Rothenberger and Bahco benders that don't need guides

[Deleted member 96286]

In my near 40 years of plumbing, I still lose my guides for my Hilmor bender and as it's a expensive replacement buying the originals, I was looking at the Bahco 500-15 and the Rothenberger 25135-15mm benders which are more or less metric copies of American tong style benders. The beauty of these is that they don't need a guide and are very accurate. They also bend shorter lengths than the Hilmor and bend 180 degrees. Well that's the manufacturers hype, has anyone any experience of these to back this up? The Bahco is near on impossible to find online, but the previous model the 600-15 comes up occasionally. This has a plastic attachment and looks crap, while the 500-15 is all metal. They only bend 15mm and it's for quick bends without lugging guides and the heavier Hilmor around/

 

[ShaunCorbs]

problem is they dont do one for 22mm and if they did it would mean carrying two benders everywhere, when do you require 180 degree bends tight

 

[steadyon]

That Rothenberger one is for soft copper only, so I suspect basically HVAC.

 

[AWheating]

Record solo. The bacho has problems with wear on the guide.

 

[Deleted member 96286]

I bought and tried the Ridgid 15mm version and it was pure pants. Every bend in both soft and hard copper rippled and kinked. For 80 quid, I expected better and returned it.

 

[Deleted member 96286]

Record solo. The bacho has problems with wear on the guide.

I'll look up the Record version. Until recently I had an old Record stand bender and it was sound.