Doing a repair or service on your vehicle where you have to remove a coolant hose can be a messy job and with gallons of coolant going for upwards of $20 a gallon it’s best to save money and not drain your coolant unnecessarily. We’ve seen a lot of home-brew ways to clamp off hoses from bending them over and pinching them with a zip tie to using a set of locking pliers for clamp the hoses. The problem with both of these methods is that they can damage the hose and rarely close the hose off completely. With a set of vice grip style locking pliers the serrated jaws end up digging or cutting into the hose and causing future leaks or blow outs of the hose. We recently found the end-all solution for clamping rubber hoses and keeping them leak free during services on your engine.
The Eastwood Pinch-Off Pliers have non-marring nylon jaws and are smooth on their clamping surfaces. This allows for a positive clamp and the nylon is hard enough to pinch the hoses shut without damaging the hose. These pliers lock in place and give a positive lock that won’t easily pop open. We suggest aiming the handles out of the way regardless as you don’t want to knock them off while working with larger tools. These pliers come in three different sizes that can clamp anything from small rubber fuel lines to radiator hoses on your engine. We suggest getting the full kit of Pinch-Off Pliers HERE.