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Review on Eastman 45033 Heavy Duty Flaring Aluminum by Ronny Prather

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Poorly made and doesn't work

I bought this tool to flare 1/4" and 3/8" copper tubing for heat pumps. It took me over an hour to make 4 simple connections. We had to keep cutting and remaking the frames over and over again due to stretching, center shifting and squeezing due to the grip not fitting snugly on the flare bar and moving during the frame making. There was a burr on the flare cone that scratched the end of the flare - that's a guaranteed leak. I had to file the burr. The teeth on the inside of the flare bar are so aggressive that they dig deep into the copper surface, creating jagged burrs that also need to be filed before the flare nut can be reattached to the pipe. In 20 years of working in the HVAC industry and regularly making flare connections with minimal problems, I have never seen such useless junk.

Pros
  • This is great
Cons
  • Exchange available