Metric Ratcheting Wrench Set

[boom_bap]

What is the best budget ratcheting wrench set on the market in 2022? I hear a lot of complaints about the GW these days. The miluwakees are super expensive. Anything that is the goto recommendation for people? Looking to get a set 10-22 but 10-19 would also be fine.

 

[MJK]

Facom 467

 

[ihateminimumwage]

Tekton

 

[Professional Tool User]

I would just go with a house brand rebranded version of GW. Ratcheting wrenches are consumables at the end of the day. Unless the design allows you to rebuild the box end like the blue point ones, I wouldn't spend the extra money.

 

[ecotec]

In metric, I have Williams reversible SuperCombo, Gearwrench, and Blackhawk. The Blackhawk set is only 10-16, and too short to be used as your main set. It would be comparable to short length combination wrench set vs your standard length combination wrench set. I got the Blackhawk NOS for super cheap, and they are worth having.

I would go with the Williams reversible SuperCombo set. The body of the wrenches are forged in USA, but the mechanism is foreign… so they are not stamped USA. They are very comfortable in your hand like regular Williams SuperCombo combination wrenches, Caterpillar, and Wright wrenches. 8mm-19mm is about $145 and the 21mm, 22mm, 24mm, 25mm add on set is about $115.

I will take a picture of them tomorrow.

I also have a set of Gearwrench non reversible ratcheting wrenches. I have never broken any of them so far (I did lose one at some point. Never set any tools down off body or not in your man lift… you are asking for trouble…).

 

[Komet]

If you can get GW or one of their rebrands at 50%ish off retail on sale at the right times of year, they're pretty good for the money. If you're worried about breaking one, you should probably be using a six point box end instead.

 

[Fly YX]

I have some Tekton and they are good but they are having supply issues. The Capri ones are good also. I just got the long Icon ratcheting wrenches have not had any problems. I would definitely wait till HF has a coupon for them though. Capri has a military discount as well. I have a few newer Husky ones floating around and have not had any issues. I would stay away from Kobalt just because of return issues. If they don’t have it in store At least at the stores by me they will not return it unless you call Kobalt and have them do a RMA over the phone.

 

[Fedwrench]

What is the best budget ratcheting wrench set on the market in 2022? I hear a lot of complaints about the GW these days. The miluwakees are super expensive. Anything that is the goto recommendation for people? Looking to get a set 10-22 but 10-19 would also be fine.

This subject comes up frequently so, you might want to search existing threads for more info.

To give you the best possible answer, I would need more information like what do you consider your budget to be? reversible or zero offset flip over style? Flex Head? How concerned about ease of warranty are you?

General recommendations: Gearwrench: they might not be as good as they once were but, the selection, availability, and pricing make them attractive. HUSKY/Duralast/SATA: Gearwench but, with a different name stamped on the wrench. TEKTON: no longer an option as their ratcheting wrench sets have been out of stock most of this year. Would be my number one choice if they were available. ICON: Probably not considered budget friendly but, some of the longest ratcheting combination wrenches on the market. Kabo made for now. Great wrenches in assorted styles and lengths. AMAZON Strange brands: There are probably a hundred or so strange sounding brands of ratcheting wrench sets on Amazon everything from Duratech, prostormer, workpro, jaeger, amazon basics, toolrock, yashong, etc. Some are poo, some are pretty good. What do you expect for less than $50? Some are contract over runs with laser etched names. Do you feel lucky?
Lastly here are some of my personal favorites: Dewalt long pattern reversibles. Craftsman V series, same as FACOM/USAG but, lower in price but, without 15 & 18 mm (stupid SBD). Blackhawk, Blackhawk was making great fine tooth ratcheting wrenches before they became the rage.

On a side note, Harbor Freight recently released a new series of ratcheting wrenches under their Quinn name. Might be worth a look

 

[KnurledNut]

AMAZON Strange brands: There are probably a hundred or so strange sounding brands of ratcheting wrench sets on Amazon everything from Duratech,

FWIW, Duratech is owned by the same company as SK and Lista, GreatStar.

 

[Jtels85]

I wanted Tekton, but because of their ongoing supply issues… I gave up.

I picked up a complete set of Expert metric reversibles and flex heads, 8mm - 19mm, no skips off of the MAC truck. They do pop up on eBay from time-to-time a much cheaper than what I paid. They’re made correctly, no lobster claw design or extra thick metal like those cheap GearWrenches. These things are killer! I absolutely love them.

 

[ecotec]

somehow… the ICON set is more expensive than the Williams set.

 

[Mr_B]

Quinn could be an option if want zero offset set, 12pc set no skips and likely easy warranty, use a coupon and price be pretty good value range .
Could look for Saltus brand sets on amazon too.
The HF ICON long patterm combo switch reversible ratchet wrench set is nice product by high-five manufacturing partners, back when 90bucks range it was a steal lol . I use the HF ICON combo long ratchet wrench set daily and can't really complain as doing the job fine and extra reach/leverage is useful .
oem tools done some nice ratchet wrenches, expert brand silly cheap on eBay can be great value option .
options you choose really depend on if want switched or flip over style wrenches ...
Not a tool you want buy purely on price point .

 

[BlackHorseSaga]

I would just go with a house brand rebranded version of GW. Ratcheting wrenches are consumables at the end of the day. Unless the design allows you to rebuild the box end like the blue point ones, I wouldn't spend the extra money.

The Blue Point aren't really rebuildable. Can't get kits. Even the Snap-on ones with the backplates (like their ratchets), and completely replaceable internals aren't really rebuildable... because you can't get a kit for it.

Would be thinking warranty of the company rather than rebuild.

 

[VolvoRyan]

GearWrench is fine...

Their 90T flex-head ratchet handles made me angry.... but the ratcheting wrenches work fine where they need to.

Who cares about warranty at this price point?

-Ryan

 

[BlackHorseSaga]

GearWrench is fine...

Their 90T flex-head ratchet handles made me angry.... but the ratcheting wrenches work fine where they need to.

Who cares about warranty at this price point?

-Ryan

I always found the Gearwrench ratchets to have heads that were way too large to actually be useful.

 

[Professional Tool User]

The Blue Point aren't really rebuildable. Can't get kits. Even the Snap-on ones with the backplates (like their ratchets), and completely replaceable internals aren't really rebuildable... because you can't get a kit for it.

Would be thinking warranty of the company rather than rebuild.

Where have you tried to get the kit? If it isn't listed on Snap on's online store, it may be available under the counter in the same way as rebuild kits for legacy ratchets if you email them. Though I haven't seen anyone warranty the BP ratcheting wrenches before, at the tool truck level, the amount of space on board is limited, so that may be why the design is in theory rebuildable to begin with. The Snap on guy might not always have a BP ratcheting wrench in stock, so it might have made more sense to stock the kits at least initially.

 

[tarbellb]

This subject comes up frequently so, you might want to search existing threads for more info.

To give you the best possible answer, I would need more information like what do you consider your budget to be? reversible or zero offset flip over style? Flex Head? How concerned about ease of warranty are you?

General recommendations: Gearwrench: they might not be as good as they once were but, the selection, availability, and pricing make them attractive. HUSKY/Duralast/SATA: Gearwench but, with a different name stamped on the wrench. TEKTON: no longer an option as their ratcheting wrench sets have been out of stock most of this year. Would be my number one choice if they were available. ICON: Probably not considered budget friendly but, some of the longest ratcheting combination wrenches on the market. Kabo made for now. Great wrenches in assorted styles and lengths. AMAZON Strange brands: There are probably a hundred or so strange sounding brands of ratcheting wrench sets on Amazon everything from Duratech, prostormer, workpro, jaeger, amazon basics, toolrock, yashong, etc. Some are poo, some are pretty good. What do you expect for less than $50? Some are contract over runs with laser etched names. Do you feel lucky?
Lastly here are some of my personal favorites: Dewalt long pattern reversibles. Craftsman V series, same as FACOM/USAG but, lower in price but, without 15 & 18 mm (stupid SBD). Blackhawk, Blackhawk was making great fine tooth ratcheting wrenches before they became the rage.

On a side note, Harbor Freight recently released a new series of ratcheting wrenches under their Quinn name. Might be worth a look

Listen to this guy ^^^

 

[ecotec]

Here are most of mine…

 

[Mr_B]

the main advantage of being able open them is cleaning and lubing as it dirt build up that plays a percentage in failure from wear and stopping full tooth depth engagement and then easy load failure.
bluepoint on eBay or marketplace worth keeping a lookout for. sometimes new sets are good price and few good clean used sets crop up .
Capri was pretty good lower pricing option when doing sales but think they out of stock on lot of ratchet range also .

 

[boom_bap]

Since I'd like to only buy on set I'd probably lean toward the 5/15* offset ones with the lever or the flex heads? Any preferences there for folks who use them daily/often? Seems like straight ones could get you into trouble here and there if you aren't paying attention so just skip them all together for a single set right?

 

[VolvoRyan]

I always found the Gearwrench ratchets to have heads that were way too large to actually be useful.

Great point. Are there better brands in this regard? I don't use ratcheting box wrenches as much as I used to.... partly for this reason.

 

[pbon]

Since I'd like to only buy on set I'd probably lean toward the 5/15* offset ones with the lever or the flex heads? Any preferences there for folks who use them daily/often? Seems like straight ones could get you into trouble here and there if you aren't paying attention so just skip them all together for a single set right?

I like flex heads but if you use them a lot the flex loosens up. Maybe mine are not high enough quality.

 

[Madjik Man]

So weird. Whenever I'm researching a tool I always use Google search and type "garagejournal" at the end. For example, serendipitously enough, I was searching for "ratcheting combination wrench set garagejournal" last night. I find the results a lot more refined on Google than getting all sorts of keyword results here.

I was reading through many threads from 2020....

Then I see this one on the main page this morning and I felt like I was in the twilight zone, lol.

Anywho... I am a big fan of Tekton for reasons I've laid out many times. I'm a DIYer and while I would love the top of the line stuff, it literally just makes no sense for me. The quality to affordability ratio is paramount for my purchases. And not to mention, their customer service is the best of any company I've ever dealt with for anything.

That said I've read Fedwrench's opinion on Tekton's many times dating back to 2020. I value his(her?) opinion tremendously. I'm not worried about the 6pt vs 12pt ratcheting box end. I have a set of cheap Husky ratcheting combos with 12pt if need be. I'm also not too worried about the lack of reversible feature. I've never found myself in a situation where I got stuck in a tight spot reversing out a fastener... but I'll be much more mindful now.

So I'm going to go with Tekton's ratcheting wrenches when they get back in stock....

...segue

I just spoke with a Tekton CS rep and the anticipated date for being back in stock is mid-December.

 

[BlackHorseSaga]

Where have you tried to get the kit? If it isn't listed on Snap on's online store, it may be available under the counter in the same way as rebuild kits for legacy ratchets if you email them. Though I haven't seen anyone warranty the BP ratcheting wrenches before, at the tool truck level, the amount of space on board is limited, so that may be why the design is in theory rebuildable to begin with. The Snap on guy might not always have a BP ratcheting wrench in stock, so it might have made more sense to stock the kits at least initially.

Trucks can't get the kits. They warranty the entire ratchet. Corporate tells you to just send in the entire wrench for a new one.

 

[BlackHorseSaga]

Great point. Are there better brands in this regard? I don't use ratcheting box wrenches as much as I used to.... partly for this reason.

I have three sets of most expensive ones out there, so I'm not really a good one to ask.

 

[Shoreline_]

I haven't been satisfied with any of the ones I have. I have not tried the SnapOn ones because for the money I don't think I use them enough. I haven't tried the Hazet or Facom ones. But if I could pick it would be flex head 6 point. No idea why 12 pt are so popular.

 

[j3rf]

The Blue Point aren't really rebuildable. Can't get kits. Even the Snap-on ones with the backplates (like their ratchets), and completely replaceable internals aren't really rebuildable... because you can't get a kit for it.

Would be thinking warranty of the company rather than rebuild.

If that's the case then I would expect it to get replaced by my tool dealer. I know all of my dealers would, but I know not everyone has good dealers when it comes to warranty stuff.

 

[garfunkle24]

I haven't been satisfied with any of the ones I have. I have not tried the SnapOn ones because for the money I don't think I use them enough. I haven't tried the Hazet or Facom ones. But if I could pick it would be flex head 6 point. No idea why 12 pt are so popular.

Why would you want 6 point? Anything tight enough that 6 vs 12pt would matter is too tight for a ratchet wrench.

 

[Shoreline_]

Why would you want 6 point? Anything tight enough that 6 vs 12pt would matter is too tight for a ratchet wrench.

If you work on cars in New England it makes sense. Because it's ratcheting the amount of points is irrelevant for positioning. So since that's the case I want 6 so I don't round fasteners.

 

[WWheeler]

I always found the Gearwrench ratchets to have heads that were way too large to actually be useful.

FWIW the heads on my Williams SuperCombo reversibles are larger than my Gearwrench. The width of them is almost identical, with the Williams 3 or so hundredths of a mm wider on both the 10mm and 19mm, but the head of the Williams 19mm is 1.5mm and the 10mm is almost 1mm thicker than the Gearwrench.

I use both but MUCH prefer the Williams and can't remember the last time I ran into any clearance issues where I had to use a non-ratcheting wrench instead. I'm sure it's happened but definitely not a common issue for me.

 

[Alienbaby17]

Just a note on the Blue Point wrenches….

It was probably about 15- 20 years ago that I bought a set of reversible Gear Wrench ratcheting wrenches. Over the first couple years I had a few of them fail. My Snap-on dealer at the time told me (and this may not be correct) that the Blue Point ratcheting wrenches were made by Gear Wrench. He offered to take my broken Gear Wrench wrench and said if I gave him $5 per he would give me a Blue Point branded one off the truck and I would then be able to warranty them in the future. I did this with three or four of them over the years as they wore out.

I just had my 13mm (probably one of my most commonly used) Blue Point wrench fail. My new SO dealer didn’t have one on the truck so he ordered one. I’ve been waiting for almost a month. So, just because it’s a “truck brand” doesn’t always guarantee immediate replacement.

Side note, about the same time I bought the Gear Wrench set I also bought the Blue Point ratcheting stubbies. I know because of their short size they don’t often see the torque of the regular size wrenches, but I don’t think I’ve ever had one of them wear out. I consider them a good value for the money.

Actually for the money I think the GW and BP have both been a good investment. I still have probably half my original GW wrenches and I think considering all of the ones I swapped to BP this 13 mm I’m currently waiting on is only he first or second I’ve ever had trouble with.

 

[captmoto]

FWIW, I have the Husky/Home Deppt zero offset ratcheting wrenches and they are fine for basic use but painful with thin beams if you need to really put some pull on them. If I had to do over again...

 

[Sumboodie]

Been using Gear Wrenches for ~20 years. Seem to hold up fine? My only minor complaint is you have to be careful about trapping the wrench. I've done that a couple times over the years.

 

[Madjik Man]

Been using Gear Wrenches for ~20 years. Seem to hold up fine? My only minor complaint is you have to be careful about trapping the wrench. I've done that a couple times over the years.

Was thinking about this since I posted above…

What do you do if you happen to trap the wrench?

 

[Sumboodie]

Was thinking about this since I posted above…

What do you do if you happen to trap the wrench?

The few times I've done it, I've been able to either hammer the wrench out or I had to cut the bolt. The ones I mostly use are the flex heads. I have a set or two of the straight head ones, but they don't get used much.

 

[ecotec]

Was thinking about this since I posted above…

What do you do if you happen to trap the wrench?

It happens… very rarely… once you figure out where and when it can go wrong… sawzall or portaband.

 

[Ton ton]

Sometimes you can pry it with a screwdriver or pry bar. I'm talking about a trapped nonreversible ratchet wrench. Performance tool markets their flexhead ratchet wrench as reversible but they're lying. Just my worthless 2 cents.

 

[Madjik Man]

I know this isn't metric but I figure I'd post this here.

The local store has a wall of Tekton tools. It just dawned on me to check there for the out of stock ratcheting flex head combination wrenches....

DOH! No metric sets available. Only SAE.

 

[BlackHorseSaga]

FWIW the heads on my Williams SuperCombo reversibles are larger than my Gearwrench. The width of them is almost identical, with the Williams 3 or so hundredths of a mm wider on both the 10mm and 19mm, but the head of the Williams 19mm is 1.5mm and the 10mm is almost 1mm thicker than the Gearwrench.

I use both but MUCH prefer the Williams and can't remember the last time I ran into any clearance issues where I had to use a non-ratcheting wrench instead. I'm sure it's happened but definitely not a common issue for me.

So they're both terrible, oversized ratcheting wrenches.

I ran into it so much with the Gearwrench I never bothered to pick them up for years. Eventually just sold them.

 

[89MustangGX]

I would go with the Williams reversible SuperCombo set. The body of the wrenches are forged in USA, but the mechanism is foreign… so they are not stamped USA. They are very comfortable in your hand like regular Williams SuperCombo combination wrenches, Caterpillar, and Wright wrenches. 8mm-19mm is about $145 and the 21mm, 22mm, 24mm, 25mm add on set is about $115.

Just a clarification - I think your pricing is for the Williams (BluePoint) set. The Williams SuperCombo set seems to hover in the $350 range. Nothing wrong with the BP set, but it's definitely not the same as the traditional SuperCombo style.