Cheap, hydraulic wire crimpers, any good!

[Skylark]

Any experience of using £20 or thereabouts, hydraulic crimpers, widely available on the interweb. I’m looking for occasional use.

For example

 

[Poignard]

A set like that worked fine for me when I did this job:

 

[Baggywrinkle]

I used a set like that for my complete battery and solar system .... they lasted the course and I cut open a crimp with a hacksaw to see how good it was and it was excellent. Don't get cheap terminals of questionable heritage though, or cheap wire as the crimp closes until the dies touch ... if the terminals and wire are cheap knock-off then they may not be crimped properly.

 

[KompetentKrew]

They're adequate. I have used @GHA's pair and the largest pair of dies don't quite crimp properly - you have to use the next size down; and it's a bit less neat than the correctly-sized ones.

 

[Rappey]

I have a cheap chinese set. Its similar to pic but bigger. I think it goes up to 64mm and a claimed 17 tons.
Its effortless even doing stainless and does a great job.

 

[colind3782]

Mine are great and I've used them a lot over the last year crimping up to 50mm.

 

[LiftyK]

Same here. Very pleased with mine.

 

[Daverw]

Mine the same, very pleased with them had them for about 4 years now, the dies fit better with quality lugs

 

[pmagowan]

I got “one up” from the cheapest sets IIRC around 50€ and it has been excellent. Look for reviews more than the first ten or so which often appear to be friends of the manufacturer/retailer. Having the ability to crimp your own battery cables really makes for a neat job. Don’t forget some good glued heat shrink.

 

[MikeBz]

I bought a set like that when I installed new batteries and an A2B charger, it did the job.

 

[PaulRainbow]

As others have said, they work fine if you use good quality terminals.

 

[Ian_Edwards]

I have set exactly like the one in the photo.
The work, effortlessly to use, and really speed up the work flow, you can cut, crimp and fit. No more measuring wire length, then going to the electrical workshop.
I used them when fitting a LiFePO4 battery bank. I haven’t used them much since, but they have been loaned to other owners, and they still work perfectly.

 

[lustyd]

Same experience for me. Have crimped up to the largest crimp and down to the smallest and all good when dies and terminals match.
They are harder to use than they look, being heavy and needing control of the wire, terminal, handle and pump simultaneously but it’s an easy enough process to get on top of.

 

[Daverw]

Just to add, I originally bought the larger model as I thought this would be better, but this proved wrong as it was too large and heavy to use where as the smaller one you can use with one hand to get it started

I did have a small oil leak from the little side valve, but this was soon sorted by replacing the little o ring and topping up the oil tank which just unscrews

 

[john_morris_uk]

I’ve got that exact set. It’s worked very well but they started to leak hydraulic fluid. I’ve had to top them up and put up with the mess…Not worth buying new ones for the occasional work they do. Maybe I was just unlucky with mine.

 

[Neeves]

Are cheap lever, sort of double lever, crimpers/swagers not countenanced?

Jonathan

 

[Sea Change]

Another happy user here, again mine is one size up from that. I used mine extensively when building my lithium system.

I've found that it's sometimes worth dropping a size on one or both dies to ensure a really tight crimp. It's not as neat, but I'd much rather know that the lug isn't going to come off!

 

[justanothersailboat]

Are cheap lever, sort of double lever, crimpers/swagers not countenanced?

Jonathan

There are indeed lever crimps that do a good job on wire up to about 50mm.sq. and the corresponding tube fittings, but they are more expensive than the hydraulic ones! Maybe there are cheaper ones that are ok, but I didn't run into any. The low price of good-enough hydraulics now is crazy.

 

[gregcope]

Are cheap lever, sort of double lever, crimpers/swagers not countenanced?

Jonathan

I have had both. Would use hydralic as my double level crimps became lose and made an ugly crimp.

I have opened two crimps for testing. Really tight/gasstight crimp is made by the hydraulic set. This is using oceanflex cable and Klauke crimp terminals.

 

[justanothersailboat]

Double level crimps that become loose and crimp ugly are definitely not up to scratch! Not sure if this really helps, but I only accept ones that are the same size (hence same level of squeeze) and are neat uniform shapes. Agree it's not a bad idea to saw one through to check, but the materials are expensive enough to mean I only do that if I make a mistake, and I very rarely make those particular mistakes.