Recommend Me an Affordable, Quality Torque Wrench

My trusty Craftsman Torque Wrench met the manufacturer this morning and so I need a new one. 1/2”, preferably click type, needs to be able to handle 250 ft-lbs. 

Whatcha got?

CDI is a Snap-On subsidiary.

250 ft-lbs, $161 shipped: https://www.amazon.com/Industrial-CDI-2503MFRPH-Adjustable-Micrometer/dp/B000KL4H80

I would laugh at myself from the outside but during my own brand of torture testing with consistent torquing between 25 and 55 something in the neighborhood of 120 times a day the harbor freight clicker stays in calibration for about 6 months if it doesn’t fall apart. I have a calibration station and check it every eight hours.

the old Marco TR150 would last 18 months without needing recalibrated but their new one lasted six months before I gave up on them. Higher torque isn’t something we do with that wrench so o can’t say for that.

How often do you go to 250 ft-lbs and how accurate do you need to be there? Most half-inch drive torque wrenches only go to 250 ft-lbs and, when you get to the upper range of a click-type wrench, the accuracy isn't always completely on point as it is usually the extreme of the calibration margin.

If you need it to be real accurate at max torque, a strain gauge is probably going to be your best bet. If not then CDI, Husky and Gearwrench are good bets if you don't want to spend Snap-on money. I use click-type Husky wrenches for aircraft at the local EAA chapter and they still calibrate well after 6 years. My previous employer used Snap-on for the aircraft which are made by CDI.

I don't trust the HF ones after an incident I had with one.

In reply to The0retical :

I have a few bolts on my truck that require 200+ ft lbs and I have to deal with them at least once a year.

250 is a “just in case” type of thing.  

I've been happy with this one since my 30 year old Crafstman finally died:

Precision Instruments torque wrench

For what it's worth, we're putting together a torque wrench comparison. Right now there are some wrenches and a tester sitting in my office. 

There was a recent discussion on this.  I recommended this Husky 50-250 lb/ft one.  Codrus has had one for a while as well that he's happy with.  I hope Freakazoid is enjoying his as well.

WonkoTheSane said:

There was a recent discussion on this.  I recommended this Husky 50-250 lb/ft one.  Codrus has had one for a while as well that he's happy with.  I hope Freakazoid is enjoying his as well.

That's the exact same one I own. It's a really nice wrench at the price point.

I just bought a 250 lb. , 1/2" from Eastwood.

i have used it only once so far.  Be putting the snows on soon.  The long handle makes 100 lbs. easier on my old arms.

It even came with a certificate of calibration.

David S. Wallens said:

For what it's worth, we're putting together a torque wrench comparison. Right now there are some wrenches and a tester sitting in my office. 

Hi David,

I do engineering statistics for a living.

If you’d like, I could analyze the results to determine which, if any, wrenches are statistically superior along with calculating confidence intervals (i.e., if it sez’ 100 ft. lbs., there’s a 95% chance the true value is between X and Y).

Let me know if you’re interested and we can put together a sampling protocol.

Brett

There is no "affordable" and "good quality".

I have a lever spring style torque wrench, it was not very cheap (I think it was $350?) but it stays reliable.

I have a Summit/HF $25 torque wrench.  Tested on an electronic load cell, it is laughably inaccurate.  If you set it to, say, 70 ft-lb, it is around 85ft-lb in one direction and way over 100 in the other.

Rodan said:

I've been happy with this one since my 30 year old Crafstman finally died:

Precision Instruments torque wrench

That's the exact torque wrench that I use day in, day out.

Apparently you can buy them from Amazon a lot more cheaply than off a tool truck.

In reply to David S. Wallens :

What are the chances of doing a follow-up or along with covering some home calibration checks options?

I have this one. Won it in a raffle at a work conference. Wouldn't buy it on my own as it is expensive. Deal with their bigger torque applicators a lot for our helicopters. Used to use an old style beam, which I still have.

Knurled. said:

There is no "affordable" and "good quality".

Don’t be that guy. I asked for a reason, because not all of us can afford a $350 torque wrench and not every inexpensive torque wrench is a piece of E36 M3. 

SyntheticBlinkerFluid said:

Knurled. said:

There is no "affordable" and "good quality".

Don’t be that guy. I asked for a reason, because not all of us can afford a $350 torque wrench and not every inexpensive torque wrench is a piece of E36 M3. 

I haven't seen a cheap one that wasn't a POS.  It appears that anything under a hundred bucks is churned out in the same lack-of-quality factory and the inaccuracy is laughable.

I'm not trying to be "that guy", I'm lamenting that there are no good inexpensive torque wrenches that are ACCURATE, which is a rather important part of being a torque wrench.  Otherwise, you're guessing, and you can guess with a ratchet for a hell of a lot less money!  The best you can do is to buy a load cell (which are, surprisingly, not all that expensive) and use a breaker bar and a voltmeter.  All that added up is not inexpensive EITHER, though, as it assumes that you just happen to have a multimeter and a breaker bar just lying around.

Matco does offer a remarkably cheap torque wrench if you are willing to accept two caveats:  It is only calibrated between 80 and 140ft-lb, and it does not ratchet.

In reply to Knurled. :

I’m not looking for the most on-spot scientifically accurate torque wrench because I’m not putting a space shuttle together, I’m literally checking the torque on travel trailer lug nuts every week and the occasional brake and wheel bearing replacement on my truck. If the margin is +/- 10 ft lbs off, it’s not that big of a deal. 

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid :

The torque wrench I bought from Summit for $25 (looks like same unit as HF) is way more than 10ft-lb off in the lug nut checking region.  Depending on which side you use (it has an internal 3/4" 12-point hex for accepting a spline drive adapter on the backside), it is either 15 pounds off or over 30 pounds off when you set it to 80, a figure important to me because I want to torque my wheels to about 80 ft-lb.

As I said, hilariously inaccurate.

I set it to 70 and use it strictly for lug nuts.  If I want to work on engine stuff that needs accurate torque specs (internal engine fasteners/clutch fasteners/etc) I take my known-good, regularly-calibrated torque wrenches home from work.

Not sure if doing this for a living is a benefit or a curse.  On the one hand, I generally own decent to high quality tools.  On the other hand, since those are at work, this means I have to have two of everything, so I have $house sitting at work and a garage full of chinesium at home...

Knurled. said:

I haven't seen a cheap one that wasn't a POS.  It appears that anything under a hundred bucks is churned out in the same lack-of-quality factory and the inaccuracy is laughable.

Seems the Husky linked to earlier has had good reviews and comes with calibration papers at 3% accuracy from 50 to 250lb-ft.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-50-250-ft-lbs-1-2-in-Drive-Torque-Wrench-H2DTWA/205914009

I talked about my recent experience with my HF wrench in another thread. I had one for over 10 years that was fine, but I lost the lock nut to it and bought another one earlier this year to replace it. First time I used it to tighten lug nuts, and it must be about 30-40 ft lbs off! Put it this way: after tightening with the wrench, I drove it for about a week, and the lug nuts were HAND TIGHT when I re-checked them after hearing some terrible noises.  

I bought this Kobalt wrench to replace it. 

I've had great luck with their stuff and this one had good reviews.