Ratings & Reviews for IRWIN Vise-grip Wire strippers

It looked so promising

After a lot of research (Google and Youtube reviews) and wanting to upgrade from a pocket knife, I chose these IRWIN Vise-Grip Wire Strippers. Based upon my prior experience with IRWIN tools, I was looking forward to many years of use. However, after removing them from the package, I put them straight to work on some simple 18 ga speaker wire! What a disappointment. The mechanism that is suppose to secure the wire for the stipping side did a very poor job at securing the wire insulation. Th...

Disappointing tool

I just bought two of these tools and plan to return them. The jaw will not securely hold the wire. The wires just slip through the jaw or slip thru the cutting side. Please someone show me how to use this tool. I've been stripping wires for years with competitive units and never had issues.

Good as far as it goes

Doing work on rewiring lighting in a church hall, my old stripper gave out so I thought I would give this a try. Was doing good on 14 & 12 gauge solid wire, and on 12 gauge stranded, but when I hit the fluorescent lighting it wouldn't strip the 18 gauge wire, even though it's supposed to be able to do 20 gauge.

Cheaply made broke after 1 month of use

A piece of metal from one of these stripper arms broke off. Making it unable to strip wire anymore. The things are darn near brand new when they broke.

Saves time!

These work really well. The main disadvantage I experienced compared to other wirestrippers is they don't do well with a short wire or in a cramped space.

Poor quality - not what was expected from Irwin

I used this tool for a few minutes before I realized it can't strip indoor ROMEX wire. It just gnaws at the wire chewing the surface up a bit. It did work when I cut two inches in a couple of times but never at the 1/2 inch length where it always slips off. I can't justify stripping two inches of wire just to shorten it to 1/2" 'sometimes'. Pretty poor tool. I'm returning it to the seller for a refund. All my other wire strippers work really well with all wire types.

Great when you need speed

I've tried a few competitors of this type of adjusting stripper and they all were bad over all or had bad functions. These are the "bees knees" one you get the feel for them and you adjust them for whatever you're doing. The cutters cut great and no need to cut twice to get through. I have stripped multiple fine stranded conductors at once, fine solid conductors and standard romex of all sizes and they all strip perfectly. Thet don't mangle the wire where it grips, even tiny conductors with te...

Strip that wire!

Strips wire like a champ. Comfortable to use even though I'm left-handed.

Probably good crimpers

These kind of wire stripper only work good for low voltage wiring under 50 volts not a big fan of them I’m a sparky and i love my old school Klein stripper these are now going to my home tools for low voltage projects I do love your ( channel lock)trade name pliers by Irwin though they work great!

Perfect Wire Stripper

I had a similar one by another brand. It held up quite well but it is starting to give out. This Wire Stripper is Very Well Made, much better than my old brand. It’s a joy to use it. I’m very happy with it. Works perfectly every time.

Doesn't work

The one I purchased does not work. The left side just slips and does not grip the wire. I tried to adjust and can get to actually strip the wire once or twice out of 10 tries. This is really disappointing as I have always had great luck with other Vise-Grip products but this product is not worth the effort it takes to make it work.

Sometimes it works

This only works less than half the time for me. The rest of the time it just slips. It could be because I'm working with NM (Romex) that is 20 - 45 years old, but still, it's pretty useless.