I previously posted my initial thoughts on this multi tool over in the multi tool forums. Now having spent some more time with this, here is my review.
It's overall not positive.
This is a pretty cool toy. It's fun to play with. It has some legitimate capabilities, but ultimately it is bogged down by terrible quality control (it's made in china) and horrible customer support.
For those who are not aware, SOG is now owned by GSM Outdoors. Customer support appears to currently be handled by GSM, when in the past it was handled directly by SOG's own customer support. Anecdotally, I have heard that SOG's customer support was amazing. Based on my personal experience, I am sad to report that GSM's customer support does not live up to SOG's former reputation.
Let's talk about the PowerLitre itself. It's neat. The concept is solid... it's just that the execution of that concept fails to live up to what it should have been, especially for the amount of money that it costs. More than half of the tools are garbage.
The can opener is too small and thin to work well and the bottle opener is a joke (seriously, it's a wasted slot). It shouldv'e at least had a flat driver at the end of it. The safety cutter can't even cut cord or straps. The scissors are almost completely useless. The only thing they're actually good for is cutting loose threads on clothing or gear. They struggle with anything else, including paper. They can cut the paper, but not very well, and you will get a jagged edge every time. You're better off using the knife to slice the paper instead. The little flat driver is this weird size where it's too big for small electronics and eyeglasses, but still too small for anything else. The same goes for the Phillips driver. The Phillips driver is also slightly rounded too, which is a sign of low quality. A Phillips driver should have sharp edges so that it can grip into the screws well.
But the biggest problem with the PowerLitre isn't just the crappy tools. It's the cheap steel that everything is made from. It's too soft. I don't even think they bothered to harden it. Every tool can be bent with your hands. Even the Powerlitre's frame itself can be bent by hand. Yeah, I'm getting to that...
Right out of the box, the PowerLitre was stiff. It didn't open and close smoothly, especially when compared to the PowerPint that I had also gotten. But I figured it just needed to be broken in. After a while I started to notice a few things. The black finish was wearing off already. Some things looked crooked. The end of the scissors were rubbing on the pliers, the pliers were rubbing on the frame, the shaft of the small flat driver was tilted to one side, and the ends of the handles didn't line up.
That's when I reached out to customer support. What a horrible experience that was! Never again! In the end I simply resolved to take matters into my own hands, literally. I grabbed a couple of T8 bits, unscrewed the plier head from the frame, and then I began to carefully bend and twist the PowerLitre's cheap-
frame. I was eventually able to accomplish on my own what SOG's overseas factory could not accomplish: to make the frame straight. It took a while. Maybe around an hour. I also straightened the scissors and the small flat driver.
My PowerLitre is nice and smooth and (mostly) straight now, almost exactly the way that the PowerPint was OotB. I'm also going to see if I can't use cold bluing to fix the spots that got worn off. I shouldn't have to do any of this. Thankfully I had purchased the PowerLitre and the PowerPint at considerably discounted prices. With the PowerPint, I got lucky. It's mostly fine. There are a couple of very minor QC issues, but nothing major. With the PowerLitre, I got a real lemon.
Please do not pay full price for these things. It's far too much and SOG/GSM Outdoors doesn't deserve that much of your money. Only buy one if you can get it at a large discount. If you do have issues, then don't bother with customer support. For a start, they're hard to even get in touch with. I reached out through 3 different methods and they didn't bother replying to 2 of them.
It's such a shame. As a concept, I love the PowerLitre. It's fun to play with, and you can do some legitimately cool and useful things with it. Unfortunately it's not well made and it costs way too much for what it is. The tools could have been better thought out, the materials could have been more robust, and the manufacturing quality definitely should have been a lot better than it was.
One really cool thing about the PowerLitre is the little latch at the end of the handles. It lets you lock the arms so that you can use screwdriver bits without having to squeeze the handles together the whole time. It also keeps the pliers from flopping open while the tool is clipped onto something. I like that feature a lot.
It's overall not positive.
This is a pretty cool toy. It's fun to play with. It has some legitimate capabilities, but ultimately it is bogged down by terrible quality control (it's made in china) and horrible customer support.
For those who are not aware, SOG is now owned by GSM Outdoors. Customer support appears to currently be handled by GSM, when in the past it was handled directly by SOG's own customer support. Anecdotally, I have heard that SOG's customer support was amazing. Based on my personal experience, I am sad to report that GSM's customer support does not live up to SOG's former reputation.
Let's talk about the PowerLitre itself. It's neat. The concept is solid... it's just that the execution of that concept fails to live up to what it should have been, especially for the amount of money that it costs. More than half of the tools are garbage.
The can opener is too small and thin to work well and the bottle opener is a joke (seriously, it's a wasted slot). It shouldv'e at least had a flat driver at the end of it. The safety cutter can't even cut cord or straps. The scissors are almost completely useless. The only thing they're actually good for is cutting loose threads on clothing or gear. They struggle with anything else, including paper. They can cut the paper, but not very well, and you will get a jagged edge every time. You're better off using the knife to slice the paper instead. The little flat driver is this weird size where it's too big for small electronics and eyeglasses, but still too small for anything else. The same goes for the Phillips driver. The Phillips driver is also slightly rounded too, which is a sign of low quality. A Phillips driver should have sharp edges so that it can grip into the screws well.
But the biggest problem with the PowerLitre isn't just the crappy tools. It's the cheap steel that everything is made from. It's too soft. I don't even think they bothered to harden it. Every tool can be bent with your hands. Even the Powerlitre's frame itself can be bent by hand. Yeah, I'm getting to that...
Right out of the box, the PowerLitre was stiff. It didn't open and close smoothly, especially when compared to the PowerPint that I had also gotten. But I figured it just needed to be broken in. After a while I started to notice a few things. The black finish was wearing off already. Some things looked crooked. The end of the scissors were rubbing on the pliers, the pliers were rubbing on the frame, the shaft of the small flat driver was tilted to one side, and the ends of the handles didn't line up.
That's when I reached out to customer support. What a horrible experience that was! Never again! In the end I simply resolved to take matters into my own hands, literally. I grabbed a couple of T8 bits, unscrewed the plier head from the frame, and then I began to carefully bend and twist the PowerLitre's cheap-
frame. I was eventually able to accomplish on my own what SOG's overseas factory could not accomplish: to make the frame straight. It took a while. Maybe around an hour. I also straightened the scissors and the small flat driver.My PowerLitre is nice and smooth and (mostly) straight now, almost exactly the way that the PowerPint was OotB. I'm also going to see if I can't use cold bluing to fix the spots that got worn off. I shouldn't have to do any of this. Thankfully I had purchased the PowerLitre and the PowerPint at considerably discounted prices. With the PowerPint, I got lucky. It's mostly fine. There are a couple of very minor QC issues, but nothing major. With the PowerLitre, I got a real lemon.
Please do not pay full price for these things. It's far too much and SOG/GSM Outdoors doesn't deserve that much of your money. Only buy one if you can get it at a large discount. If you do have issues, then don't bother with customer support. For a start, they're hard to even get in touch with. I reached out through 3 different methods and they didn't bother replying to 2 of them.
It's such a shame. As a concept, I love the PowerLitre. It's fun to play with, and you can do some legitimately cool and useful things with it. Unfortunately it's not well made and it costs way too much for what it is. The tools could have been better thought out, the materials could have been more robust, and the manufacturing quality definitely should have been a lot better than it was.
One really cool thing about the PowerLitre is the little latch at the end of the handles. It lets you lock the arms so that you can use screwdriver bits without having to squeeze the handles together the whole time. It also keeps the pliers from flopping open while the tool is clipped onto something. I like that feature a lot.