Milwaukee tells us that the single biggest problem they discovered among handheld PEX cutter users was handle strength: eventually end-users would squeeze hard enough on the cutters to snap the handles. After seeing lots of jobsite guys modifying the handles themselves to make them stronger, Milwaukee came out with the all-metal cutters you see above, which they claim are “virtually indestructible.”
Another cool feature: the cutter’s V-shaped blade. Unlike common flat blades, the V-shaped blade pierces the PEX first, requiring less grip force to cut tubing. And when the blade wears out, just swap in a new one. The cutter’s jaws open wide, too, accepting up to 1″ tubing. Milwaukee also touts a “rework groove” that’s design to strip ProPex couplings, but we’ll have to wait ’till we dig into one of these suckers in person to see what they’re talking about.
In the meantime, though, this looks like a pretty decently upgraded tool compared to the PEX cutters we’ve seen to date. We’ll update you with pricing when these are available. We bet it’s cheaper than the old Milwaukee 12V powered tubing cutter, though.