A plumber wrench is a tool to rotate pipes used in plumbing

Plumbing

Plumbing is the system of pipes and drains installed in a building for the distribution of potable drinking water and the removal of waterborne wastes, and the skilled trade of working with pipes, tubing and plumbing fixtures in such systems. A plumber is someone who installs or repairs piping...

. The wrench is adjusted to different pipe diameters by rotating the key ring (silver in the picture). This tool can close with significant force (without caution it is possible to break the pipe) and thus does not need to engage a nut

Nut (hardware)

A nut is a type of hardware fastener with a threaded hole. Nuts are almost always used opposite a mating bolt to fasten a stack of parts together. The two partners are kept together by a combination of their threads' friction, a slight stretch of the bolt, and compression of the parts...

. However, the tool can still be used on a pipe with a nut or other flat engagement points.

Being relatively large and unwieldy, this tool is only used when the ordinary wrench

Wrench

A wrench or spanner is a tool used to provide grip and mechanical advantage in applying torque to turn objects—usually rotary fasteners, such as nuts and bolts—or keep them from turning....

es are not suitable.

The plumber wrench was invented in the year 1888 by Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 inventor Johan Petter Johansson

Johan Petter Johansson

Johan Petter Johansson , sometimes known as JP, was a Swedish inventor and industrialist. He invented a modern adjustable spanner . He obtained over 100 patents in total....

, who also held an 1891 patent on an improved version of the adjustable spanner

Adjustable spanner

An adjustable spanner or adjustable wrench is a spanner with a "jaw" of adjustable width, allowing it to be used with different sizes of fastener head rather than just one faster, as with a conventional fixed spanner...

. This tool, which shares some principles with both the Stillson-pattern pipe wrench and the Ridgid-type pipe wrench, is nevertheless a decidedly different tool. Though not widely known in North America, it is commonly found in Europe, where it may be called a "pipe wrench" or a "Swedish wrench," one of its names in Italian, for example.

See also

• Adjustable spanner
  Adjustable spanner
  An adjustable spanner or adjustable wrench is a spanner with a "jaw" of adjustable width, allowing it to be used with different sizes of fastener head rather than just one faster, as with a conventional fixed spanner...
  
  
• Monkey wrench
  Monkey wrench
  The monkey wrench is an adjustable wrench, a later American development of eighteenth century English coach wrenches. It was popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries but is now used only for heavier tasks, having been mostly replaced by the lighter and sleeker shifting adjustable or...
  
  
• Pipe wrench
  Pipe wrench
  The pipe wrench is an adjustable wrench used for turning soft iron pipes and fittings with a rounded surface. The design of the adjustable jaw allows it to rock in the frame, such that any forward pressure on the handle tends to pull the jaws tighter together. Teeth angled in the direction of turn...