Gerber Dime Mini Multi Tool (Black) Expired

Miss the days when this would go down to $9. Great tool though, I have three.

I bought both the Gerber Dime ($15 before MIR at Menards) and the Leatherman Squirt PS4 ($40 on Amazon) to understand how the Leatherman could be worth over 2x the price. After using them for about 7 months, I can say I'd buy the Leatherman again in a heartbeat, and I'd never spend another.....dime... on the Gerber...

If I had bought the Leatherman first, I don't think I'd have been impressed. There's nothing flashy about it. It just works as I'd expect it to. The scissors cut, the tools all open and close smoothly and firmly (but not too firmly). Quality is good. Knife is sharp and the I'd have never noticed the lack of oil all over the tool.

Compare that to the Gerber Dime. The first one I got wouldn't close smoothly (when used as pliers) due to poor tolerances. I'd always have to squeeze it in a special way to get it to close right. The outside was clean, but inside the tool it was covered in oil. Despite this oil, the individual tools each had varying levels of resistance to open, mostly leaning towards way too difficult. The package opener seemed like a cool idea, but it's so dull that I have to use an excessive amount of force and it feels incredibly unsafe. The knife is ok, but not as sharp as the Leatherman's. The pliers feel cheap but seem to work. The last straw for me was when my daughter complained about a loose thread on her shorts. It looked like a little piece of elastic, not even as thick as a toothpick. I pulled the Gerber Dime out and opened the scissors. They would NOT cut this tiny piece of elastic. There was so much play in the scissors they'd just spread apart and the elastic would slip in between them. I grabbed my Leatherman and it had 0 issues.
I thought, ok, maybe I just got a bad one. I would have exchanged it at Menards but they were sold out, so I filed a warranty claim since it comes with a lifetime warranty. I filed that claim on 10/5/21 and they finally shipped a replacement on 1/25/22. It took 4 months just to mail a replacement. They let me keep the other one, but honestly, I don't use either one since I have the leatherman. The new pair close without me squeezing them but all the other issues are the same.

So, would I recommend the Gerber Dime? No
Would I pay $15 for a Gerber Dime? No
Would I pay $5 for a Gerber Dime? No
Would I ever buy another Gerber Dime, no matter the price? No

What's the point of a tool if it doesn't work? Just spend the extra money on the Leatherman and be rest assured that while it won't blow you away with some amazing gimmick (package opener), it'll actually work when you need it to. The 1 and only thing I wish the Leatherman had was tweezers, but the pliers come together so perfectly I've actually been able to use them as tweezers in some situations.

Oh, lastly, I paired each of these multitools with a Nitecore Tube v2. Which makes for an incredibly small but versatile set of tools to carry around. My first Tube started failing with the notorious strobe light on high power. Nitecore sent me 2 more as replacements. I hope they don't also fail, I really like the size and usability of the Nitecore.

I attached a photo so you can see the size of these things.

I got one of these after losing my key chain with a Leatherman Style PS and got tired of replacing it at that price. I was shocked by how much worse it's built. The Leatherman had legit pliers that I could use and even use as wirecutters, as well as some legit scissors. The Gerber scissors are shockingly bad, with a lot of play. For me, I'm quite wary of buying a Gerber again. Seems like they're a budget brand that shows what a great value the Leatherman actually was.

Epilogue; my keys were in my couch, so I have my leatherman back. Sweet.

addenda: I've tried to fly with the Style PS, and it's supposed to be TSA-safe, but if you get a TSA agent who doesn't know the rules, you're still shit out of luck. Lost my first one like that.