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Independent Tool Review
by Peter Brett - Dec. 07 / Jan. 08
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Bigmouth!
Irega Adjustables from Tools of the Trade
Cheap adjustable spanners are, in my experience, a nightmare to use. The adjustment always slips, the jaws are soft and skinned knuckles are the most likely outcome of any encounter. So this is established:- that more expensive spanners from reputable makers are generally ten times better to use and do the job for which they were intended. But they too have limitations. Like ordinary spanners, they come in a range of sizes and jaw widths and often users find themselves having to buy a few adjustables to cover the range they need. This is particularly true for trades like plumbers and gasfitters where the nuts they need to tackle are of odd and unpredictable sizes from Imperial to metric and back again, and where the working conditions are not ideal. It is not unusual to find a beautifully rust-encrusted nut behind a network of pipes with barely enough room to fit a couple of fingers let alone a spanner. Imagine then the frustration of having an adjustable spanner of the right size to fit the confined space, and yet without the jaw size needed to cope with the size of nut.

The Irega SWO range of adjustable spanners was conceived and designed to cope with just these sorts of situations. Standard Irega adjustables already have an established market position as robust, well-made tools. These Spanish-made spanners are forged from high quality Chrome Vanadium steel (the jaws don’t bend on you) and come in a range of sizes. With the SWO range, comes the answer for those professionals, and probably a goodly number of DIYers too, who want a larger jaw size without the extra bulk associated with a larger spanner.

First of all the SWO bit. It simply stands for “Super Wide Opening”, which means that the average jaw size will open about 78% wider than the standard size jaws of the average adjustable. For example, a standard 150mm long adjustable spanner has a jaw opening of about 20mm. The 150mm SWO spanner opens to a massive 35mm - nearly double. In fact it is about the same jaw opening as a standard 300mm long spanner which would be quite a lot bulkier. There are some differences to notice though. Larger capacity jaws obviously need to be a bit more beefy than standard jaws as they are more likely to be used on larger nuts and bolts. But the difference is not a doubling of the bulk. The jaws are still slim enough, at 13mm thick at their widest point, to be inserted into quite small spaces. The user still gets a well-forged handle and jaws, with traditional black finish and ribbed thumbwheel to adjust the size of the spanner. The size markings, in millimetres, are clearly etched on the jaws. On the samples I had, there was very little play on the sliding action and the jaws remained in parallel all the way down the slide. For some users the downside might be that, when fully closed, the adjusting mechanism sticks out of the curved fixed jaw of the spanner. Not much of a downside when you consider that the spanner is going to be opened to be used.

On many tools these days we, the users, expect a nicely grippy handle. The Irega SWO range provides just such things. The handles are indeed nicely shaped and grippy, with a hole at the end of the handle for hanging storage. The difference form many other spanners is that the Irega handle, should it become damaged or broken, can be replaced as good as new quite easily. To do this, the plastic insert is removed, the rubber handle slid off, a new one slid on and the inserts replaced. Even if the handles are not replaced, the traditional ribbed steel handle underneath the rubberized handle will ensure that the spanner can still be used.

Testing the spanners was a bit of a challenge for me as I tried to find a few realistic situations. Plumbing was the obvious application because I am not really qualified to tackle boilers and gas fittings … The nuts on radiators are an obvious target for these spanners. I know from experience that many plumbers use adjustable slip joint pliers to tackle these nuts. While these pliers are handy and effective, they are not ideal because they can slip and round off the soft brass and chromed fittings. With the larger capacity jaws, even the large 30mm sized nuts at the sides of radiators can be loosened. I found the fit to be tight and the jaws did not loosen on the nuts in use, minimizing any slip or round-over of the nuts. The size of the spanner itself was also an advantage because it was possible to get close to the wall or closer behind the radiator to get purchase on the nut. Sometimes the angle of the jaws on slip-joint pliers means that the handles can be too close to the floor or the head can touch the wall behind. With an adjustable spanner, that is not usually a problem that arises. A couple of plumbers who I spoke to agreed that the adjustable spanner was a solution to this problem, but only tended to reach for the adjustable spanner (and they all had at least two in their toolbags) when the slip-joint pliers didn’t work. Some things you can change, sometimes you just go with the flow … I also found the spanners useful when doing a couple of odd jobs around some of my woodworking machinery. The big flat steel spanners usually supplied to cope with the arbor nuts of a circular saw, for example, are usually one-use wonders. After a few uses, either the nut or the spanner are hopelessly out of shape and changing the saw blade is a job unlikely to happen until it is utterly blunt. With a compact sized adjustable with large jaws the solution is easy because you can get into the limited space usually allowed for in the machine carcass.

Without the quality and robustness of manufacture, a larger jawed adjustable spanner would be just another failed adjustable. But the Irega range has the quality of manufacture, ease of adjustment and precision to make real use of the SWO feature and is therefore worth a look. It could possibly become more popular than standard sized adjustables.
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