just "I don't have a wrench over 1-3/8". Sometimes something large needs to be crushed, crimped or bent. I got mine used at a yard sale, locked up and speckled with slag. It works a lot better now that I've gone over it.

But two of them? Maybe if I was a large equipment mechanic, but no, I'm glad I have one but don't really need two.

EDIT: Mine are the 480 20".

 

[driftpin]

I've retrieved mine from the toolbox pliers drawer and returned to the kitchen to open a stubborn jar on more-than one occasion.

Hot tub/spa fittings, and other large-dia fixtures, and oil filters as-mentioned.

Some uses on motorcycles, holding large-dia pieces, where even a pipe wrench isn't large-enough, such-as a wheel-hub or a sprocket flange.

 

[MJD1]

Use them on many things, filters, calipers, exhaust pipes. If I was to have 2, well I have several, I would get the big 22" knipex cobra pliers.

 

[cheechi]

I just bought a pair of 460 yesterday, with the intention to hang them on the wall next to the 24" adjustable wrench. Both are decorative until the time they are needed.

 

[General Geoff]

Use them on many things, filters, calipers, exhaust pipes. If I was to have 2, well I have several, I would get the big 22" knipex cobra pliers.

I use my 22" Cobra pliers on all kinds of stuff. Rusted to hell EGR fittings come to mind for automotive. They also work on stuck oil filters, IF you have the room.

I use them more often for plumbing though.

 

[ItsNemo]

one pair I can see. Two? No.

Get the 460's and 480's...that way you have a variety. Or get 460's and the 463's with the v-jaws.

 

[mmason7764]

Mine came in my last box from H. J. Epstein: https://www.harryepstein.com/index.php/16-groove-joint-pliers.html

At $ 22.05 I couldn't pass them up. Haven't used them yet.

Last year we gave a pair of the 20" Channellocks to my brother-in-law who is a plumber. He uses his several times a week. Loves them for 2-1/2" unions. I had to get them because of how ridiculously oversized they looked when he pulled them out of the box at his birthday dinner. He says they are his most used pair.

Mark

 

[Old Man Roger]

You'll know when you need them, nothing else will work..lol They're also good for stubborn oil filters.

I've also misused mine as the opposite of a drift punch. A rubber mallet, and a pair of channel locks, work great to remove bushings, or stuck bearings, from a shaft.

 

[stercorarius]

I own a good half dozen of varying brands. I work in, well right now I guess you would just call it Ag. Use them all the time for turning round things. Oversize rounded adjusting hardware. Pipe fittings, valves. Adjusting hot things. Carrying hot things. Pulling on springs. Bending metal. Disassembly. No end to what a good pair of channellocks is good for. Two of the same size is odd though. I would get one 16" pair and one bigger or smaller.

 

[buffalobill]

I dunno, I could see owning multiple 420's, the 460's are always a great option to have in your box, 2 of them won't hurt anything......just like every other giant tool, it collects dust until it saves your ***....

 

[four.cycle]

"... it collects dust until it saves your ***..."

^ probably the most salient point in this thread.

my guess is that most of us would use a pair of 16-inch pliers about as often as the 5-pound hammer.

 

[buffalobill]

Lol, at the highway dept, 5 lb hammer is the go to hammer, lol. Rust is a mean *****....

 

[Dirtydan69]

I needed a pair a couple months back when i was out on a service call. Managed to improvise and get by without them. Next time I was in the store I bought a pair just in case. They are still sitting in the truck new in the package. They will come in handy next time I need them.

 

[davethorik]

I use my 22" Cobra pliers on all kinds of stuff. Rusted to hell EGR fittings come to mind for automotive. They also work on stuck oil filters, IF you have the room.

I use them more often for plumbing though.

×2, I recently used my XXL cobras to disassemble a bunch of steam radiator fittings as I did not have a larger than 14" pipe wrench handy. They are also good to tighten the big plastic collars on toilet tanks when changing the guts.

 

[WittHay]

The 16" water pump pliers are standard in any farm or fabricating shop. The hack use for them in automotive is removing dust caps from hubs, but it usually scratches, dents them in the process.

Not sure what the proper uses for them in a auto tech school setting is. Probably squeezing in brake calibers. If a c-clamp or a brake caliper compressor is not on the required tool list, what else is left

 

[buffalobill]

I dunno, you can get a caliper compressor for 10 bux, I doubt it's that. Hell, you can get the wind in piston atd kit for 75...

I'm sure if op asks what he needs them for, he will repost with an answer that will leave everyone thinking "duh, why didn't I think of that!"...

 

[Mike777]

I bought the 460s back in the summer of 1990.
At that time I owned a 1988 GMC S-15 that had the oil filter remote mounted from the factory. That winter I had some warranty work done (again - repetitive probs w/ the engine control computer) and had the dealer do the oil & coolant change while in the shop. A few months later I went to change the oil & filter and using all the tools I had at the time - short of driving a screwdriver through the filter - I could not remove the ******** oil filter. Wrenching on the thing I started to twist and deflect the attached tubing. Went out and bought these pliers and gripped the filer to crushing point to remove the darn filter. A couple of years later during a follow-on oil filter change I lubed the seal and 5,000 miles later same thing happened. By then my wife was working warranty claims at a Ford / Toyota dealer, she mentioned to one of the techs there - a former GM dealer tech - about this problem. He told her that the remote oil filters on the GM small pickups had a number of issues and his go-to-tool was the Channellock 460s, she wrote it down and brought the tool recommendation home. Already had them in the rollaway.
Other than that I've used them for an assortment of various & sundry large things to remove or back-up.

 

[Jim C.]

You know, I’m a Channellock fan for sure, and I’ve looked at those more than once or twice over the years but I never took them to the cash register with me. I guess I’ve never needed a pair that big, and definitely not two pairs. I’ve gotten by for years with one pair of #442s and an assortment of pipe wrenches. If I found a pair at a garage sale for the right price, I’d most probably buy them.

Jim C.

 

[Tinner]

Back around 1980 I bought a pair of 16" Diamond brand in a pawnshop. I don't recall what I paid, but they were in excellent shape and a real bargain. They have lived in my work box ever since. I guess I don't use them very often, but they show a lot of use over the years. They have been used for bending and twisting metal, as a pipe wrench and adjustable wrench and a million things that don't come readily to mind.

They're also one of my most loaned tools. One of those things that you don't realize how much you need it until you have it, then you wonder how you lived without it.

 

[Kev442]

<<<<< Had to have the 442's for some reason a few years ago. They came in handy.
Last year Amazon had the 460's on sale, so I bought them with no use in mind. They were the only tool that would remove suspension bump stops this summer. Paid for IMO in one use.

 

[Bill Ramsey]

The only reason I can think for two, as others have mentioned, is to use them against each other - one to hold and one to turn. But...I can't think of an auto tech application for that (It likely exists - I just haven't experienced it myself). I've had my 460 since 2004 and although not used often they save your **** when you need the grip and the torque (similar to a chain wrench). I've probably used mine more for plumbing than auto.

 

[Robinson1]

Tub drains, basket drains, Large threaded pvc fittings. Sometimes they work better than a chain wrench or pipe wrench for cast iron pipe.

Not sure what besides oil filters you'd need them for in automotive use

 

[Al Borland]

Not automotive, but industrial...
Pipe unions, threaded pipe, PVC fittings, pump parts.

 

[JohnDeere1]

I own 1 channellockand 1 diamond have never used either and they take up alot of space.