Irwin GrooveLock adjustable pliers are a great value for the money. They’re versatile, the one-button jaw opening width adjustment is far easier than with tongue and groove pliers, and they’re pretty well made.
I didn’t remember when I purchased mine, but looking at my Irwin GrooveLock comparison post from 2012, I see that I bought one (maybe two?) in March of 2007, and a 2pc set in December of 2011. The design might have been changed slightly again from then, I can’t really tell.
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Are these the best pliers money can buy? No. But they’re quite good, and I still have a pair around here somewhere.
Right now, Amazon has a 2pc set on sale as part of their Early Black Friday 2018 tool deals lineup. This set has straight jaws, and you get 8″ and 10″ sizes.
Price: $15
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Over at Lowes, they have the other style of Irwin GrooveLock adjustable pliers on sale, as part of their Early Black Friday 2018 tool deals event. This style features V-groove jaws, and the same button-press and sliding jaw opening adjustment system.
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The V-groove jaw shape comes in handy when gripping round or hex shapes, and the flat section can handle flat or square-shaped objects. The set comes with 8″ and 10″ sizes.
Unless you have a preference for the straight jaw version, I’d say these V-jaw pliers are more versatile for general purpose applications, for use on pipes, fasteners, and other such materials. Also, you should be aware that the pliers have really good gripping power, which also means they can (and likely will) damage more sensitive surfaces. As such, you won’t want to use these pliers on finished surfaces, such as chrome bathroom fixtures.
This is the set I bought, and I’d buy it again in a heartbeat. At $15 for two pliers, it’s a great value.
Price: $15
Nathan
love Vgroove pliers. If you do plumbing – even if only for the diy – get a set. so much more useful and positive grip.
Adam
These were my first upgrade to the traditional channel groove pliers. I think I have 4 pairs of various sizes. I have since bought some Knipex pliers, which yes are of a better quality, but I still finding myself grabbing the Irwins plenty. They are more aggressive on the teeth than all of my other pliers, and on the larger sets, they have a little flex in the handles when really wrenching down on them.
Not exactly the same, but I also got the Milwaukee crescent wrenches that are better than any other I’ve used. If you had to pick up one, I’d recommend the 8” wide jaws. Absolutely no play in the head.
mattd
These were the first push button style adjustable pliers I ever encountered. I new after that that I would never buy channel style adjustables again. They have more positions and stay in place even when the handles are opened all the way. I now own some knipex cobras, but for the price of one knipex you can get 2 of these 2 packs, so I will still recommend them every time.
Jared
These Irwin’s are a good enough deal, but if it was me I would wait for a deal on Channellock brand pliers. They’re just better in my opinion.
For comparison, I picked up the three plier (6, 10 and 12″) & 6-n-1 screwdriver set on sale for $45 Canadian (our dollar is worth 30% less). More, but not way out of the ballpark. I also prefer the channel grooves over the push-buttons on my Knipex pliers in most scenarios.
aerodawg
I absolutely SWORE Channelock brand was the only groove joint pliers worth having till I got some of these in an Irwin set. All my Channelocks have been relegated to the emergency truck toolbox since.
Toolfreak
You can see the design change in the difference between the two images. The top, straight jaw pic shows the earlier pliers with a smoother, glossier finish and printed model number. The bottom, V-groove set has the newer style with roughter, black oxide-ish finish and the model number is stamped.
It might be a minor change but some of the “newer” pliers I’ve seen have been pretty rough – where it looks like the tool itself is made to lesser quality standards, just not finished as well. The jaws are still ok and the handles as well, which might be what really matters, but I still like the older glossy finish since it’s way easier to just wipe the tools clean when they get oily or greasy. The rougher black oxide finish doesn’t clean up as well with a rag or shop towel and you wind up with lint debris all over the tool.
I suppose the rougher finish and stamping is better for tools that are just thrown in a box or bag with other tools and getting banged around, where the glossier finish might get scratched up and the printing eventually being unreadable, but for general use, I still pick out the older style if I ever see a set on the back of the hanger rather than the newer ones.
Also, these are still worth it even if you have the Knipex version – sometimes the wider jaws and larger teeth work well, and Knipex doesn’t have straight jaws, either.
ToolOfTheTrade
I’m pretty sure that we’re more than capable of deciding for ourselves what we want to spend our money on and finding black friday deals on our own if we are interested in doing so. Just about everyone in North America knows about the holiday seasonal deals that ensue Halloween. I’m sure that there’s more interesting subject matter regarding tools that offer more educational value and benefits readers besides an advertising campaign for holiday seasonal sales deals. It really makes for dull and bland subject matter knowing that there’s a plethora of better suited tool related topics that are unrelated to retail to speak upon. In no way am I telling you what to do with what is yours, nor am I intending to exhibit rudeness, but it would be nice to read something other than sales ads for the next two months.
Stuart
10 years of experience in running ToolGuyd, 10 years of server logs, and hundreds if not thousands of comments more or less saying “thanks for bringing this deal to my attention, it helped me” tell me that yes, it’s a good use of my time to post about tool deals.
If you’re not interested in deals, or contributing to discussions about them, the post headlines very clearly identify deal posts from other regular content.
There are going to be lots of deal posts in the next few weeks. There will be tool previews and reviews as well, but immediately before and after Black Friday, deals are what everyone is emailing in and asking for.
Toolfreak
It’s a great time saver to read about specific, hand-picked deals here.
Plus, it’s great if clicks through that buy the tools help the site.
I like reading the reviews, opinions and comments, but it’s also great when a deal comes up and you can get a well-reviewed tool for a nice price.
Popgun42
I like going to Tool Guyd for a quick reference to specials without having to search every web site for best deal. Keep up good work,,,