Lee wrote in, asking for small diameter plastic pipe cutter recommendations. He’s looking to cut a lot of ABS and PVC garden hoses (irrigation pipes?), roughly 1.5″ in diameter.
My instinct is to suggest ratcheting PVC cutters. Do you agree? Disagree? Which cutters would you recommend for cutting smaller diameter PVC and hard plastic (such as ABS) piping?
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Lee asked:
Currently I am working on a project which involves lots of gardening hose, ABS & PVC pipes. (roughly 1.5in or smaller)
Do you have any recommendation on those hose cutter?
I’ve been using a no-name ratcheting PVC cutter for a while now, and it’s held up well. I don’t cut PVC pipes very regularly, but when I do, I often have to make a dozen or two cuts, rather than just a couple.
If I had to replace my PVC cutters, which I bought at the local home improvement center, I’d go with the Tekton ratcheting cutters. It’s just $12.51 at Amazon right now, which is a fairly decent price.
Why Tekton? They’ve been coming out with better products in recent years, and while there are still some so-so tools under their label, their customer service is intent on taking care of any problems.
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If I wanted something possibly more durable, possibly easier to use, or one that possibly cuts cleaner, I’d look towards these Ridgid ratchet-action cutters. At nearly $53, it had better be a superior cutter in every way.
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A few years ago I bought a pair of Ridgid cutters that were said to be suitable for cutting PVC pipe. You can find them for $16 via Amazon, but I bought mine locally and the product card made them seem more appealing than I would find them to be now. They really stunk for cutting PVC pipe, even small diameter thin-walled stuff.
I’d stay away from non-ratcheting cutters. Ratcheting PVC cutters are the easiest to use, at least at the inexpensive and non-powered side of things.
Non-ratcheting cutters are usually meant for cutting soft tubing. And if you are cutting soft tubing, maybe even garden hose – I haven’t tried it – then read up on what we said about soft tubing cutters.
John
Ratcheting cutters is definitely the way to go. I used a pair similar to the Husky ones linked below to make dozens of cuts in HDPE pipe, PVC pipe, and heavy duty plastic reinforced rubber hose (think garden hose on steroids) this spring when I replaced lines between vaults and in a groundwater treatment plant. They say 1 1/4″ capacity but we were able to coax a few cuts on softer 1 1/2″ material out of them too. My only complaint was that it was very easy to get a crooked cut if you weren’t paying attention since the body of the tool is quite narrow not giving you a built in way to square the tool to the pipe or hose being cut.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-1-1-4-in-All-Purpose-Ratcheting-Cutter-70165/205183063
Ray
I picked up the General brand ratcheting cutters at the local hardware store, they came with an extra blade and have been holding up well for work on 3/4″ CPVC cutting for me. They ran me $30
RocketTech
I have the Ridgid PVC cutters you have pictured. They are a snap to use with easy, tool-less blade change and allows the blade to be pushed down to contact smaller diameters, then ratchet to cut. I don’t know if they are ~$36 better than Tektons, but they are solid.
Chris Pyfer
Rothenberger are top end. Non ratcheting cutters are best for PEX and soft tubing.
Adam
We use a pair from Apollo at work. They theoretically go up to 2″, but we rarely cut anything that large.
We’ve managed to break several of the Ace-brand $12 models, and we’re on our second pair of the Apollos, so we may well be stepping up to the Ridgid ones soon.
Ben
I’ve been a landscape contractor for twenty plus years and install many irrigation systems over my years here in beautiful California.we use victor pipe cutters and any irrigation store sells them.you can even replace the blades on them.now even corona tools has a new pair of pipe cutters,you can buy on amazon
fred
We had a variety of shear-type plastic pipe cutters – purchased over the years from Greenlee and Ridgid. Our largest capacity ones were from Wheeler Rex – available at Amazon :
http://www.amazon.com/Wheeler-Rex-7290-Super-Snipper/dp/B001A047YY
It seems a bit pricey since an old inventory says we paid $210 to 2 of them in 2013 – maybe they can be found cheaper elsewhere.
Brent
I have used cutters that look the Tekton, bought at Lowe’s or Home Depot. I think my brother and I broke one or two of them installing his sprinkler system in his yard. The casted metal parts break at the ratcheting points.
fred
Sorry about not including this in my first response – but looked back at the question and saw “PVC”
You may know that some manufacturers do not recommend ratchet shear-type cutters for use on PCV and CPVC pipe that will be used with solvent welded connections. The issue is that using this style cutter can result in producing hairline fractures in the pipe – resulting in loss of pressure integrity. Reed – for one – suggest using wheel type cutter for this application.
Ryan
Well as a plumber myself I can tell you every plumber I know use ratcheting pipe cutters….and yes they can cause you to crack your pipe….pvc and cpvc does get very brittle but you have to remember cpvc cleaner dosnt just clean the pipe it softness it as well….
Seb
We use a lot of irl tubing for mechanical protection when installing wired alarm systems (irl = isolation rigid linéaire, linear rigid isolation, aka pic tubing :)).
One of my older workmate introduced me to the virax brand, and I haven’t looked back, their ratcheting cutter is indestructible, my colleague as used one almost daily for the past ten years.
Dunno if the brand is available for you, but if you are in Europe I warmly recommend you take a look.
Seb
http://www.virax.com/index.php/en/p/34087/coupe-tube-plastique-materiaux-composites/coupe-tube-plastique-pc-32-32-mm
Forgot to show the stuff
Ken
I use non-ratcheting shears on PEX and other small diameter soft tubing and use Ridgid ratcheting cutters for PVC up to 1″.
Above 1″ I don’t like the stress imposed on the pipe by shears, as Fred mentioned in his comment, the possibility of hairline fractures is there. PVC above 1″ I use a 7-1/4″ or 10″ miter saw that I have on the jobsite. I deburr with 80-grit emery cloth. There are PVC deburring tools, some are expensive and not all are easy to use, especially on the outside edge.
Bruce
Got this one several months ago. Literally cuts PVC like a Jedi light sabre ! ?
Bruce
Sorry forgot to put a link:
http://www.knipex.com/index.php?id=1216&L=1&page=art_detail&isMobile=&parentID=1369&groupID=1410&artID=216
Matt
Chop saw. Just did a ton of 1″ through 4″ PVC and ABS, made two cuts with a ratcheting cutter and all the rest with the chop saw. Perfect cut every time.
Dillon
4″ grinder with metal cutting blade. Make yourself a little wood block with a V-groove and you can set the pipe in this, then cut with the grinder perpendicular to the groove and turn the pipe like a lathe. Perfect cut everytime.
will
we use the tekton and the ridged ratchet cutters to cut gas pipe and roll duct at work and while the tekton cutters are fine they do wear out and become finicky after heavy use. Mind you this is thousands of cuts and being tossed around in the dirt. The Ridgids have been superb so far.
mike aka Fazzman
I have an el cheapo HDX branded one from home depot,works pretty well for a low cost.
fred
Glad yours worked for you. The HDX cutter gets very mixed reviews on the Home Depot website – some 1 star ratings saying that the tool either did not work brand-new – or failed soon after use. I’ve looked at some HDX branded products – like this one (UPC 6953527700783) and they seem to come from various different sources. This one (by its UPC ) comes by way of Shanghai Chan Yu Trading Ltd.
That’s not to say all HDX-branded products are junk. I bought a HDX branded sponge mop (UPC 071798700205) that was made by Quickie Manufacturing in the USA – that has been holding up pretty well.
Jimmie
I have the Ridgid cutters you mentioned. I use them for making repairs and modifications to my drip irrigation system which mostly involves poly tubing but occasionally I’ll need to cut 1″ PVC.
Poly tubing is pretty soft so these cutters work fine for it. They don’t work so well with PVC which is much harder. The blade somewhat flexible so it tends to deflect when cutting PVC. The result is that it’s pretty hard to get a good square cut. Also, I wouldn’t want to cut PVC bigger than 1″ with these.
If I needed to cut PVC on a more regular basis, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy some more robust cutters.
Jimmie
Followup to my own post. I should have said that I owned the $16 non-ratcheting Ridgid cutters that were mentioned in the article…
Mike Papero
I live on a hill, and have a fairly extensive sprinkler system. I spend a couple hours a month fixing or rearranging the system. I cut PVC pipe ranging from 1/2″ to 1 1/4″.
I have used the ratcheting cutters, from the least inexpensive HF to the expensive
($30.00) ones at HD. With me at least, the blades a prone to chip, and not being a professional, my hands get tired after four or five cuts. I use the Milwakee PVC battery operated shear. A bit heavy and a bit pricey, but the problem of tired hands is gone. The battery is good for about 100 cuts before recharge….
Callum
I have these Spanish made ratchet cutters http://www.superego.com.au/product/25567 and they are easily the best ones I’ve used…a little pricey at $130AUD but you get what you pay for.
They actually make the cutters for rothenberger (another famous brand name) and then they are rebranded.
Steven
Milwaukee m12 pvc shear. Period.
fastest and cleanest cut. Cuts 2″636 like butter. Is the perfect tool for tight spots or doing fixture drains.
Anything bigger than two, skill saw, than sawzall
Derek
I like to use my Bosch 12v recip saw with a fine blade. Angle grinder also works well. I’m curious about the ratcheting PVC cutters but I also saw a guy shatter a 15 year old pipe, twice, while trying to do a splice. They probably work fine for new installs.
Victor
As a sprinkler fitter we use MCC pvc ratchet cutters. We make thousands of cuts in sch 40 cpvc and rarely have a problem. Blades last a long time. The only cutters we buy for our installers.
http://www.mccusainc.com/Tools/PVC-Pipe-Cutters.htm
Nick
I have used a number of cutters. If you are using a ratchet style cutters on brittle pvc or cpvc you and spin the cutter around the pipe on the first and second click when it clamps on and basically score the pipe. Then it is basically scored and less likely to crack. A sharp blade also made a a big difference.
Nowadays we just use a small cordless circular saw to cut the pipe unless it is in an impossible to reach spot. For a lot of cutting we use a portable chop saw.