Knipex ErgoStrip® Universal Stripping Tool Reviews

Video transcript

Hi, it's Dan from Hodgson Electrical. Today, I'm reviewing the Knipex ErgoStrip Tool. On first impressions, the tool seems well built and is made in Germany. This is first time using the tool. And like most men, the instructions went straight in the bin. So let's see how easy it is to use.

To strip the outer sheath, you place the cable in the tool, squeeze, twist, then pull, and the outer sheath comes off very easily. Next to strip back the inner cords, you select your cable size on the blades to the side and repeat the above process.

The best feature I have found is the blade to strip long sections of cable. This is very easily done by placing the cable in the side of the tool with a blade. Apply pressure and draw along the cable, and it will score the outer sheath without damaging the inner cores. This would be particularly useful when making off a long length of FP cable.

Overall, I found this tool to be very handy for flex and FP and will definitely be part of my toolkit from now on. Thanks for watching and I hope you have enjoyed my review. Cheers, Dan from Hodgson Electrical.

Video transcript

Hi, my name's Neil Gargaro from Routley & Lemon Electrical Contractors, and we're going to be taking a look today at the KNIPEX ErgoStrip.

So this the ErgoStrip, it comes left or right-handed. It's very similar in style to the conduit cutter that they do. It's a little catch on the side there, opens up. Same 3-D printed clam-style casing. You can lay the cable inside there and strip using there for the larger ones, and obviously you've got your smaller stripping, 4mm, 2.5, 1.5, 0.8, 0.3, 0.2. 0.2 is the smallest one you can go down to, and then you've got your smaller cable to lay through that one, with a nice little slot on the side there so you can slide the cable straight into.

This could do a variety of different cables. It could do coaxial, so it'll cut the outer sheathing and the inner sheathing without damaging the internals. It could do multicore cable up to about 13mm. Cat5, cat6, and cat7, without destroying any of the internal conductors. Also, it could do solid cable up to about 4mm and multicore cable... Multi-strand cable, should I say, up to about 4mm. So if you've got the cable in the back of the backbox, you slide it around the cable, push it in as far as it'll go, rotate, twist, and pull, and you've pulled the cable straight all the way to the back of the backbox, and so you're only leaving a small amount of insulation in there. I think it frees up a bit more room.

It's a brilliant little tool. I've had it in the tool bag for a couple of weeks now, and the last job that I was just doing, with loads of LED tape, I couldn't do without it. The smaller stranded cable, I was literally pulling and it was pulling the end off and giving a nice clean cut without damaging the inner cores.

So let's take a little look at this in action. So I've got some 4mm Earth. That'll go straight in, fold the clamp, give it a little twist, pull back a little bit on the cable, off. Nice and easy.

Let's do it the other end. Twist, move back a little bit, and off. Is it going to replace your wire strippers in your tool bag? I don't think so, but this is a great addition to have.

So let's take a look at cat7 cable. With this, you open up the clam, slide the cable in, little press, rotate, open up, pull back a little bit, and slide off.

So we've got a slightly smaller piece of flex here off a light fitting. Slide it in the little casing. So you could do really long lengths with this as well. So you rotate slightly, give it little mark, take it off, flip the tool around, and you've got a little stripping tool at the end there. Lay it in, pull, and then you can open up the cable nice and easily and strip without damaging the cable. And the internal conductors in the little clam, bang, bang, bang. Nice and easy.

So we've got a bit of FP. This one's got a hard shell on it. It's quite hard, normally. Use your ringing tool, or you can give it a little knife score on the end. Your ErgoStrip, lay it inside, close the clam, little rotate, and if you want to, you can strip using the little stripping tool, pull all the way down, and bang. Pulls it off nice and easy.

Again, you got the internal conductors. One, Two. Nope, I used the wrong size. Two, three, there we go. Nice and quick. So we've got a piece of 3185 with the heat protected insulation. This one's a multicore cable. Fold it over, rotate a couple of times, pull, done. 1, 2, 3, 4. Sometimes you'll find that the insulation gets stuck on there. Five. Nice and easy.

This one's probably a bit big for this, but it barely fits in the casing. Let's give it a go anyway. So you've got to twist it slightly... There we go, that does it. There's no damage to them. No damage. I don't think it's really designed for this cable, but it's doing it, and that's a bit bigger than 4mm. And it's rubber. Perfect.

So guys, that's a KNIPEX ErgoStrip. Go and get yourself one, great tool to have. And don't forget, if you like these reviews, don't forget to like and subscribe for more Tool Talk videos. Thanks very much for watching.

Video transcript

Hi guys, Expert Trades have sent out another handy wee tool, this time it's a KNIPEX ErgoStrip. Now this is a great wee tool, opens up and cable goes in. I'm going to show you how in a wee second, and does any round cable, strips the end of it, even does your cat cable, and this, like a lot of tools,

which I also find handy, this is right handed. There's also a left handed version. I would normally show you the packet where it says right hand on it, but my dear wife decided it was untidy and threw it out.

But you can get the left handed version, to match your left handed hammer. And your left handed chisel. Left handed brush. Left handed screwdriver. And left handed pen. But for now, lets show you how the right handed version works.

First of all, no not that one. I'm going to start with some standard 1.5 flex. Open it up, stick it in, turn it round. Twist it and break it. Hey, presto.

Look at that as if by magic, stripped. And if you want to, get your right cable size. We can see the markings on the side here which you may actually struggle to see in the camera, but there really is markings on there, I promise you. And we've got 1.5.

So we go to 1.5 and then we strip it. It's that easy. You don't want to use flex, that's fine. A bit of FP. Same thing, put it on, twist it round and strip it. Done, easy. Bit of five core. one mil five core I think. Easy. A bit of four core.

Same again, twist it, strip it, pull it off. nice. Here we've got another piece of small cable, it looks like 1.5 single. Same thing, put it on, twist it, strip it, pull it off.

So if you want to, you can go in, find your size you want to, then pull it off. What else can I do? See what else we can do. What else can we do, lets try some big boy cables.

This time here we're going to strip some high tough. High tough is a little bit different than ordinary cable. As you can see it fits in the stripper quite nicely. So we'll do wee cut here, and then what you'll find inside is a little knife.

So you put it in where you want to start, and pull along and then if you're on a few longer lengths you want to snap it as you go. That will actually cut along the line for you. Easier again. If you want to use it on armoured, go right ahead.

If you want use it for single of course, it works fine. I want to go on to the big boy cables again this time here, one of your tails. Put it on, cut it. Break it off and hey presto.

I know that some boys really hate this. Cut and strip it, nice and easy it will go inside your board. Tails are a bit more awkward to strip as you can see. But that's where the little knife comes in.

And then we just pull off. Oh, get in there. My fingers are a little fiddly today. See, it comes off nice and easy, ready to go in to your main switch.

This has got two ends to it. One which locks in place and the other is spring loaded. This is for the likes of coax cable, which is great. So we do the same thing again, twist it round.

You snap. It helps if it's not really cheap coax, but it does work. Lets use the stripper again as that's what it's used for. Find the knife, cut it and strip it. I've used this before and it worked perfectly the first time with no issues whatsoever.

There we go. I hate coax cable, this is cheap rubbish I'll be honest with you. As you can see it actually strips quite well. It's all quite neat, and if you wanted to strip that too you can.

Let's give it a go. When you're ready, just put your coax in. Pull it off and hey presto, ready to go. Next lets go on to some network cable, this is cat 5.

Put it in, give it a twist and pull it off. There's all your cores ready to go and actually cut perfectly. Let move on to cat 6 tough, I have that much faith in this. You'll have to cut the whole length of it which is a bit risky as I don't like cutting cat cable.

Put it on, pull it which then scores it and should then break open. It should break open, it just doesn't know it yet. There we go, there's your cat 6.
Ready to go. Great little cutters. Very handy. I think that, unlike a lot of other cutters, the cable size doesn't limit it. We have got an awful lot of other cutters that we all use like the CK Strippers.

They just pull the cable apart, no good for bigger cables. Some of us used to carry knives, they don't strip the ends, also not as accurate or as quick. The only problem I have, and it's not a big one, is you have to be very careful when you're actually put on the likes of Flex.

You don't want press down too hard. Same with any other sharp blade you use, press down too hard and you start cutting in to the other cores. This, with practice is as quick as anything else I've used, if not quicker.

It's actually really comfortable to use. I would say you could use all day. If you're stripping cables all day, it's not very exciting job. But hey ho the life of an apprentice and the life of an electrician is always a good one.

But would I recommend it? Oh yes, definitely one for the tool bag. Give it a try. Where's the harm?