Pro tip: don't buy a $60 torque wrench for weekend appliance work

I grabbed a cheap click-type torque wrench off Amazon last spring to tighten compressor bolts on a fridge call. It felt fine for two months, then I snapped a bolt head clean off on a GE unit and had to drill it out. That little mistake cost me $90 in parts and an extra hour of labor, plus the wrench was junk anyway. Anyone else had a budget tool fail on them mid-job, or do you just stick with the name brands?

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nathana4818d ago

Cheap tools always seem to cost more in the long run, and it's not just wrenches. Same thing happens with dollar store batteries that leak in your flashlight, or off brand phone chargers that die in a month. You save $20 up front and lose $100 later when something breaks at the worst time. The real trap is that these tools feel fine at first, so you trust them, and that trust is what gets you. For stuff that just holds a shelf together, sure, go cheap. For anything that can snap a bolt or round off a fitting, the math never works out in your favor.

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