Teng TT440 Mega Bite pliers Set - Review
Pros:
Great price - Roughly £12.00 each if bought on deal
High Quality
Really durable
Nice selection of all types of pliers
Cons:
Water pump pliers perhaps not such a common need
The Teng Set
consists of the following housed in a sturdy box with a moulded inner section, the lid of the box can be removed to facilitate easier and tidier storage and saves on tools looking a mess rolling around in tool kits. If you own more than one set of Teng tools the boxes can also be snapped together to form more of a type of tray which is handy.The Box includes:
6" Pair of Side Cutters
7" Pair of Combination Pliers
8" Pair of long nose pliers
10" Pair of Water pump Pliers
I chose to go for the set with the plastic dipped handles as I always tend to wear gloves when working on the car and i feel that they offer a higher level of grip to the user as the coating has a rough texture which really seems to stick to your hands, the dipped as opposed to the moulded handles (which are also an option) seem to take up less space when working in tight environments. I have included some links below to the two different options just to give an idea. Teng usually offer at least two handle choices with most of their products which I think is a good idea.
- 6" Side Cutters
These are brilliant, they are one of the best reasonably priced pairs of wire cutters I have ever owned. The hinge posses an amazingly smooth motion ad has perfectly ground cutting blades. The cutting of even reinforced braided thermocouple wire offers little resistance leaving a super crisp cut with no excessively squished ends, however as with all straight bladed cutters a small amount of crush is expected, as a tool they are definitely more suited to the smaller wiring jobs such as dealing with common household 1.5mm wires as opposed to full on cables. If its critical that the wires are not damaged then Cable cutters with their crescent blades would be a better choice, I have recently reviewed a pair of Teng Cable Cutters
Here. The pliers can cut through a maximum thickness of 1.6mm piano wire emphasising that its not the wire toughness that really governs their wire cutting ability just the physical jaw dimensions.
- 7" Combination Pliers
These are a good set of basic no nonsense pliers, (combination refers to the pliers having a standard set of serrated jaws with the cutter located closest to the hinge, this is to give the greatest force ratio between the handles and the cutting face). With a bit of force the cutters can slice through anything up to a 1.8mm section of piano wire and as such the cutting face and hinge is a copy of the side cutters just to a larger scale to take the additional load. The jaws are really hard and the serrations provide a good grip on most materials including steel sheets.
As the jaws are so serrated they are can sometimes leave unsightly marks in most materials especially aluminium, to avoid this wrapping the jaws in a loop of masking tape helps to just spread the load slightly and soften the bite.
- 8" Long Nose/ Needle Nose Pliers
These types of pliers are also sometimes referred to as "Snipe Nosed Pliers" but they are basically a set of regular pliers with longer pointed jaws. The jaws have the same serrated appearance as the Combination pliers just with a narrower yet longer profile, the cutters placed behind the jaws are not as tough as the combination pliers set but would still do for trimming thin wires. Although I haven't really ever seen the point in having the cutters on long nose pliers they are useful in a really tight space, although personally I have always found it easier to just use a dedicated pair of cutters as the long jaws tend to be a nuisance when trying to get a wire all the way back to the cutting faces.
A good alternative use I have found for the long nose of these pliers is to provide a better hand hold for pulling old wires out, If instead of wrapping the wire around your hand you secure it in the jaws and wrap it around two hands can then be used to pull the wire much like having a 'T' Handle. This provides more pulling power without any risk of injuring your fingers pulling on thin cables.
- 10" Water Pump Pliers
These are a good set of pliers that provide an especially good grip on large OD (Outside Diameter) pipes, when I occasionally do large pipe work it seems the 'V' in the jaws is perfect for gripping most sections up to about an inch, much larger than this and they just don't seat properly for a good grip. As the teeth are so sharp when using them on all but the toughest pipe they do have a tendency to leave jaw marks and the mess you can make if you slip is astonishing.
I have only really found myself reaching for these in emergency situations where the resulting aesthetic damage caused to the pipe work is of no real concern. For a better fit to avoid slipping on large nuts I always tend to go for either a large adjustable if space allows or a set of pier wrenches similar to these Knipex ones
as they allow for really wide jaw openings but don't have such long handles in comparison. I shall carry out a review of my set at a later date.However for quickly nipping up a fitting or two or gripping an awkward surface these are a good choice.
Conclusion:
As a whole I would highly recommend this Teng TT440 Mega Bite Plier Set
set of pliers due to its ability to meet just about every eventuality apart from possibly highly specialised applications. The pliers are all manufactured to an incredibly high standard from Chrome Vanadium steel and all have a really nice feel in use with super smooth operation. Being Teng the pliers also come with the manufactures lifetime warranty which is useful.I short a great product, I regard my set highly despite the price I paid for them as I view them as a product for life and I think they would make a great gift for anyone who likes there tools.
