Black & Decker AAW100 8-Inch Auto Wrench Adjusting Wrench
Manually adjusting a wrench to fit particular nuts and bolts can be a real hassle, especially in tight spaces. Enter Black & Decker’s battery-powered Auto Wrench, a phenomenally handy tool that opens and closes with the push of a button. Boasting 220 foot-pounds of torque, this wrench is powerful enough to handle most household tasks, from car repair to fixing leaks.
The Auto Wrench is not meant to replace specialty tools like pipe or torque wrenches, but the jaws open wide enough (up to 1-1/4-inch) so that it could conceivably replace a range of manual wrenches sitting in your toolkit. This is an ideal product for someone looking to buy a wrench that’s both easy to use and versatile. At 8-inches, you could toss it in the silverware drawer and whip it out when you need it.
The area where this wrench really shines is in hard-to-reach spots where mobility is obscured, such as under sinks. A typical situation where the Auto Wrench would help might be one in which you’re awkwardly reaching for a nut underneath the kitchen faucet. With a comparable manual wrench, it’s conceivable you would fumble around with the adjusting mechanism for minutes on end, and then toss a fit. With the Auto Wrench, you’d simply press a button (positioned where you rest your thumb) and the jaws would open or close to your specifications.
We were a bit skeptical when we learned the Auto Wrench takes AA batteries and doesn’t include a rechargeable battery. This means you’ll need to keep some extra batteries around the house - or buy some rechargeable batteries — if you use it frequently. However, the wrench isn’t a power hog by any means. Black & Decker says you can get 650 cycles out of two AA batteries, which should be plenty for most people.
What’s in the box
Wrench, AA batteries
The Black & Decker Story
Two young entrepreneurs, S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G. Decker, founded a small machine shop in Baltimore, Maryland. They called it The Black & Decker Manufacturing Company. Their shop has grown beyond anything they could have imagined. Today, Black & Decker is a global marketer and manufacturer of quality products used in and around the home and for commercial applications. It is also a major supplier of information systems and services to government and commercial client’s world-wide. With products marketed in over 100 countries and approximately half of its revenues from outside the United States, Black & Decker’s product lines hold leading market share positions in their industries. The company is the world’s largest producer of power tools and accessories. Its household products business is the U.S. leader and among global competitors in the small household appliance industry
Customer Review: An amazing wrench
I was surprised at some of the negative comments about this wrench. First of all, it seems to me to be as effective as the equivalent manually adjustable “crescent” wrench — with the emphasis on adjustable. There are some rare times when an adjustable wrench won’t do and an exactly size open end wrench from a set of wrenches may be necessary. In those cases, this wrench won’t do the trick any more than a manually adjustable crescent wrench will.
But lets talk of the 97.98% of cases where an adjustable open-end wrench is just what is wanted and needed. Here’s one that adds something useful — it adjusts wider and narrower at the touch of a button. Well, a spring-loaded momentary-on rocker switch, actually. Convenient for your thumb — doesn’t matter whether you’re right-handed or left-handed — there’s this rocker switch. Press one end of the switch and the wrench width opens up. Press the other end and it closes up. It doesn’t take much practice to get the hang of it, and in an instant you can resize the wrench to fit your application.
My first use the other day involved replacing the fill-valve inside my toilet tank. Where I needed a wrench was to loosen the supply tube’s hex nut — you know the one, it holds the bottom end of the water supply tube to the shut-off valve that comes out of the wall below the tank. I also needed it to tighten the same nut when I installed the new tube. It did the job admirably. Yes, my old manually adjustable crescent wrench would have worked, but that takes a bit more effort to get the wrench jaws to the right diameter. With this battery-operated wrench, the adjustment was performed in an instant with the push of the rocker switch with my thumb, and without trial and error.
I’ll be using this wrench a lot in the future, no doubt about it.
Yes, the grip is a bit bulkier because of the rubber coated battery compartment that forms the grip on the handle, and the handle is a bit wider than a manually adjustable wrench. But it was actually more comfortable for me, perhaps because I have fairly large hands. (I suspect that people with small hands might find a manually adjustable wrench with a slimmer handle better for them.)
Anyway, the other thing is, this is a fun wrench to use, too, a nice toy for people who do handy things. Well worth the $24 and change, I find.
Customer Review: Nice idea, not a durable tool.
Got one for Christmas, used it for one project, installing gas lines in the basement. Wrench fell off the ladder and that was it, no more auto wrench.
The good part, returned this to a B&D store, they sent me 3 wrenches as a replacment.
I’ll be more careful with the replacements, but, this is not a regular tool, have to be careful with it.
I would not have bought this myself, nothing beats a good Craftsman open end wrench. I’ll find a use for it.
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Famous World Airplanes - Wings of the Luftwaffe 3 (1:144 scale) (One Random Kit)
Volkswagen New Beetle Vw Convt. Yellow 1:18 Model
Diecast Body
Opening Doors
Opening Hood
Detailed Interior
Rubber Tires
Steerable Wheels
Perfectly modeled engine
Accurate Gauges and dash inside
Dimensions
L-9 (Approximate)
H-3.25 (Approximate)
W-4.5 (Approximate)
2-channel radio controlAltitude & rotor speed speed controlFlight stabilizing system9.6v Ni-Mh rechargeable battery and chargerRange up to 1000 feetFly over 500 feet highCapable of taking off from the groundTwo speed selectable controlFuselage length of 28 inchesWingspan of 42 inchesFrequencies: 27, 35, 40 & 49 mHzINCLUDES:Plane, transmitter, 4 motors, 8 propellers, landing gear, rechargeable battery and chargerPlane comes 99% ready to fly. All you will need are 8 “AA” batteries for the transmitter. 
Dimensions: 17″ length x 19″ width x 7″ height 
Dear readers,
Brian Selznick on a “Deleted Scene” from The Invention of Hugo Cabret
