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Ridgid

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RIDGID's logo with its current slogan.

RIDGID is the popular name of the Ridge Tool Company of Elyria, OH. Founded in the 1920s as a manufacturer of professional plumbing and HVAC tools, they have relatively recently branched out into more general-purpose hand tools and power tools. They are now a division of Emerson Electric Company.

Contrary to a relatively popular belief, they are not a Home Depot house brand.

All Home Depot stores with a pipe threader use a RIDGID auto-chuck machine, usually either the RIDGID 535 or 1822 series. Most Home Depots also use RIDGID wet/dry vacuum cleaners ("shop vacs", to use a genericized trademark) to clean up sawdust in their lumber departments.

The vast majority of RIDGID products, notably including some power tools, carry a lifetime warranty which covers everything except normal consumables (oil, drain cables and cutters, filters, cutting dies). Also notable, RIDGID's lifetime warranty covers wet/dry vacuum cleaners unless they have been used to vacuum drywall dust.

Specialties

  • automatic-chuck pipe threading machines.
  • RIDGID SeeSnake video sewer and drain inspection systems.
  • RIDGID SeekTech utilities locators.

Hand Tools

  • pipe wrenches, including premium lightweight aluminum models and RIDGID RapidGrip spring-loaded self-adjusting pipe wrenches.
  • manual pipe threaders.
  • manual tubing cutters.
  • manual drum augers ("hand spinners") from RIDGID/Kollman.
  • basin wrenches and other plumbing speciality tools.
  • broad range of hand tools (recent).

Power Tools

  • pipe threaders.
  • drum augers and other powered drain snakes.
  • utility pumps.
  • wet/dry vacuum cleaners (recent).
  • common power tools (saws, drills, etc.) (recent).
  • air compressors and air tools (recent).

Advertising Slogans

As RIDGID has traditionally been a professional tool company, their advertising has been limited (their equipment stands on reputation in the plumbing trade) and was generally restricted to trade publications in the plumbing and HVAC fields. This author expects the situation to change now that RIDGID has broadened its offerings to more general tools.

  • "I love a RIDGID tool" (obviously a double entendre, a bumper sticker seen on plumbing company trucks during the late 1990s).
  • "Tools for the Professional" (current slogan).
  • The Ridgid Tool Calendar featuring women in alluring poses is notable. The calendars have been produced since 1935. The calendars are typically two year. The famed artist George Petty produced many of the illustrations in the 1950's.[1]

Trivia

  • The mascot for the University of Waterloo's Faculty of Engineering is a 60" (1.5 m) pipe wrench called The TOOL, formerly the RIDGID Tool, as it was donated by the Ridgid Tool Company in 1968.


References

  1. ^ ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Media: George Petty's Ridgid Tools Calendars
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