Icon G2 Ratchets vs Snap On

[milky2k]

Today's Torque Test Channel's vides features Icon G2 ratchets vs Snap On ratchets. TTC shows that the G2 ratchet is stronger than the Snap On (It takes more torque to break the drive square on the G2 compared to the Snap On). To me this shows the extremely good value that Icon ratchets are. They are strong, have low back drag, have a comfortable grip, easy exchange warranty and low cost compared to Snap On. Will this be enough to convince users (especially SO fans) to start buying Icon ratchets? I bought a G2 ratchet a couple of months ago and I have been very happy with it. So much so, that I decided to sell my Snap On ratchets and replace them with Icon even before this video came out. Part of the reason is that I felt I overbought ratchets when I bought SO. I don't really need super high professional level tools- they seem to remove nuts and bolts just like a Gearwrench. I knew somebody was eventually going to test the Icon's and I would have been okay if the G2's had 90% percent of the strength of SO but they seem to have exceeded SO. What do you think?

 

[d.mcfarland]

Unless the ICON truck shows up at your shop, I don't think the comparison you are trying to make is valid.

 

[Fedwrench]

I want them to test the VIM MVRK series of LP90 ratchets

Now no video is going to convince a diehard Snap on user to buy Icon tools just as no video is going to convince a loyal Harbor freight customer to buy Snap on I was happy to see Nepros thrown into the mix

Buy what you like and can afford.

 

[JerseyBoatBuilder]

I don't see a big deal. Since around 2009 it has been known here that the Dual 80 3/8" ratchets had a limit of 250 ft lbs publicly stated by Snap On.

 

[GeoBruin]

Will this be enough to convince users (especially SO fans) to start buying Icon ratchets?

I can guarantee it will not.

What do you think?

I think this is a tired, useless discussion that does little more than sow division among the members of this forum. You're never going to convince someone who paid a ton of money for a Snap On ratchet that strength, or back drag, or arc swing, or any other metric tells the whole story. There's always going to be those that prefer the feel of a certain ratchet and think that it being made in one place or another matters more than all those things combined. You're never going to convince others that paying a premium for those intangibles makes sense. The point is, you're never going to be able to convince someone of something they don't want to be convinced of.

Unless the ICON truck shops up at your shop, I don't think the comparison you are trying to make is valid.

And I can't walk on to a Snap-on truck parked in my residential cul-de-sac at 7:30 on a Sunday night. Regardless of how tools are sold/purchased, if they are otherwise identical in their purpose and function, a comparison between them is still "valid".

 

[Etchase]

The claim that some drivers make that Snap On has special metal unique to them doesn’t seem to be true.

 

[Kurt4440]

I have Snap-on and Icon ratchets, along with many other brands. I find myself reaching for impact guns and cordless ratchets more and more.
As far as ratchets from different manufacturers goes, I feel lucky to have access to very good tools, some are even priced very reasonably.

 

[mreisner]

It would be interesting to see if the Snap-on ratchets had the scored anvil like the newer ones have to make an engineered breaking point so something more expensive doesn't break like the flex head joint. I have seen some new ones that have it and don't have it and some kits that have it and don't have it also.

 

[2ndGearRubber]

They all die with enough leverage. I'd like to see someone else in the shop buy the gen2 as I want to see the matco-style locking flex head. I have too many ratchets but it's always nice to see another option. The limited Icon hand tools I've seen are generally nice.

It would be interesting to see if the Snap-on ratchets had the scored anvil like the newer ones have to make an engineered breaking point so something more expensive doesn't break like the flex head joint. I have seen some new ones that have it and don't have it and some kits that have it and don't have it also.

That's supposed to be for the "compact" 3/8 anvil on 1/4 gear tools. The regular stuff doesn't have the scored anvil.

 

[KnurledNut]

Unless the ICON truck shows up at your shop, I don't think the comparison you are trying to make is valid.

If your ICON ratchet breaks, just grab a Dual80 repair kit off the Snap-on truck.

 

[milky2k]

I don't see a big deal. Since around 2009 it has been known here that the Dual 80 3/8" ratchets had a limit of 250 ft lbs publicly stated by Snap On.

I mention it because over the years I have heard many stories about how SO makes the strongest ratchet, therefore "everything else is junk". I know these stories should be take with a grain of salt but strength was supposed to be one of their selling points and made them worth whatever premium price SO charges for it. But if SO is not the strongest, will it make customers shop elsewhere? I am not a professional mechanic and not especially loyal to any brand so it doesn't matter a whole lot to me but a ratchet that is half the price and just as strong as SO sure gets my attention. I just wanted to see if this would change anyone's opinion about Icon.

 

[Wamsutta]

Will this be enough to convince users (especially SO fans) to start buying Icon ratchets?

Not in a million years.

 

[Andres26tnt]

Feel will always beat any stats in ratchet. I prefer quick release, hard handles and slim heads. So I'm on a mission to get rid of most of my other ratchet I don't used. Doesn't matter if it's a much stronger ratchet. Fyi I haven't broken a ratchet in years.

 

[2ndGearRubber]

I mention it because over the years I have heard many stories about how SO makes the strongest ratchet, therefore "everything else is junk". I know these stories should be take with a grain of salt but strength was supposed to be one of their selling points and made them worth whatever premium price SO charges for it. But if SO is not the strongest, will it make customers shop elsewhere? I am not a professional mechanic and not especially loyal to any brand so it doesn't matter a whole lot to me but a ratchet that is half the price and just as strong as SO sure gets my attention. I just wanted to see if this would change anyone's opinion about Icon.

In my experience, "strongest" was never about the pipe test. It all dies.

It's about long term repeated loading and what the typical failure mode is. In my experience the number one fault of my dual80s has been slip/grab. Over a lot of cycles, the mechanism can eventually slip at high load and move a few teeth, then re-grab. I've never broken an anvil on a dual80, but I did bend a 3/8 drive handle once. Compare this to the matco88, my experience is the failure mode is typically the snap ring blowing out. The guts fall out and it just gives out 100%.

So which is "stronger"? Lets say the matco holds 20% more peak load, is it "stronger"? Do you want it to be? I bought and use both for different reasons. Chucking something up with a pipe on it is a fun test and all, and it's very easy to produce data from. Compare it to the "how many times can 2ndGearRubber violently yank on this ratchet with all his strength, then load it to 80% of failure, then slam it again test" - much harder to do and collect good data from. But what is more like your actual use? How to quantify that, I have no idea. Frankly the tool trucks and other premium brands have sold the "massive peak strength" argument at times, because at one point it was an easy box to check over other cheaper options. As cheaper stuff has gotten much better, this rather strawman claim now makes them look dumb. But it was easy once to say "yeah bro we're the best look how long a pipe it will take", rather than have some nuanced discussion about failure modes, lifecycle between rebuilds, etc.


All of that said, good ratchets seem quite plentiful these days. If Icon has an issue, the 18" 3/8 drive ratchets will find it quickly. Those tools are inherently a bit sketchy to use. My guess? The icon will do well. I really liked Gearwrench 84s a decade ago and they worked for me. I'm sure the G2s will be at least as good as those, without the snap-ring issue.

 

[Andres26tnt]

How is a person gonna know the ft lb their ratchet is failing at with their cheater pipe when doing actual work?

Is there really that important?

How do you know it's consistent with such a small number of test ratchets. TTC and all the other channels are just testing 2 ratchet or less. How is that considered consistent? They need a bigger batch period. It's why I don't take these test results seriously.

In the real world, the numbers between each other is small. People doing real work aren't exerting exact numbers. They can with a small pull exceed the numbers and break the ratchet. The most important aspect is that manufacturers need to exceed the standard for quality reason.

 

[gatewaysysop]

How do you know it's consistent with such a small number of test ratchets. TTC and all the other channels are just testing 2 ratchet or less. How is that considered consistent? They need a bigger batch period. It's why I don't take these test results seriously.

Been saying this for years. These "comparisons" are entertainment at best, whichever way the results land, because they can claim virtually no repeatability in the results due to the minuscule sample size.

 

[seber]

I have never heard of a ratchet being broken from torque in normal use. If you need a handle extension, you should be using a bigger size or at the very least, a breaker bar. What makes one ratchet better than another is back drag and reliability. I don't own any HF ratchets, but I can tell you that Snap-on and Koken will last a lifetime from my own experience. I can also tell you that the made in USA Craftsman will fail like popcorn with any regular use. I'd bet any ratchet sold today that is not made in China will be reliable. So if I were buying, the one thing I would be looking at would be back drag. Koken for the win. Too bad they work backassword. My 1972 Snap-ons are still my go to.

 

[CHI_Tool&Die]

Unless the ICON truck shows up at your shop, I don't think the comparison you are trying to make is valid.

To add to this, unless I have a catastrophic failure involving the ratchet body, it’s a lot easier to grab a repair kit from the Snap-on truck than grab a new ratchet that may or may not be in stock from HF. My HF has been out of stock on a lot of stuff and it’s taking a lot longer to get them shipped in. My Snap-on driver always has a drawer full of repair kits.

 

[bwringer]

Whatever the brand, those stupidly looooooooooooong handles on 3/8" drive ratchets are stupid. I genuinely do not understand the point of a tool that fits in fewer places, bangs into more **** in use, and runs a greater risk of breaking under the sort of yankage any halfway healthy human can generate. If I need that kind of leverage, I'm moving to 1/2" drive.

All else aside, one requires me to drive 1.5 miles to a store and pay a two-digit sum of dollars, and the other requires somehow developing a warm, loving, and mutually respectful and fulfilling relationship with an extremely elusive man in a truck, and paying him about three times the money. And if I'm really lucky, and keep spending lots of money, he might give me a pair of red socks.

 

[Mr_B]

Regardless of one's bias you can't ignore the results.
ICON's perform nice and are strong .
They also easily available to anyone and got a current usable warranty at at potential couon deal pricing they pretty good value buy .
I wasn't a fan of the Gen 1 ratchets as nothing special at best to a design fault at worse, the Gen 2 looks big improvement and shows signs of some thought and effort in the product rather than just usual reliance of marketing BS .
I will likely get locking flex versions at some point for the mobile truck & salvage yard tools ...

 

[d.mcfarland]

Regardless of one's bias you can't ignore the results.
ICON's perform nice and are strong .

I mean, no offense to the ICON lovers (kinda), but if they just copied Snap On, seems like mediocre manufacturing still would give favorable results.

 

[zendriver]

I mean, no offense to the ICON lovers (kinda), but if they just copied Snap On, seems like mediocre manufacturing still would give favorable results.

IMO, the Asians have discovered, that making something high quality, does not really take that much more effort, They seem to now take pride in the products they build. Go figure. Wonder where they stole that idea from?

Recently purchased a "G1" 3/8 Icon ratchet, low profile comfort grip, first ratchet purchased in nearly 30 years. (My 50 yo Snap on getting sloppy) The Icon was impeccably over packaged, looks to be nearly flawless and works just like a very nice ratchet should

Is it as good as it's "beaten" SO equivalent, at 4x the price?

Should those that just need a quality tool even care?

 

[CHI_Tool&Die]

Whatever the brand, those stupidly looooooooooooong handles on 3/8" drive ratchets are stupid. I genuinely do not understand the point of a tool that fits in fewer places, bangs into more **** in use, and runs a greater risk of breaking under the sort of yankage any halfway healthy human can generate. If I need that kind of leverage, I'm moving to 1/2" drive.

All else aside, one requires me to drive 1.5 miles to a store and pay a two-digit sum of dollars, and the other requires somehow developing a warm, loving, and mutually respectful and fulfilling relationship with an extremely elusive man in a truck, and paying him about three times the money. And if I'm really lucky, and keep spending lots of money, he might give me a pair of red socks.

I use the **** out of my 13” 1/4” and 18” 3/8” ratchets. It’s not always about leverage. I have fixtures at work that sit about 6” in from the vise which already about 4” from the table limit so I need something that has a lot of reach. I’m sure other dudes have similar needs.

 

[johninct]

Whatever the brand, those stupidly looooooooooooong handles on 3/8" drive ratchets are stupid. I genuinely do not understand the point of a tool that fits in fewer places, bangs into more **** in use, and runs a greater risk of breaking under the sort of yankage any halfway healthy human can generate. If I need that kind of leverage, I'm moving to 1/2" drive.

All else aside, one requires me to drive 1.5 miles to a store and pay a two-digit sum of dollars, and the other requires somehow developing a warm, loving, and mutually respectful and fulfilling relationship with an extremely elusive man in a truck, and paying him about three times the money. And if I'm really lucky, and keep spending lots of money, he might give me a pair of red socks.

I don't have the extra extra long 3/8 " ratchet, but can imagine there are applications where it will make a hard job easy. I do have the extra extra long 1/2" ratchet and figured i really wouldn't use it much but have started to use it more and more because it makes the job easier.

 

[mreisner]

They all die with enough leverage. I'd like to see someone else in the shop buy the gen2 as I want to see the matco-style locking flex head. I have too many ratchets but it's always nice to see another option. The limited Icon hand tools I've seen are generally nice.




That's supposed to be for the "compact" 3/8 anvil on 1/4 gear tools. The regular stuff doesn't have the scored anvil.

I have a new long handle dual 80 that came that way off the truck. Not sure if it was a fluke but I did ask and he said he didn't switch anvils on that one for parts. I wouldn't doubt that the wrong Anvil got dropped in at the factory either.

I got one of the new flex head g2 ratchets and put the Snap-on kit in it. It now has lower back drag and is smoother and I really like the locking mechanism that is like the Matco one. I guess FrankenRatchet was kind of what I was looking for. I wish nap I would make a dual 80 flight the Matco locking mechanism. I didn't mind the old style locking mechanism but I don't care at all for the new style rocker mechanism in the head.

 

[mreisner]

I use the **** out of my 13” 1/4” and 18” 3/8” ratchets. It’s not always about leverage. I have fixtures at work that sit about 6” in from the vise which already about 4” from the table limit so I need something that has a lot of reach. I’m sure other dudes have similar needs.

I've got a whole lot of stuff on farm equipment that it isn't about torque it's about access my 3/8 long flex heads are my go-to. As arthritis and other aches and pains creep in, long half inch doesn't get used nearly as much. 30 or 40 overhead bolts tightening and loosening down with a half inch compared to a 3/8 that little bit of weight savings still makes a difference

 

[WWheeler]

Some months back Eric O. @ South Main Auto was saying he put all his equivalent snap-on ratchets away and replaced them in his boxes with Harbor Freight's G2 line, just to give them a go. He hasn't really said much of anything good or bad about them so far, so I guess they are doing allright.

 

[Pinne]

Breaking strength is one of the least useful comparisons for a modern ratchet. Who is putting ~200lbs of force into a long 3/8 ratchet to get it to break? You're going to grab a long 1/2" drive ratchet or an impact.

How's the performance and feel after having loosened and tightened 1000 fasteners with it? How do they hold up after repeated exposure to high torque (not just breaking point torque)? How's the slop in the mechanism - the arc swing test does a little to show this but feel is very important in a ratchet IMO and there is no measurement showing how much movement there is.

Anyways, the 1/2" Icon G2 had a bunch of reports about binding up under higher torque loads both here and on other social media spots. That says to me, that even though the swing arc is OK there is a lot of slop somewhere causing it to bind. And having felt a couple of the G2 ratchets in a store demo case I do not think they are identical to a Snap-on - more slop in the flex head, more slope at the drive, higher backdrag. And they really shouldn't be identical given the cost differential.

The last 10% in any project or product takes as much to achieve as the first 90%, in my experience. So to me the question is whether or not I want to pay for the last 10% - if you already have Snap-on I think it'd be difficult to want less.

 

[ecotec]

I don't have the extra extra long 3/8 " ratchet, but can imagine there are applications where it will make a hard job easy. I do have the extra extra long 1/2" ratchet and figured i really wouldn't use it much but have started to use it more and more because it makes the job easier.

I have one, but it isn’t flex head. I bought it way before Snap-on started making the extra long flex (LLF).

That is, pretty much, the only ratchet that I still “need”… which is, probably, a great exaggeration.

I am hoping to stumble on to one of those for cheap, and maybe some locking flex head Matco’s.

In all practicality, I’m pretty set for ratchets. Anything I buy, going forward, will be top of the line and cheap.

 

[Cc_windsurfer]

I want that Nepros ratchet

 

[dnschmidt]

I can guarantee it will not.



I think this is a tired, useless discussion that does little more than sow division among the members of this forum. You're never going to convince someone who paid a ton of money for a Snap On ratchet that strength, or back drag, or arc swing, or any other metric tells the whole story. There's always going to be those that prefer the feel of a certain ratchet and think that it being made in one place or another matters more than all those things combined. You're never going to convince others that paying a premium for those intangibles makes sense. The point is, you're never going to be able to convince someone of something they don't want to be convinced of.



And I can't walk on to a Snap-on truck parked in my residential cul-de-sac at 7:30 on a Sunday night. Regardless of how tools are sold/purchased, if they are otherwise identical in their purpose and function, a comparison between them is still "valid".

ICON could leap tall buildings in a single bound and Snap-On guys wouldn't give a ****. I have a Snap-on driver living 40 feet across the street from me that gets more shipments every day than the average Wal-Mart. In this day and age branding means everything and true utility means very little. If Snap-On sold toilet paper a surprising number of people would pay twice as much for it as Scott. If asked about this the standard Snap-On user's answer would be: "I only wipe my *** with the best." You can't quantify or justify human nature. GeoBruin is completely right.

 

[zendriver]

Sound's like for the price of Snap On, you get personal, enhanced service.

 

[Madjik Man]

I understand the entertainment value of these videos and how popular they have become. And yes there is some valuable information in them.

However I find it to be more valuable to see how these tools fair in their appropriate usage vs how far you have to push them until destruction. To me it’s akin to grading vehicle engines based on how long they last running in the redline band.

Im a home gamer. Dont own any Snap On but I would assume they’d be my nicest ratchet if I did. I own the Icon Gen1, don’t like them. My go to these days are the Capri 90s or Kokens.

Might check out the Icon Gen2 if they come out with a shorter length version.

 

[WhataTool]

Some low effort critiques here as usual

- Not relevant because of sample size, need to test 25 to mean anything: Then i suppose nearly every review you've seen of anything new was not relevant from cars to refrigerators. The 2 icon's and the 2 SO's also tested very close on every measurement. Any criticism you can levy universally regardless of the situation or source is pretty weak "well, did you buy 20 of them? Didn't think so"

- How much torque it takes to break a ratchet doesn't make it the best ratchet: Unless I'm watching a different video this made for only 1/4-1/5 of their scores.

 

[pfbz]

Unless the ICON truck shows up at your shop, I don't think the comparison you are trying to make is valid.

Unless your Snappy driver is available seven days a week, 12 hours a day, to swap tools on the spot, I don't think the comparison you are trying to make is valid.

Oh, and I have five HF stores within 20 miles of me....

Don't get me wrong, I love my snap-on tools, and think there are lots of *other* reasons the comparison might be flawed, but 'because the snap-on guy comes to my work once a week and might or might not have the replacement tool on his truck' is simply not one of them for me.

 

[Wamsutta]

The fact of the matter is, there would be no ICON if there was no Snap-on to try and copy.

They can try all they want but it will never be the same tool.

 

[pfbz]

Given a base level of fairly high reliability and strength, my choice of ratchets is going to come down to ergonomics and feel far before ultimate explosion torque... In fact whether a 3/8" drive 10" long ratchet blows up at 210 or 310 ft-lbs is absolutely inconsequential to me on a tool that will rarely if ever even see 100 ft-lbs.

But how it feels in my hand, the balance, how well it takes and releases a socket, heck even how well it stores in my tool box are things that I will experience thousands of times for the one time I might decide to slip a yard-long cheater pipe on my ratchet and crank the living **** out of it, perhaps because I have no other alternative...

 

[dnschmidt]

The fact of the matter is, there would be no ICON if there was no Snap-on to try and copy.

They can try all they want but it will never be the same tool.

And why would that be? Steel is graded by international standards. There is nothing unique about a Snap-on ratchet that can't be determined by a five minute disassembly. It's not like trying to duplicate a state of the art TSMC chip that can only be printed using a 200 million dollar ASML stepper.

 

[sightbike]

This has become tiresome, and the constant circular debates are just sad. Wonder how many people waste hours watching Youtube videos when they could have just bought a Walmart made in china special and just did the work.

OP - buy what you like. If it’s the Icon, then swap everything out. Let’s not kid ourselves either - no one on this forum is going bend a ratchet like Superman during use.

 

[2ndGearRubber]

I have a new long handle dual 80 that came that way off the truck. Not sure if it was a fluke but I did ask and he said he didn't switch anvils on that one for parts. I wouldn't doubt that the wrong Anvil got dropped in at the factory either.

I got one of the new flex head g2 ratchets and put the Snap-on kit in it. It now has lower back drag and is smoother and I really like the locking mechanism that is like the Matco one. I guess FrankenRatchet was kind of what I was looking for. I wish nap I would make a dual 80 flight the Matco locking mechanism. I didn't mind the old style locking mechanism but I don't care at all for the new style rocker mechanism in the head.

What's the part number? Im curious as to the rebuild part number for you ratchet. If they shift all dual80s to that design that would be a big downgrade to me. IIRC the 72 in the part number of the rebuild kit means it's 3/8 in 1/4 body and all those ratchets using that kit show the underscored head anvil.

I agree the Matco style locking flex is probably the best design out there. Great move by Icon to use that.