Brick and Mortor Wrench Purchase

[Dynasty]

What is your suggestion in regards to purchasing a metric and SAE set of wrenches at a brick and motor store? Which store provides the least amount of hassle should the warranty come into play? I classify myself as the weekend mechanic and DIYer. I'm not a pro at all. Will any of the major brands fit the bill? Local stores include Lowes, Home Depot, Harbor Freight, Sears, NAPA, Auto Zone, Menards (longer drive, but do able). I would like to stay under $150 for nice sets of metric and SAE.

Thanks for the help!

 

[rcktsled]

Wow you're going to get a wide array of opinions here. For a casual user I think Gearwrench is the way to go assuming you're OK with Chinese products. I have never had to warranty one so I can't offer advice on where to buy. Harbor Freight wrenches are OK too but you can't tell anybody you own them because they will ridicule you non-stop.

 

[Sam'sAutoParts]

NAPA would be my pick out of those options, they usually have a good selection, and returns/exchange are usually easy.

I thought I read somewhere that Duralast Tools (Autozone) only had a 3 month warranty now?

No experience with Home Depot warranty, but the few Husky tools I have seem to be OK

I'm not crazy about Kobalt, or Lowes in general

Edit: I think your going to be looking at Evercraft in NAPA, I have not bought any of there tools in a while, I have a few sets from about 2 years ago, and I have been very happy with them for the price. Carlye is good stuff but maybe a little above your price point.

 

[firworks]

Harbor Freight wrenches are just fine for casual use. Their warranty policy is about as easy as it gets at least for me in my own experience at my own store. Yours may be wildly different. At my local store I just bring the broken tool in and stand in the door way holding it up. A cashier will see me and say "Go grab one" and I go grab whatever tool broke and if it's a set you give them the remaining set and they take it and say "Have a good day". You're in and out in a minute with no computering. They just take the now incomplete set and put a purple open box sticker on it and sell it like that. In addition the local HF is like 4 minutes from my house.

That said, I personally think the best casual value for wrenches brick and mortar would be a set of Dewalt combination wrenches from either Farm and Fleet or Sears. They feel like a very nicely made Taiwan wrench and are reasonably priced too. They have anti slip ends and are also pretty long giving you more leverage. I'm not sure how the warranty would be though. You'd probably have to ask at the store when you are buying them how it would be handled.

Also you could go a little big higher end and get some Wrightgrips and you probably won't have to worry about warrantying them!

My one other caution to you is to identify the kinds of things you will be working on and make sure the set you buy covers it. I have a new German car, but my roommate and girlfriend both have 2000's ish domestics. I was pretty mad when I went to remove the transmission mount from a Mercury Sable to find my first wrench set (Gearwrench ratcheting) skipped 18mm. That's part of why I bought a huge no skips set from Wright to avoid having that happen in the future. A lot of the smaller combination wrench sets will skip 18mm which you may actually need depending on what you work on.

 

[Dynasty]

Thanks for the replies so far, guys.

Most of the uses will involve wrenching on Japanese motorcycles, Japanese cars like Honda, Toyota, and Nissan along with domestic cars/trucks like Ford and Chevy. Throw in the basic household chores and some basic work on lawnmowers, tractors, snowblowers.

 

[raiderhillbilly]

Warranty is really worthless to me. I am more interested in how a wrench looks and feels. If someone sells soft wrenches and warranties them without question, that is worthless. If someone sells tough tools at a cheap price with no warranty, that is better.

The most pleasing wrenches in my hand are polished,long, and have the size clearly stamped such as: SK long pattern, Snap On, Craftsman professional and Industrial, Armstrong USA, Wright, Proto 500, etc.

If it is a great tool and you don't enjoy how it feels, that is no good. The best part about breaking tools is that you get to buy some more.