FOLAI Copper Pipe Expander - Universal Hand Tool for Refrigeration & Copper Pipe Swaging - 1/4", "5/16", "3/8", "1/2", "5/8", "3/4", "7/8" inch Tube Expander

I love this little tool. It allows you to quickly fit two copper pipes together (for brazing or soldering) without using a fitting. Once you get used to it you can do some really good work with it.

I have used this a few times now with great success. Yes, you must rotate the pipe while swaging to maintain a round cross-sectional shape. And, those who complain about split pipe are probably attemtpting to swage hardened (tempered) copper tubing used for water lines. Swaging must be done on soft copper. An end (say ~ 2 inches) of hardened copper can be annealed (softened) by heating with an ordinary propane torch to a cherry red color and then quenching in water. Be aware that "working" copper (via bending, hammering, swaging, etc. also "work hardens" (tempers) the material. However, merely swaging the end of a copper tube does not constitute enough "work hardening" to cause breakage. If the tube is rigid, as for water, it has been hardened and will need to be annealed before swaging to prevent splitting while swaging. That is not a big deal; just heat the end to be swaged with an ordinary propane torch and then dip in room temperature water to quench. After that process, the end to be swaged will be "annealed" and soft enough to swage. After swaging it will be ready to solder. For those unable to finesse the "rotating while expanding" part of the process to achieve an acceptably concentric tube end, I suggest using a tube flaring and swaging kit, many such kits also available here on Amazon. (I have one from Wostore that is very nice, is economical, and does both swaging and flaring. In that case, you lock your tubing into an appropriately-sized hole in a steel swaging bar, install an appropriate-sized swaging die into a swivel connector on a steel yoke (yoke is a type of clamp that locks onto the swaging bar) and then turn a handle to screw the swaging die into the inside diameter of the copper tubing to expand it. The latter method obviously takes many more steps and is thus much slower than using the swaging tool of this listing, but the die makes a perfectly symmetrical expansion without artistic finesse from the user. I believe that most of the problems expressed by frustrated reviewees stem from attempting to swage tempered (hardened) copper without annealing. The video by the seller is not helpul at all and probably adds to the confusion. He appears to be doing the process at breakneck speed to impress would-be buyers with how quickly swaging can be done using his tool. However, the undesirable result is that one can hardly see that he is rotating the tube while he works to maintain a symmetrical expansion. He probably receives many returns as a result, when a purchaser simply inserts the tool into a piece of tubing, squeezes the handle and is disappointed with the asymmetrical result. If the tubing is tempered, both an asymmetrical and split cross section can result. So much confusion due to poor communication, so little time...

Works pretty good for expanding tubing but you wont have a great jump in size

I used the expander to expand a 3/4" HVAC copper tube for fitting. The two ends of the tool have different sizes. One size is slightly bigger than other. Use the small side to expand the tube. The expansion is not done by a single press. Need multiple pressings and turn 90 degree each time. It makes the opening wider and wider. When one side is done. Flip the tool use other slightly bigger size to expand the opening again. Repeat the multiple expansion steps. Then, get the 3/4" fitting to other 3/4" tube :) It takes time, but works !! I've encountered an AC coil inlet size slightly smaller than the tube. Use the expander to expand it. Snug fit, excellent !

A + + + Seller, Good Price, Fast Shipping, Will Buy From Again !

I bought this tool for a little HVAC work, and tested it by making some joints in 5/8" ACR copper tube. In short, it worked and did not require too much strength to use it. But it took a lot of care to make a usable fitting. The trouble is that each time you expand the pipe, it is stretched more in one direction, so the tube goes out of round. To get a good result one needs to constantly rotate the tube ( or tool ), and expand less and less with each stroke as the fitting gets close to the final size. It also requires that one be careful to not over-expand the tube, which is easy to do. With some care I was able to make a good fitting while standing at the bench, and with good lighting. It would be much harder to make a good fitting in the field with this tool, especially if one could not rotate the tube or tool 360 degrees while forming it. I will not be using this tool to swage copper tube, but it turned to be handy for other things. For one, fixing the end of a slightly dented copper tube or fitting. For another, opening up a fitting after cutting it down the side, for failure analysis. It is reasonably well made and I think that I will get my money's worth out of it.

I saw some of the reviews saying it was hard to use, or they had problems with the tubing splitting, and was a little concerned about potential results, but given how inexpensive it was I thought I'd give it a shot and I'm glad I did! It really does work well and I've had much better results than a much more expensive flaring kit that uses a compression bracket to hold the tubing in place while a section outside the bracket has a tool bit forced into it to expand the tubing. That always seemed to have issues with the tubing backing out of the bracket or the tubing splitting, really annoying. Using the tool is very simple and I was surprised by how little effort it took to gradually expand the tubing. It took about a minute to expand the tubing a bit, rotating it about 1/8th of a turn, and repeating until the handles are fully together. Then it was a matter of rotating and shaping the tubing until it was completely round and fitted onto another piece of tubing. Very easy, though I could see how being impatient might cause the tubing to split, or not being careful shaping the tubing to be completely round would cause frustration. Great tool!

Really a great little tool for quickly expanding aluminum and copper for a small project I was working on.

Now I don’t have to buy fittings for my still I can just expand the copper and attach it to the existing copper pipe

Anyone that has done RV plumbing and has had to deal with the flexible vinyl tubing that they use instead of actual Pex tubing could use this tool! The oetiker style clamps won’t fit over the vinyl tubing properly (because they aren’t made for that size which is a tiny bit larger than Pex tubing). I had previously hammered them over a brass fitting to expand them which was tedious and ended up wrecking the fitting. This tool works perfectly and literally takes a few seconds. Well worth the investment!

Worked in the HVAC trade 30 years . it was spend $450 for a swaging tool or struggle making a swage on copper tubing This is so simple and works very well. . Just do the swage in 2 steps and rotate pipe. 2 thumbs up

the pipe expend-er works quickly on annealed copper use it twice at 90 degree angles to make it expand properly and round.

Works well, just go at it gradually in little increments and rotate the pipe between each step.