How to Choose a Wire Stripper

Choosing a wire stripper that best suits your needs can be overwhelming, especially for someone who has little previous experience using one. Due to the large variety of scrap wire types as well as different customer needs, there is no such thing as "one-type-fits-all" wire stripper and there won't be one in the foreseeable future, either.

To help you navigate through the process of choosing a wire stripper that you will be happy to use, both now and in the future, we have put together a number of different approaches to narrowing down your choices. Each approach is trying to attack the problem from a different angle. You may want to read through all of them, which should give you a better picture afterward.

• What budget do you have?
  Generally speaking, having a larger purchasing budget often means you have a greater amount of wire to strip. A larger model is probably what you should look at. By design, larger models (regardless of the number of input holes or the power source) are better suited for heavy duty use. For example, steel frames are stronger than aluminum frames at a similar size; thicker steel frames handle stress better than thinner ones; a larger machine size provides room for bigger bearings that can survive repeated crushing forces that will break smaller bearings over time.

• What type of wire do you process?
  Many of you just deal with a few types of wires. For example, if you are an electrician specializing in residential buildings, you only expect a handful types of small wires. For another example, if your source of wire is from a utility company, you probably will only get a few types of large wires. In these cases, you may want to choose a machine that is best for certain types of the wire, as opposed to multifunction models.

  On the other hand, if you get all sort of wires imaginable, for example, you operate a scrap yard or you are a weekend hobbyist who has hundreds of friends from all walks of live, a multifunction machine may be your best bet. Not only because it is capable of gobbling up more types of wires, it also eliminate the need of frequent machine adjustment, as needed by other more dedicated models.

• Would you like a small tool that you can carry around?
  Sometimes, even when you have already got a bigger wire stripper, you will still find a bench top stripper a nice supplement. You can carry it with you where you don't expect to be stripping wires or your larger model is impractical (absent of power source, noise concern, etc). Our handheld model (Model 101) and bench top model (Model 210) are light-weight and small-sized, ready to travel with you.

Compare Models ( good, fair, poor/not available)

		Model 210	Model 302	Model 402	Model 500
Price		$64.99	$199.99	$399.99	$1999.99
	Round Solid
	Round Stranded
	Romex
	Coax
	Power Cord
	Steel Jacket
Wire Size Range		1/16" to 3/4" 24AWG to 250 kcm	3/32" to 1-1/2" 16AWG to 1250 kcm	1/16" to 1-1/2" 22AWG to 1250 kcm	1/16" to 1-1/2" 22AWG to 1250 kcm
Portability
Number of Input Holes		1	1	2	19
Double cut		No	No	No	Yes
Throughput
Motor Power		n/a	n/a	1/4 HP	3 HP
Weight (LBs)		7	11	38	300
Dimensions		9" x 12" x 2"	7" x 11" x 3"	22" x 11" x 6"	26" x 25" x 34"