It's time to replace my 20-year old parking lot tent sale torque wrench, but I only need it once every few years, so there's no need or desire to spend hundreds of dollars for a "pro" one.
Home Depot has their Husky for $90 with a certificate of calibration, and it states it's accurate within +/- 3% in the upper 80% of its range.
Harbor Freight has their Icon one for $109 with a certificate of calibration, and it states it's accurate within 4%.
Both models state they have a lifetime warranty. I know Harbor Freight's warranty process is pretty straightforward, but I've never dealt with tools to Home Depot?
Harbor Freight is closer, but Home Depot is still close enough to to be worth $20. Though I'm more concerned in which one would be better to own long-term and easier to warranty if there were ever problems.
GRM did a whole test on this recently. Consult.
In reply to _ :
I found a thread from 2018 on the subject & David mentioned the story was in an upcoming article, but I've not been able to figure out which issue it's in. I'm not sure if the Icon was in production then either, isn't the Icon line new to HF within the last year or so?
Icon has been around for about a year now.
I own the Husky wrench. It's held up great the last 5 years or so under medium duty use.
Here's the GRM article: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/choosing-torque-wrench/
Dont forget the usual HF coupons to sweeten the price up a bit.
I would go with the Husky out of those two choices. I don't have their torque wrench, but I do have a few other tools from them and they are good solid tools.
Lowes was closer for me when I needed torque wrenches. I ended up with a couple of Kobalt torque wrenches. One is 1/2 drive; the other is 3/8. They have been great. I have used them on everything from 460 head bolts to Jeep I6 manifolds. Since Lowes has moved to Craftsman tools, I am not sure if the Kobalt wrenches are still available.
I have owned a Craftsman for almost 30 years. I think I bought it in 1992. Last time I had machine work done, the shop offered to check mine for free and I watched them do it.
They checked it at 20-lb increments from 20 to 160 ftlbs and it was within 1-2 ftlb the whole way. Normally, he said, he would give me a printout of the numbers so I could "cheat," but it was so close that he just handed it back to me and said "congratulations, it's perfect." Craftsman aint what it used to be, but I'm happy. I also have a yard sale special that I have "tested" at home by comparing to the Craftsman and as far as I can tell it's wonderful. Its an SK tools brand.
Before spending money, I might consider taking your yard sale wrench to a machine shop that can test it. You might find that it's spot on.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
The article suggests this too, but this wasn't a use wrench - this was a back of the trailer parking lot sale of the cheapest chinesium tools available before Harbor Freight became the meme that represented the genre.
I've not found a HF coupon yet that includes Icon, but I do have a coupon for cheap zip-ties which I need for the Challenge car. And who doesn't need another free flashlight or pack of batteries?
I've had my $20 HF 1/2" for years. Lifetime warranty since it's a hand tool. I can check it against another TW for calibration. My first one didn't last more than a few uses, took it back to HF and got another.
Snrub
HalfDork
5/2/20 11:23 a.m.
Based on the article, it sounds like any would work fine for most purposes and the icon would be fine for the rest.
I have a 15year old $20 harbor freight one. +/- 15% accuracy would probably be fine for my purposes and I suspect it's still in the ballpark of that.
I'd take the icon one before Home Depot. Only reason I would is not every Home Depot as is every Lowe's et al are the same. Every HF is the same.
The local HF was out of quite a bit of stock - including the 1/2" Icon torque wrench, but the 3/8" has enough range to torque my 4G63t head bolts so I picked it up.
I'll test it vs. my 20-year old chinesium one, im curious to see the difference.
I’ve had an S-K for a long time and it’s been solid. I bought an Icon 3/8” on sale a while back and I’m pleased so far.
Pete, get this wrench.
https://www.toolsdelivered.com/cdi-torque-1503mfrmh-dual-scale-adjustable-preset-click-torque-wrench
Williams and CDI are Snap On brands. Tooldelivered is where I shop and watch for deals on amazon. Sometimes amazon has blowout pricing on stuff. I got a $5k toolset on their for $2k. I use toolsdelivered to add to it.
Rodan
Dork
5/4/20 12:18 a.m.
I have a Tekton I'm happy with. Amazon has them and they have a no questions asked warranty. Take a photo of it broken and they ship out a new one.
I haven't had to use the warranty yet btw.
In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :
Holy crap, that's either the 2nd-best site ever, or it's going to lead to my demise.
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
I have to admit, I spent a lot of time on garage journal reading (never posted), and a lot of money on storage and tools in our new house / garage. The results are worth it. Having the right quality tool, knowing exactly where it is, both have made working on things easier and more enjoyable.
The only word of caution is Williams ratchets are industrial designs. They do not have 80 teeth so they are not as fine as some ratchets people like. They are extremely tough though. Their wrenches, sockets, etc are just like Snap Ons. They also do not have the specialty tool selection Snap On does.
Also their less expensive tools are made in Taiwan and are still great. I have a mix of US and Taiwan. The tools delivered site shows clearly where its made though. Try finding that on other websites.
I went and bought my own Icons after I wrote that test, if that tells you anything.
In reply to spandak :
Same here, I have been really pleased with it so far.
For what it's worth, I took my collection of torque wrenches to work last year and used our QA department's test rig. Wrenches ranged from the $20 hammer store special, to 15+year old Craftsman, to the Tekton. Don't remember all the exact numbers (I have them written down somewhere), but they were all well within my acceptable range of accuracy.
I've had a Husky torque wrench(25-250lb.ft) for around 5 years now. It's the torque wrench I always use for lugs nuts but I've also used it for head bolts multiple times. It lives in my toolbox in the plastic case and is always stored on the lowest setting. Works great.
My smaller torque wrench (5-75lb.ft I belive) is a CDI from Suncoast Precision. CDI is who makes Snap-on's torque wrenches. Suncoast Precision has very good prices on them since they don't have the Snap-On label on them.
For another $30 I think this would be a massive upgrade on either of those.
https://www.suncoasttools.com/crm/ItemPage.aspx?ItemNumber=JH1503MFRPHTORQUE+JH&VendorNumber=SNAPON
Rodan said:
turtl631 said:
https://www.toolsource.com/split-beam-wrenches-12-c-315_880/precision-instruments-c3fr250f-12-in-dr-split-beam-click-type-t-p-104429.html
USA made, works great, price reasonable. Snap On rebadged these
I have one of these and am very happy with it. A little cheaper on Amazon...
Precision Instruments 1/2 torque wrench
The flex head is really helpful and I like how easy the split beam design is to use. I also got a 3/8 split beam and then a 1/4 micrometer from Precision Instruments. Quality is great.
I bought a 1/2" Husky from Home Depot. After watching the GRM test I bought a 3/8" drive Icon from HF. Both seem very good.
