That expensive power stretcher I bought finally paid off on a big commercial job

I dropped $450 on a quality power stretcher last year, and last week I used it on a 3,000 square foot office carpet install in Atlanta. Saved me at least 4 hours compared to my old knee kicker. Anyone else find that certain tools are worth the splurge for certain jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas1053d ago

Hang on, are you sure you're talking about a power stretcher and not a power assist tool? I've been doing carpet for about 8 years now and a power stretcher is just the manual pole with the padded head and a ratchet mechanism. The one I use cost me around $200 and it's basically just a long metal tube. The $450 price tag sounds more like one of those automatic power assist tools that actually does the stretching for you. Your mileage may vary of course, but I just wanted to check because they're different tools for different things. The regular power stretcher is still worth every penny though, even the cheaper ones save your back compared to a knee kicker.

elliotr392d ago

Nah man, I think you're right about the price confusion, lol. I've seen dudes drop $400 on a power stretcher and it's just the manual one with a fancy paint job and some extra tubes. The whole "power" name is kind of a joke when you think about it, like calling a regular knife an "electric knife" just because it's better than a butter knife. I paid like $180 for mine from Home Depot like 3 years ago and it's still going strong, just a basic metal pole that does the job. People get too caught up in brand names and think spending more means they're getting some magical tool that does the work for them. At the end of the day, it's still just physics and your own muscles doing the stretching, not any hidden robot parts lmao.