I swore by $80 Knipex pliers, then a $12 pair from a pawn shop in Reno did the same job

Betty Murphy · 2026-10-09T20:05:05.438753+00:00

For years I would not touch anything but my Knipex Cobra pliers for pulling stuck screws and grabbing stripped standoffs on old laptops. I paid $78 for them at a supply house in Sacramento back in 2019 and told every new tech on the bench they were worth every penny. Then three weeks ago my main pair walked off a job site in Reno and I was stuck with a $12 no name pair from a pawn shop down the street. I figured they would round off on the first stuck screw, but they bit down on a rusted Torx screw in a Dell chassis that my Knipex had actually slipped on twice. I used them for six straight days on intake machines and they never spread, never chipped, and the jaw teeth still look fine. Now I am not saying the cheap ones are better, but I am saying the gap is way smaller than I told people for four years. Has anyone else had a cheap tool outlast a pricey one on the bench, or did I just get a lucky pair from that pawn shop?

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I swore by $80 Knipex pliers, then a $12 pair from a pawn shop in Reno did the same job | Computer Technicians - Topic Shares