IDL Tools T5 (Lynn's $10 Challenge)

[Lynn LeFey]

This tool review is part of a $10 Tool Challenge, to see what the best tools I could find for $10 with shipping and tax included would be. Here's the thread to the main challenge.
https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,75705.0.html

This tool cost $9.38 brand new on ebay.
It weighs 38g, or 1.34oz, and is made of (presumably stainless) steel with matte finish.

Here's a pic of this deceptively simple-looking tool.


And yeah, that's it. A plier head, and the arms form phillips and flathead drivers. When closed, the back of the plier head forms a place to lock in a keyring.



I will give it the same knock I had for its bigger brother, the IDL T10. When you put it directly on a keyring, it sits perpendicular to the ring. The fact that it's slim in one dimension almost doesn't matter, because it's wide in the other dimension. However, adding another smaller split ring to put it on solves this... but then it takes up a lot of the circumference of the main keyring and... it's just kind of a 'pick your poison' issue. But just a small issue, if you planned to keychain carry.

I have read others discuss the fact that the tool will come open while on a keychain, and fall off. I can't speak to that, but will say that AS RECEIVED, brand new... that thing is NOT coming open by accident. It almost wouldn't come open intentionally. It is held shut by little 'tabs', bumps really, that lock into detents inside the tool joint. Here's a look at those bumps.


It IS entirely possible that those wear down with use, and make retention in closed position less secure. I can't speak to that with authority, as this tool is new. It's also possible that the bumps were made more pronounced after feedback. I don't know.

Why might anyone ever want such a tool? Well... here it is in the company of a few other tools and objects...


Upper right is a Leatherman Micra. Below it is a 58mm Victorinox. Directly above it is the IDL T10, it's 'big brother'. Then a Fauxton light, mini bic, and U.S. Quarter for scale. Do you notice how amazingly SMALL that thing is? And what doesn't show up in the picture is that it is very slim vertically. 'Flat', I guess.

Oh, and did I mention it was TSA compliant, so you can take it on flights with you?

I have owned the larger IDL T10 for a while, and to date, it HAD BEEN the best very small pair of pliers I could find. Just to be completely honest, this means I'm pretty positively predisposed to this tool before testing begins.

This tool was previously produced by SeberTech, as the SeberTool M2, and the IDL T10 was the M4. I have been told that the Sebertech versions were made to higher quality standards, but I've never owned a SeberTool, so can't really speak to that.

Here's the entry in the Multitool Wiki on SeberTech / IDL Tools.
http://wiki.multitool.org/tiki-index.php?page=SeberTech


Review on the function of the tool will begin shortly.

[Lynn LeFey]

The pliers.

This is really the bulk of this review. If you're going to get this tool, it's because you want a really small set of pliers. Well... how do they do as pliers?

Here's a pic of the tool in a lineup of other similar tools. Left to right, Leatherman Juice, Leatherman Squirt, The IDL T5 being reviewed, the IDL T10, and finally pliers on a 91mm Victorinox Swiss Army Knife.



Here's a look at those same tools from the side view.


The important thing to note here is that the pliers on both of the IDL tools are made of thicker material than even the Leatherman Juice.
This has a strong impact on their performance, in many aspects.

I think the pictured tools are a good representation of what it's up against for real competition. But since the IDL T10 is a close relative, I'll mostly leave it out of the discussion, since their pliers are very similar in how they perform. For the most part, the Juice is too large for comparison, and the Victorinox is too small. That leaves the Leatherman Squirt as the best point of comparison.

So let's get some standard stuff out of the way. How does the tool work on screws? Here it is versus the self-tapping screws in my house's ventilation ductwork.


It worked pretty well, particularly in grabbing a flush screw head. The only issue is the bigger the screw, the wider the handle splay, causing problems getting a good grip on the tool. Kind of like...


That. Yeah. Surprisingly, it will get a good grip and turn a screw convincingly of this size, but that's a WIDE handle splay you're dealing with. And i think this is really pushing the uppermost size screw it would handle. Honestly, though, you can only expect so much from a tiny keychain tool.

I was talking about grabbing flush screws, and this is what i mean, compared to a Leatherman Squirt...


The fact that the plier head is not flush with the handles on the Squirt means that some screws might be tricky to get a hold of, where the IDL T5 did it effortlessly.

One of the things I use my small pliers for is shaping wire, very often paperclips, for various functions. How did it do? Here it is compared to the Squirt making a tight coil/ring.


Mm... not nearly as good at the fine shaping as the Squirt.

Here's a pic, looking at the nose of the IDL T5 (right), the Squirt (Middle), and Leatherman Juice (left). Even the Juice is going to be better at making tight loops in stiff wire. I guess you kind of have to think of the IDL tools as the blunt-nose pliers of the keychain world.


Another task you might find yourself needing to accomplish is wrapping wire around an object, then needing to cinch that wire tight. Here it is versus the Squirt, tightening the wire (steel paperclip) until it snaps.


Both will do it, but only the IDL T5 will do it nose-on. In fact, any twisting you do with pliers nose-on is best done with the IDL pliers. They have less flex in them than even the Juice, a much larger tool. I tried tightening the wire nose-on with the Squirt, and feared breakage or permanent deformation, then tried the Juice, and was shocked how easily THEY flexed. Then, absolutely no flex in the IDL T5. I mean, literally, NONE that I could detect.

This is a trait that I noticed in my IDL T10. It's THE thing about them that makes me appreciate them. They are the most 'robust' keychain pliers I've ever encountered.

Okay, how is the IDL T5 compared to the Leatherman Squirt for wire cutting? I put them both against 12-gauge house wiring, first to strip the coating, then to cut the wire.


The Squirt was embarrassingly better at both portions of this task. I don't have any stranded wire to cut, but the Squirt will cut fine receipt paper with its wire cutter, and the IDL T5 will not. I assume this would translate to a clean cut of stranded wire for the Squirt, and not so for the IDL T5. The wire-cutting area on the Squirt is also larger, and the wire wasn't trying to push its way out of them when i cut, unlike the IDL T5.

HOWEVER! While the Squirt was 'embarrassingly better', the IDL T5 SUCCEEDED at cutting the heavy gauge wire, and at no point was I fearing the tool breaking. I had to stop this test while trying it with the Gerber Dime, for fear of breaking the plier pivot, it was deforming so badly. And, again, I think this speaks to the robustness of the tool. I don't think the IDL T5 succeeded because it was particularly GOOD at the task, so much as that you could apply a LOT of force to the task without breaking the tool.

Ergonomics.
There are essentially two issues at play with the ergonomics of the tool in plier mode. First is a pronounced handle splay. Here it is with plier jaws CLOSED, compared to the Squirt with jaws OPEN, and the IDL T10 with jaws closed.


The handles simply splay too wide. For me, it really only becomes an issue with larger bolts, but that is for a medium size hand.

The other issue is the handles. These are REALLY nice, actually. They are wide enough to distribute grip force without causing too much wear on the hand, and the driver heads mostly don't get in the way, although holding it certain ways might cause the phillips head to dig a bit into your palm with hard grip strength.

Frame flex and grip force... The IDL has NO detectable flex while gripping. The IDL T10 has a LITTLE, and when compared to either IDL tool, the Squirt has TREMENDOUS flex. The impression is that the IDL T5, even more than it's bigger brother, is an absolutely rock solid tool. I don't know how much grip force it could handle, but it handled everything I thought was reasonable, and a fair amount that I thought wasn't. I pushed it to the point where it was hurting my hand, by digging the phillips into my palm before deciding I'd gone well beyond 'reasonable limits'. And it took it with no noticeable loosening of pivots.

For everything but the most fine detailed tasks, these pliers get a PASS WITH DISTINCTION

[Don Pablo]

Now I want one.....

[Lynn LeFey]

The seller I got mine off of on ebay has more. He has since raised his price to whopping $10.08.

This is not an endorsement, only pointing out where I got mine.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/IDL-Tools-SR1800CP-T5-1-75-Multi-Tool-Teflon-Finish/382166527974

If you are looking for a little plier tool, particularly to pair with a small Swiss Army Knife, these things are, IMO, pretty awesome.

[Don Pablo]

Shipping kills it though, as usual.

[italophil]

The pliers.

This is really the bulk of this review. If you're going to get this tool, it's because you want a really small set of pliers. Well... how do they do as pliers?

Here's a pic of the tool in a lineup of other similar tools. Left to right, Leatherman Juice, Leatherman Squirt, The IDL T5 being reviewed, the IDL T10, and finally pliers on a 91mm Victorinox Swiss Army Knife.



Here's a look at those same tools from the side view.


The important thing to note here is that the pliers on both of the IDL tools are made of thicker material than even the Leatherman Juice.
This has a strong impact on their performance, in many aspects.

I think the pictured tools are a good representation of what it's up against for real competition. But since the IDL T10 is a close relative, I'll mostly leave it out of the discussion, since their pliers are very similar in how they perform. For the most part, the Juice is too large for comparison, and the Victorinox is too small. That leaves the Leatherman Squirt as the best point of comparison.

So let's get some standard stuff out of the way. How does the tool work on screws? Here it is versus the self-tapping screws in my house's ventilation ductwork.


It worked pretty well, particularly in grabbing a flush screw head. The only issue is the bigger the screw, the wider the handle splay, causing problems getting a good grip on the tool. Kind of like...


That. Yeah. Surprisingly, it will get a good grip and turn a screw convincingly of this size, but that's a WIDE handle splay you're dealing with. And i think this is really pushing the uppermost size screw it would handle. Honestly, though, you can only expect so much from a tiny keychain tool.

I was talking about grabbing flush screws, and this is what i mean, compared to a Leatherman Squirt...


The fact that the plier head is not flush with the handles on the Squirt means that some screws might be tricky to get a hold of, where the IDL T5 did it effortlessly.

One of the things I use my small pliers for is shaping wire, very often paperclips, for various functions. How did it do? Here it is compared to the Squirt making a tight coil/ring.


Mm... not nearly as good at the fine shaping as the Squirt.

Here's a pic, looking at the nose of the IDL T5 (right), the Squirt (Middle), and Leatherman Juice (left). Even the Juice is going to be better at making tight loops in stiff wire. I guess you kind of have to think of the IDL tools as the blunt-nose pliers of the keychain world.


Another task you might find yourself needing to accomplish is wrapping wire around an object, then needing to cinch that wire tight. Here it is versus the Squirt, tightening the wire (steel paperclip) until it snaps.


Both will do it, but only the IDL T5 will do it nose-on. In fact, any twisting you do with pliers nose-on is best done with the IDL pliers. They have less flex in them than even the Juice, a much larger tool. I tried tightening the wire nose-on with the Squirt, and feared breakage or permanent deformation, then tried the Juice, and was shocked how easily THEY flexed. Then, absolutely no flex in the IDL T5. I mean, literally, NONE that I could detect.

This is a trait that I noticed in my IDL T10. It's THE thing about them that makes me appreciate them. They are the most 'robust' keychain pliers I've ever encountered.

Okay, how is the IDL T5 compared to the Leatherman Squirt for wire cutting? I put them both against 12-gauge house wiring, first to strip the coating, then to cut the wire.


The Squirt was embarrassingly better at both portions of this task. I don't have any stranded wire to cut, but the Squirt will cut fine receipt paper with its wire cutter, and the IDL T5 will not. I assume this would translate to a clean cut of stranded wire for the Squirt, and not so for the IDL T5. The wire-cutting area on the Squirt is also larger, and the wire wasn't trying to push its way out of them when i cut, unlike the IDL T5.

HOWEVER! While the Squirt was 'embarrassingly better', the IDL T5 SUCCEEDED at cutting the heavy gauge wire, and at no point was I fearing the tool breaking. I had to stop this test while trying it with the Gerber Dime, for fear of breaking the plier pivot, it was deforming so badly. And, again, I think this speaks to the robustness of the tool. I don't think the IDL T5 succeeded because it was particularly GOOD at the task, so much as that you could apply a LOT of force to the task without breaking the tool.

Ergonomics.
There are essentially two issues at play with the ergonomics of the tool in plier mode. First is a pronounced handle splay. Here it is with plier jaws CLOSED, compared to the Squirt with jaws OPEN, and the IDL T10 with jaws closed.


The handles simply splay too wide. For me, it really only becomes an issue with larger bolts, but that is for a medium size hand.

The other issue is the handles. These are REALLY nice, actually. They are wide enough to distribute grip force without causing too much wear on the hand, and the driver heads mostly don't get in the way, although holding it certain way's might cause the phillips head to dig a bit into your palm with hard grip strength.

Frame flex and grip force... The IDL has NO detectable flex while gripping. The IDL T10 has a LITTLE, and when compared to either IDL tool, the Squirt has TREMENDOUS flex. The impression is that the IDL T5, even more than it's bigger brother, is an absolutely rock solid tool. I don't know how much grip force it could handle, but it handled everything I thought was reasonable, and a fair amount that I thought wasn't. I pushed it to the point where it was hurting my hand, by digging the phillips into my palm before deciding I'd gone well beyond 'reasonable limits'. And it took it with no noticeable loosening of pivots.

For everything but the most fine detailed tasks, these pliers get a PASS WITH DISTINCTION

Great review! Have you tried Swiss+Tech plier tools, they seem like good comparison.

[Lynn LeFey]

Great review! Have you tried Swiss+Tech plier tools, they seem like good comparison.

I have the Swiss+Tech Micro Plus EX. It's... how to be diplomatic... TERRIBLE! The flaw is in the basic design, where force on the pliers bends the folding joint of the tool. After 5 minutes of playing with it, the handles swung freely, and i'm certain I could have broken the handles off with very moderate grip force. Also, the driver heads on it have pronounced rounding, meaning they want to cam out of screws instead of gripping.

Which leads me to the drivers on the IDL T5...

[Lynn LeFey]

The drivers.

Pretty much the only other function on the tool are a flathead and Phillips driver built into the arms of the tool.

Both have well formed heads. The phillips...


And the flathead...


The Flathead slotted cleanly into screws on the faceplates of lightswitches and outlets...


And having easily managed the light-duty stuff, I moved on to hinge screws on my back door...


It grabbed the screws securely, and I was able to turn them, but the small body of the tool didn't give a great amount of gripping area. It did the job, but wasn't the world's greatest at the task. It would work in a pinch, but I'd prefer something with more body to hold onto.

The Phillips got to have a shot at all of the phillips screws in my cabinets...


And again, the well-formed head grabbed the screw well. There was no sense that the tool was trying to cam out, so I went for the BIG test...


I have a bench held together with 3" wood screws. I broke a Micra trying this stunt. I wouldn't say the IDL T5 was effortless, but it was convincing. It felt a good deal more reliable at this task than the t-handled Phillips of a 91mm Victorinox Swiss Army Knife, and i honestly think that's saying something. Again, the small handle made it a little awkward to grip under higher force, but it did the job.

And any of you who have read my previous $5 Challenge entries may know, Every tool gets a shot at the crusty paint can pry test.


Yeah. It worked. It was not the best. Being so small, it didn't have great leverage, and the way the flathead immediately widens to the full handle width makes it a little hard to get under the lid's lip, but it worked. It might honestly handle a LOT more for prying, but I didn't feel like trashing the tool to test it.

As a Phillips Driver: SOLID Pass.
As a Flathead Driver: SOLID Pass.
As a Pry Tool: Pass for light duty, at very least.

[Vidar]

That one has been a personal favorite for quite some time. Well worth the money

[Vladimir]

Nice review!
I bought one a long, long time ago, and I've never actually carried it or used it although I find it very well made and handy tool...

[Lynn LeFey]

I went looking for other reviews, and was a little surprised that I could only find mention here and there, never a review. The IDL T10/SeberTool M4 has a lot more out there on it.

I'm happy to give this little tool some attention.

And so, some 'final thoughts'. This is really simple. It's going into my Everyday Carry. I HAD been carrying the IDL T10. Now, it will be the IDL T5. Smaller, lighter, and I was carrying it almost solely for the pliers. But it also has two great essentially full-size drivers. That will free me up to swap out my Super Tinker Swiss Army Knife with other SAKs, to try neat combinations. Although... probably it's gonna be an Explorer, because my eyes are just getting worse every day.

This tool is not going to win the $10 Challenge. I really think it's too limited, but it PAIRS with other tools fantastically. As I pointed out, it works well paired with Swiss Army Knives. I didn't say it above, but this tool weighs almost exactly the same as adding a plier layer to a SAK, and except in some VERY specific cases, I think these pliers are night-and-day better. Certainly up to more difficult (but admittedly less precise) work.

Against the Leatherman Squirt... again, they're 'tougher', but less versatile, particularly for wire cutting.

I generally think of the single most often used function of pliers as granting superhuman grip strength on very small items, and for that, these pliers beat pretty much every other small plier I stacked them against, including the Juice line.

It only has a few functions, but does most of them extremely well, for low weight, and in a small form factor. Complete win as an 'additional' tool.

But I think I can do better for $10.

[Fuzzbucket]

The drivers.

...

As a Phillips Driver: SOLID Pass.
As a Flathead Driver: SOLID Pass.
As a Pry Tool: Pass for light duty, at very least.

Excellent review Lynn - thanks! 

[ReamerPunch]

I have two of these, one is Craftsman branded. They're quite nice. 

[pomsbz]

Great review. Seriously considering one specifically to pair with a SAK as you mention for when I don't want to lug my LM Charge around but still want pliers.

[ThePeacent]

as we've been saying for decades now, any "dedicated tool" beats a Multitool on their specific use(s), and this one tiny pliers tool seems like the "dedicated pliers" of the keychain size. 
Limited in diversity of functions, but not matched in its design oriented task

I also had trouble bending pretty thin metal wire with small MTs, I bent and misaligned the pivot and head of a Juice with minimal fore and completely trashed a Gerber DIme's jaws twisting thin copper lines   

these one are thicker and noticeably tougher,
good review as usual! 

[Lynn LeFey]

Absolutely, ThePeacent. These things would even bend that heavy 12-gauge copper wire nose-on, and didn't feel like they were straining. They are AMAZINGLY robust. I guess that shot showing the thickness of the various pliers pretty much says it all. In this specific case, there is simply no replacement for more metal.

[Vidar]

That is what I like about that one. It is inexpensive, but it doesn't feel cheap in any way.

It is good quality, with what I suspect is better quality steel than most, and while it just has a few functions it does them well. That is a lot more useful and reliable than cheap tools that try and fail to do lots of stuff. (Usually discovered when you need them and think you have brought a solution).

Great little SAK companion. 

[gregozedobe]

Great review, thanks Lynn.      

I might just mention the T7 variant of the T5 tool.  It is basically the same tool, but adds a small philips and flat driver that fold out from each handle, so you get 4 different screwdriver ends.  There are also versions of these tools marketed by SeberTool (the orginal manufacturer), Craftsman and Harley Davidson.

[Lynn LeFey]

Great review, thanks Lynn.      

I might just mention the T7 variant of the T5 tool.  It is basically the same tool, but adds a small philips and flat driver that fold out from each handle, so you get 4 different screwdriver ends.  There are also versions of these tools marketed by SeberTool (the orginal manufacturer), Craftsman and Harley Davidson.

Right. The SeberTool version of the IDL T7 is known as the M3. I mentioned in the first post about the link to the SeberTech/IDL explanation in the multitooltool wiki. In it, it explains that American made SeberTech was the original manufacturer, and was later bought out, moved to China for manufacturing, and rebranded IDL.

Also, looking for a pic of the tools together, I found Chako's review of the tools. I missed it on a search, because he had 'Serber' instead of 'Seber'. He has a pretty in-depth review of all three models with lots of good side-by-side pics. Here's a link to that thread.
https://forum.multitool.org/index.php?topic=21516.0

Based on Chako's comparisons, it appears that Seber made the Craftsman and Harley branded versions.

[theonew]

Great review I really like the T5 and to be honest most of my uses of pliers involve small appliance repair for which the T5 works well. Things like removing a few screws, phillips usually, cutting some wires, pulling off a clip. I could probably "survive" just fine with only a Vic Manager and an IDL T5.