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Pliers are an essential part of your home toolkit, so we've rounded up the best ones you can buy whether you want long-nose, vise-grip, or linesman's pliers.
Japanese engineering, robust steel construction, a comfortable grip, and the best jaw profile we've seen culminate in the Vampliers Pro. These are the last pair of linesman's pliers you'll ever need to buy.
Like a hammer, screwdriver, and roll of duct tape, a good pair of pliers is one of those tools that everybody - handyman or not - should have in the home. In fact, pliers are considerably more versatile than the aforementioned tools, with a wide variety of uses both in the home and in the workplace.
There are also more varieties of pliers than there are of hammers and screwdrivers, though, and shopping around for a good pair or set of pliers can get confusing quickly. But despite the different types of pliers and jaw shapes, these tools basically all fall into three categories: non-adjustable, adjustable, and locking.
Non-adjustable pliers are probably what you think of when you think of "pliers" - a simple set of pincers with grips. Some may also feature a small sliding joint that lets you widen the jaws a bit.
Adjustable pliers, also called groove- or channel-lock pliers, allow you to greatly widen the distance between the nose heads to suit the object you're working on. Locking pliers, colloquially referred to as "vise grips," are also adjustable to a degree but feature the additional ability to lock into place so you can attach them to something and then let them go without the pliers falling off.
There are further sub-types within these categories that feature different nose and grip designs, but once you've got a basic idea of what you need, narrowing down the right pliers for you isn't so hard. To help you save some time, we've sorted out the five best pliers you can buy, with our picks covering most needs, use cases, and budgets.
Here are the best pliers you can buy:
- Best pliers overall: Vampliers Pro linesman pliers
- Best long nose pliers: Klein long nose pliers
- Best locking pliers: Irwin Vise-Grip locking pliers
- Best adjustable: Knipex Cobra adjustable pliers
- Best pliers set: Channellock 5-plier set
Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.
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