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Icon Combination Wrenches

Rickkyyr8

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Joined
Oct 31, 2021
Messages
163
Hey guys, looking to purchase both a SAE & Metric combination wrench set for my travel bag. Now I generally buy higher end tools for my shop and at home (Snap On, Hazet, PB Swiss, Wera, etc) but I don’t need anything really high end for my travel bag. I’ve bought a few icon products and they seem to pretty good. Looking at their 14 pc metric & SAE anti slip sets. Anybody here have feedback? Good or bad? With a 25% coupon it seems to be a no brainer. Let me know your thoughts or maybe you have another set in mind. Thanks!
 
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Komet

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Apr 27, 2022
Messages
287
Location
WA
I have Icon shorty combos, they're good. The chrome was nice and consistent. If you're rarely going to use them, the Pittsburgh are also fine. My travel set is Pittsburgh and they've been doubled up and hammered on in rusty junkyard scenarios. I'm not saying they survived the abuse flawlessly, but they're not bent and still turn bolts fine.
 

Badgerstate

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Joined
Nov 15, 2020
Messages
484
Location
Columbus, OH
Hey guys, looking to purchase both a SAE & Metric combination wrench set for my travel bag. Now I generally buy higher end tools for my shop and at home (Snap On, Hazet, PB Swiss, Wera, etc) but I don’t need anything really high end for my travel bag. I’ve bought a few icon products and they seem to pretty good. Looking at their 14 pc metric & SAE anti slip sets. Anybody here have feedback? Good or bad? With a 25% coupon it seems to be a no brainer. Let me know your thoughts or maybe you have another set in mind. Thanks!
Theyre good wrenches. Easily as good as anything Snap-On at a fraction of the price. Theres been number tool tortune tests done and the high-end stuff doesnt perform any better than the Icon stuff does.
 

M635_Guy

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Joined
Dec 5, 2019
Messages
4,334
Location
NC
I don't have the anti-slip models, but have the regular ones and they're very nice.

The anti-slip models tested very highly in the Torque Test Channel video on anti-slip wrenches (this was the 64712 set):

(since then Mac has released a new design that blows everything else away, but Icon scores similarly to the Wright and SO FD+)
 

Jtels85

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Joined
May 3, 2017
Messages
1,515
Location
Ohio
Our crane tech uses the non-slip Icon wrenches in both SAE and Metric and hasn't had issues.
 

AEAdam

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May 27, 2023
Messages
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Location
SE PA
Theyre good wrenches. Easily as good as anything Snap-On at a fraction of the price. Theres been number tool tortune tests done and the high-end stuff doesnt perform any better than the Icon stuff does.
hmmm not quite true. But you are correct that many Taiwan brands have really closed the quality gap. Gearwrench is not too shabby and there are other stand outs.

Looking at TTC data on anti-slip open ends, and reading between the lines, Icon look really good. They are thicker and softer than Snap On, which could result in real world slipping or rounding. They didn’t score as high as snap on or Wright. But they appear as tight as Snap on (Unlike Wright). So for non extreme jobs, I think Icon is an excellent choice.

If you want smooth jaws, then Williams or Gearwrench may be worth looking at.
 

M635_Guy

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Dec 5, 2019
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4,334
Location
NC
How do you get 25% off coupons? I don’t get junk mail to my home. I’ve heard they send it in junk mail. Is that the only way?
Sometimes they'll email you one if they have your email and you don't shop there regularly.

Right now they have 20% off for nearly everything.
 
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charbar

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Joined
Feb 6, 2021
Messages
1,993
Location
Midwest
The only Icon tools I have are a set of extra long zero offset ratcheting wrenches and a long flex head 1/2" drive ratchet. I haven't had a single problem with them and they seem like a decent quality tool...they get used daily in a pro environment and live in a toolbox packed full of Snap On and Proto wrenches and ratchets, so that is saying something if you ask me. Icon isnt the Harbor Freight stuff of olden days. I can't imagine their combo wrenches are any less impressive for the price. I would definitely consider them if I needed another set of wrenches.
 

cgrutt

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Joined
Mar 4, 2016
Messages
8,203
I bought a set of ICON combination wrenches to replace a set of Snap ons that I had to sell, regrettably. They look pretty much identical but I believe the ICONs are anti-slip where Snap on were smooth jaw. I've generally been happy with the ICONs except for my last project where I was putting them through the paces on a BMW front end. Had a few issues with slipping and / or rounding off. Not sure if it was the wrench expanding or worn BMW hardware. Still wish I had the Snap ons but ICONs get the job done (mostly). No catastrophic failures which is high up on my requirements list lol.
 

Mr_B

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Joined
Nov 21, 2016
Messages
5,374
Location
Reading
Is a very sensible buy at 65 bucks a wrench set, not easy getting things silly cheap in current times so this price and potentially usable warranty is a proper good deal .
I not biggest fan of the taiwan antislip open ends as all pretty sloppy fitting and mark up fasteners more than the better US open end jaw designs .
 

Fedwrench

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Dec 9, 2007
Messages
14,952
Location
Valley of the sun
How do you get 25% off coupons? I don’t get junk mail to my home. I’ve heard they send it in junk mail. Is that the only way?
Visit the Harbor Freight website. They have the coupons posted there along with their current sales.

You have to have the coupon to get the discount. It's not automatic.

The current 25% off coupon is only for Inside Track members which is like $30 annually. Non Inside Track Members current deal is 20% off.
 

Citation

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Joined
Jan 20, 2016
Messages
3,212
Location
Indy
Something good I noticed about the Icon wrenches: They don't have a large chamfer where the box end is broached. I suspect in order to make broaching easier many combo wrenches have a coned area (the chamfer) where the broach starts. This does help slide the wrench onto a nut. However, it also means the height of engagement with the nut is smaller for a given thickness of wrench and you can't grab towards the base of a nut when it's against a flat surface. This seems to be one of the areas where cheap box end wrenches show their colors. They often aren't that thin because if they are the large chamfer results in very little height of grip on the nut. I modeled the picture to show what I'm trying to describe.
 

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Mr_B

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Nov 21, 2016
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5,374
Location
Reading
the chamfer is purely aid getting wrench on the fastener .
Will have take a look at the ICON combo wrenches as not noticed this .
Some manufacturers advertise the non chamfer design as increased engagement/grip, I have an aviation long double box end set like it and is useful advantage .
 

AEAdam

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Joined
May 27, 2023
Messages
2,737
Location
SE PA
This is something I noticed when working with low height jam nuts. Now to be fair, you rarely encounter a jam nut that can be accessed using a box wrench. But I agree that chamfer isn’t always your friend.
 

Badgerstate

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Joined
Nov 15, 2020
Messages
484
Location
Columbus, OH
hmmm not quite true. But you are correct that many Taiwan brands have really closed the quality gap. Gearwrench is not too shabby and there are other stand outs.

Looking at TTC data on anti-slip open ends, and reading between the lines, Icon look really good. They are thicker and softer than Snap On, which could result in real world slipping or rounding. They didn’t score as high as snap on or Wright. But they appear as tight as Snap on (Unlike Wright). So for non extreme jobs, I think Icon is an excellent choice.

If you want smooth jaws, then Williams or Gearwrench may be worth looking at.
Check out Project Farm on Youtube. You might be surprised. Its funny you mention Gearwrench because they tend to do among the worst. Ive got a set and theyre OK but they certainly dont compare to the nicer brands out there (my Tone set is a work of art compared to them) and I certainly wouldnt say they live up to the prosumer image that Gearwrench seems to have.
 
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