Side by Side Comparison of: GB Electrical vs Astro Pneumatic Tool

Crimps as expected, the cutting nose is very well designed for cleaning up the ends nicely to prevent excess, sharp edges on the wire (useful if heat shrinking your crimps to prevent penetration).

Using it to crimp some Anderson Powerpole type terminals. Works well for these (12 gauge size). First you crimp and then you use the all-round opening to bend the crimp back to a perfect round shape so it fits the connector. Much cheaper than the real deal tool for these.
If I did a ton of these, I would probably go for the official tool, but I only do them occasionally, this is perfect for my needs.

Very high quality product

I would give these 10 stars if I could!!!!

I'm no electrician, just a weekend warrior who loves working on his cars. My latest project is my jeep, and I've been hooking up auxiliary lighting, making a fuse and relay box etc.

I've used A TON of crimp on terminals. For the longest time I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I was using some of those all in one stripped/crimper/cutters you get at your local store. I could never get a good crimp. The connectors were falling off after a day or two.

Then I found these bad boys as a suggested item for me. Let me say I haven't had even 1 bad crimp after purchasing these!! Every crimp is rock solid and leaves me feeling good about the connection. They are built very well, no problems with them not being angled right as others have said. I can't believe I went so long without these!
Someone said they aren't good because the crimping surface is so wide. I have used these on several different size/types of crimp connectors and haven't run into any issues. The surface is very wide, but it provides a solid crimp and I haven't damaged any terminals or wires.

The best part is the price! Why buy anything more expensive? These are all you will ever need. Even if I somehow manage to break them which I seriously doubt, I will buy another one in a heartbeat.

I couldn't find any of my three other tools as I must be very disorganized. I read other reviews that said that the nub on the crimper was misaligned as is mine. I thought that alignment issue was small so when I crimped I made sure that the nub was lined up with the slight gap in the connector. Gave the tool a good squeeze and got a great crimp. as opposed to others I found the greater thickness of the tool a plus. in awkward places I have been known to crimp the plastic sleeve on a crimp connector and have to toss the old one. With this little beauty that is not an issue.

When I misplace this I will buy another with no second thoughts.

Easy to use and crimps a wide variety of electrical connections. There is a front and back on the clamps. Color coded so you know which ones to use. Easy change clamps and nice case to hold the whole kit.

The dies change easily, and feel secure. I do wish they were marked somehow so that I knew which die was which, but I'll live with it for the price.

Ruggedly built - doesn't feel cheap even though it s a great value. Check out how much one of the mainstream mfgs charges for similar products - at least 3 times as much!

I ordered these for open barrel terminals on my dirt bike and these crimpers made me look like an experienced technician...but it was only my second time crimping. After attempting to use the standard "blue, yellow, red" crimpers from the hardware store, I decided I would require a specialized tool. I am very particular with quality of product and do not tolerate throw away tools. I'm very impressed with the quality and ease of use. The case is a bonus too.

Great tool, I had to have one of these. I was done with the cheapo ones that come with a set of crimp-on ends. My research led me to this one. I have only used it a handful of times, but every time it has put a perfect crimp on the wire-end I needed atttached. Smooth, easy to change ends, blow mold case to store it all in. How can you loose if you need a high-quality crimper.?

I bought this crimping tool because I have allot of re-wiring to do on my truck. Allot of corroded terminals and connectors so I'm slowly replacing them. I figured I'd splurge and get myself the correct tool to crimp terminals the right way. So far all I've crimped were the female open barrel quick disconnect terminals that I also ordered here from Amazon. This tool has a 1 year warranty from date of purchase, the die's come on and off just like a socket on a ratchet, and all the moving points come lubed. Comes in a nice case and Astro also sells other die's if the ones in the set aren't what you need. The pics I'm posting are my very first time using this tool and they make me look like a pro! Make sure you have a few extra terminals to practice on if your not sure how to crimp it with the tool. Highly recommend this tool.

I used these to punch down some wire tubes with clips for an arcade build. They take a little effort to get a snug fit, but once you get in a groove, it's easy to work these crimpers.

As others have stated, these come with the crimping teeth slightly misaligned. They worked well enough for me to complete the repair that I purchased the for, but I had to redo at least one crimp in order for it to feel secure. Overall, very usable tool for home repairs but professionals should probably skip. After purchasing here, I've seen this tool at the hardware store with the teeth aligned perfectly but at double the cost. The trade off works for me - I'll probably only use this tool a couple times a year at most for minor household repairs.

I bought two of these, one for me and one for a buddy. We're both electricians with 20+ yrs experience. We're both partial to Klein tools, and have always thought of GB as a generic wanna be...

But this crimper is better than just about every pair I've used, even those that cost 3× as much.

The jaws are about 3/8" thick, so it grabs the whole barrel of a spade connector and holds it square all the way through the squeeze - not something every crimper can say.

There are multiple crimps and a cutter at the end of the jaw.

I'm really impressed with these $8.00 crimpers. Oh, by the way...a 2-pack costs more than buying two individually. I don't get that

It is a PRC (mainland) Chinese made product and the finish, unfortunately, is not as nice as my other US or Taiwan (Chinese) made tools. However, the set I received had jaws that are lined up and with proper spacing to properly crimp the various wire connector I'm using in my HVAC class and home repair tasks. The length and balance fits my hand and I'm liking it. It is long enough to give me the leverage to put "good" crimps on connectors. I'm finding I'm using this more than my Ideal crimper, a much nicer and more expensive crimper, because the Ideal is a bit long to maneuver.

Unlike my Ideal brand crimper, it does not have markings identifying the gauge wire for each of the slots. You just need test crimp some connectors to see which works best for the size you are crimping.

I don't use the cutting function of this tool unless my wire cutting tool is not nearby. When I need to cut wire, it cuts ok. Although, not as clean as my Klein wire stripper/cutter or Greenlee diagonals.

If you want nicer finished tool, get the Klein, Greenlee, or Ideal brand. Do expect to pay twice to three time more for those other tools.

Good heavy construction. The cutters on my set at not the greatest, requiring additional effort to clip 16g wire. Since there are no strippers, I use a second tool that has a better cutter on it. This tool will crimp a fitting FOREVER though, with minimal effort. That is what I bought it for. No more snaking a hand in under the dash to tighten a terminal nut and seeing the bare wire end dangling when I finish.
One squeeze crimps the ends tightly, unlike the flat steel stripper/crimpers that require two settings to crimp a fitting and sometimes just manage to flatten it..

Great set for the garage

I mainly purchased these to crimp deutsch closed barrel contacts. They worked great. I would highly recommend these they seem well built and are very versatile with the different sets of jaws they come with.

Real nice crimper. The fit and finish are superb, and this crimper make excellent connections. I've used it with small 1mm connectors up to 45 amp Anderson Power Poles, and once you pick the right jaw it handles them with no problem. I did have a small issue with insulated connectors, but I feel that was due to using a smaller than recommended wire size, and even then they only came loos after some major tugging.If I had one suggestion for improvement, I'd like to see a smoother finish on the jaws to make the completed connecters easier to remove. If you crimp something really hard in here, the best trick I have found is to take some needle nosed pliers, catch the bottom of the end of the connector with the bottom jaw of the pliers, and the top over the crimper jaw, and squeeze a tiny bit.

Really nice kit for DIY. I tried all the cheap thin crimpers and was always disappointed with the result. I always had to double back with some pliers to correct the shape of the crimp. I have not messed up a single crimp with these. Every wire locked in factory tight. No solder needed.The assortment of jaws is nice especially since you do not need any tools to change them out, but they are proprietary. This was a major selling point for me. They work for all sorts of connectors including the famous Anderson Power Pole connectors that are the bomb.PROS: Well made, lot of jaws included, nice big soft grip, high quality machine steel, nice case, adjustable tension, easy release, tool-less quick change, easy to track missing jaws, Super high quality.CONS: Proprietary jaws. Scant instructions. no stripping option.

I'm a professional automotive electrician, so crimpers are one of my top five most used tools. These make excellent quality crimps & are very consistent. The missing star is because they are not available with Weather Pack dies. If those were included or even if I could purchase them separately, these would get that last star.

I recently rewired my 1971 Chevy C-10 and used these to crimp the terminals in the kit I purchased. It had just about every item I needed to do the entire job. I had a few terminals that were too big, but for what I was able to use these for, they work great! It would be nice if it had a release button, in case you mess up and want to pull the terminal out without completely crimping it. If you do that, you have to crimp the terminal until the jaws release. Not a big deal for most items though.

They work just fine for barrel crimps, but had them in the toolbox for a week and started rusting like crazy. No big deal, but still wish they were coated or dipped so I don't have to keep polishing them every other week.

They work but came very roughly finished. Had to go at the edges of the tool with a file to remove all of the built up burr on the edges from factory. Some rust visible on the face as well. Otherwise works as very basic terminal crimpers.

It's not good for cutting wire larger than 10 ga. Crimping works well but too many choices (3) to where to put the connector, and confusing for insulated connectors. When the correct notch is chosen, it makes a nice tight crimp. If you choose the wrong notch, you may penetrate the insulation on the connector. Works best for all non-insulated connectors.

quality tool, but very wide. when it comes to crimping on a spade connector, I had difficulty trying not the get the wire pinched in another part of the tool. it is great for unions and butt-splicing, but not an all in 1 for sure.

Not a bad crimper, but not the best. One jaw is slightly misaligned from the other, but it doesn't seem to impact functionality. I ended up upgrading to a ratcheting style because this style is difficult to make small crimps (e.g. 26ga into a 1mm pin) with, and if you try to use it with Andersen power poles, it will work, but requires some fiddling.

Easy to switch out jaws, but they have very sad documentation (none) on how to correctly use the different wire inserts with thier crimpers, it would have been real nice if they had, too many way to put inserts/wire in the wrong way, hense one less star....They have two open barrel sets that are too similar with each other, what set to use?I did an open barrel with 10 awg wire, so far did not come out too well, like the crimper was too small for inserts... I used the 10 awg and 8 awg positions, the inserts only had crimp for the wire not the wire cover. The crimper will do both at the same time, again no instructions how to correctly position everything.... Not the best tool for solar MC connector, I need a set of jaws with only one (wire only, not insulation) finger crimp set!Caution I used the insulation terminal jaws and it was slightly misaligned and it cracked a chip off one of the high points! Now the tip of jaw is starting to spread out as in picture! They should have made space for a screw to stop the spread! Had to take a star away for this....But the crimps look more professional now...

Very Nice & Ease of use

The open barrel dies just seem not to work for F crimps(oem, german style, factory style) they come out really crappy. I'm not sure what they mean with D-sub? and the insulated cord end terminals, those dies look weird. F-crimps are popular by germans oem.

Too thick. I've you have to wire a NC block, these suck. Get a thinner pair, these are too wide. Also the cutters are useless. I tried to cut some stranded wire, solid wire(12, 14, and 10, 12) and these don't do the trick. I have to exert a lot of effort to cut something with these. I would be carrying these all the time, but they don't do the job.

I should have heeded the other reviews that said the quality had dropped from older versions. A friend who is a pro mechanic suggested these, his was the old version. The casting on my pair is poor- and some edges are bent over enough that the crimping leaves cuts. It also is not clear which part to use for different gauges. I will be returning this and happily using the ratcheting crimper I bought along with this.

I have purchased two of these and in a year of weekly use both have failed, One wore out and got loose. the other the cutting tip broke up while cutting 12 gauge copper wire. GB is an Ok brand. This is made in china and is not tradesman quality.

Decent well-made crimper, but as is the case with many of the low end cutters, they are twice as thick at the tip as a good pair of T&B or Klein crimpers. With the T&B or Klein crimpers, you get used to that thin end cutter to be able to get into tight places, but these cutters will not do it. Great for an extra pair in the toolbox, but you will always go for the T&B or Klein when you are working on something that needs a cutter in tight places, which happens to be quite often in electrical work. So fine for "bench work" or crimping loose wires, but not so great when working on wires inside anything [a car, electrical box, etc.].

This won't bother most and may seem insignificant, but I bought this set compared to others for the handle style. I much prefer the old school style handle coatings over the cheap plastic over-mold used on most today. I was surprised to find that the picture shown on this item is not the correct set of pliers. Please refer to the image attached for the ocrrect style or see GB's website:

http://www.gardnerbender.com/en/gs-388

Also as others mentioned the machining of the tip is not perfect. There is some slight misalignment of the crimping mating surfaces. That being said I don't think there is relay any performance loss or affect on its use at all. After all it is an $8 set of pliers.

The crimps did not hold wire in place. I modified the adapters to work better, but got nowhere. I ended up buying the Snap-On crimp set to fit on this tool, and now it works better. However, sometimes the jaws would separate a little bit when I would crimp 10AWG wire, which would cause the crimp to miss & bend the terminals. So I ended up welding the jaws together. Now it works all right.If I would do it over, I would purchase a quality crimpers directly from Snap-On that wouldn't need any modifications to work at it's best.

This is a quality product. The problem is that the jaws are too wide, wider than the space between the pin and the cable shield and you can't crimp the correct section properly, specially on the smallest terminal jaws. I had to grind 3/16" off on 3 sets of jaws in order to make them work.

Horrible. It worked once. The second time I went to use it (a couple of months later) the handle snapped while crimping! That's right, the actual steel (or whatever weak metal they used to make this) snapped in half right about where the red insulation ends. I can't believe that so little pressure such as crimping a connect would snap steel in half! I know it has 1 year warranty, but it's not even worth the shipping to get another one. Stay away!

The crimping slots are out of alignment. Will have to return.

As many others have commented, the crimping jaws do not align. The weird part is that when viewed from one side the jaws line up, but from the other side they are 1/16 inch offset, so looks like the jaws were cut at an angle rather than straight. I guess if you get a good pair they would be fine, but due to poor quality control many will receive defective ones.

The Tongue and channel are not centered on either the large or small crimp area. This is one of the poorest tools made. Also, the cutter won't even cut a plastic tie wrap. It just "gums it a mean one". I have let Gardner Bender know, have ordered a different crimper from Amazon - and that one worked! Oerder the Vise grip - Irwin Industrial Tools 2078310 10-Inch Crimper instead.

I really love the idea of carrying less tools around so combining a wire cutter with a crimper tool sounded like a really good idea to me. I read most of the reviews and knew about the alignment problem, but what were the chances I would get one? Apparently pretty high because I received my order and sure enough the jaws was out of alignment poor quality control. Thank you Amazon for painless return. Oh well what's a guy gonna do? So I am still looking...

The crimping tool does work ok, but it does not work well with insulated terminal lugs. The jaws get stuck and will not release causing the failure of the crimp. I would not recommend this tool for a critical job that requires precise crimps.

Not too happy with this product has it a little while and have not really used it until this past week and they broke after day too

I work as an industrial electrician and I work on mechinery that has a lot of vibration. Things come lose if they aren't tight. I've read the reviews and recently bought this tool. The tool is clibrated a little lose but you can adjust the tension on the tool. It seems it slips and loses its tension and it's very inconsistent in how well it crimps. It's to the point that I have to double and triple check my crimps. Very disapponting being that this looks and feels like a nice tool. Jaws are easy to change as well but if it doesn't crimp right it's not any good. I've made probably 75 to 100 crimps with this and I've only had it a week and a half.