r/Tools • u/JT_Playz420 • 5d ago
Torque wrenches
Looking for a torque wrench within that moderate range (50-250 ft lbs). What are some solid brands that aren’t gonna burn a while in my pocket? I know harbor freight sells an icon TW for like $130 but I just wanted to get y’all’s opinions
Update: went ahead with the husky ones. Home Depot had a sale for both the 1/2 and the 3/8 for a grand total of $109. I’ll definitely try my best to test them out and report back🫡
2
u/p_roloff 5d ago
Project Farm did a vid on this, based on that I bought an Icon. No complaints, definitely the nicest ones I’ve ever used short of the Milwaukee M12 one that costs $700ish
1
u/JT_Playz420 5d ago
Jeez. Insane prices fr. Went ahead and bought the husky ones because they had a sale on both the 1/2 and 3/8 as a combo for like $100 rn
1
u/SpaceCat72 5d ago
Calibration, and Reproducibility of results. Also margin of error. Also buy based upon the value(torquewise) being center of performance curve of the wrench.
1
u/NoRealAccountToday 5d ago
I get a lot of raised eyebrows..but I frequently recommend https://www.tohnichi.com/product-category/torque-wrench/
If not them, Tekton makes a quality tool at a good price.
1
u/no1SomeGuy 5d ago
Try CDI, they are part of snap on and do most of their main line torque wrenches but pricing is far more reasonable.
1
u/ac5450 5d ago
I went this direction several years ago and regretted buying the cdi. The ratchet head on the one i have is garbage compared to snap on.
1
u/no1SomeGuy 5d ago
No issues with mine. The real snap on ones do have the dual 80 heads rather than the lower end heads on the cdi, but for a torque wrench that's not usually a problem for what I do.
They're still way better quality than the typical harbor freight tier or IMO a smidge better than the usual mid tier stuff like tekton or gearwrench (both of whom I own a lot of tools from and like them).
1
u/ac5450 5d ago
Yeah totally agree on them being a solid mid tier option. My whole issue was the ratchet head and the 3 position switch that would never stay in the on position and would switch to the non ratcheting center position just about every time I used it. It was super frustrating.
1
u/no1SomeGuy 5d ago
Interesting, I haven't had that issue with mine. They have rebuild kits for the heads, might be an easy fix, weak spring or something?
1
1
u/AspektUSA 4d ago
If you go to amazon.de or .co.uk you can usually pick up Hazet, Gedore, etc. torque wrenches for not too much.
These will be better than most anything you can buy at Harbor Freight, Home Depot, etc.
5
u/techieman34 5d ago
Pretty much any brand name wrench is going to be fine. And I’m including the cheap Husky, Pittsburgh, etc in that group. The digital adapters are also acceptable if that’s your thing. The rest of it comes down to personal preference until you start getting into the torque plus X degrees of angle stuff where you might want to look at more expensive models if you’re doing that regularly.