Old timer swore by his own crimp tool, I say factory is fine, who's right?

Last week I was on a job in Fresno swapping out a bad drop on a two story ranch and this retired installer, must have been doing this since the 80s, watched me use my standard crimp tool on an F connector. He said I was doing it wrong, that you have to use the old three piece compression tool or the connector will fail within a year. I've been using the same cheap crimp tool for 4 years now and I've maybe had two callbacks total, both times the issue was a loose fitting I didn't torque down. He kept pushing his method, saying the factory style just doesn't grip the dielectric the same and he's seen it fail in the heat. I get that he's got 40 years of experience, but my numbers don't lie. Is there actually a real difference between the two tools, or is this just old school preference? Has anyone else had a connector fail specifically because of the crimp tool used?

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wren_carr24d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, that "fail in the heat" line sounds like old school lore more than real world data. Your four years and two callbacks both traced to your own torque issue says more than his 40 years of guesses.