Ultimate “Strongest Ratchet” Test Breaks Snap-On, Tekton, ICON, GearWrench & More

If you’re nerds like us, you might spend your time sitting around and watching tool comparison videos. For those who have worked in a garage, they can certainly understand why. Most who have been wrenching for any substantial amount of time have likely worked with all sorts of different brands of tools.

If you’re anything like me, you probably have your favorite brands. On the other hand, you might be a little bit biased against others. After one too many poor interactions with a certain brand, that brand might not even make its way back to your toolbox again.

This time, however, we’re going to put opinions aside and head straight to the data. When it comes to a ratchet, it seems like some are easier to cave to pressure than others. There’s nothing worse than yanking on a bolt, only to have the ratchet break, sending knuckles flying toward something sharp. We’re sure that some of these brands have had lots of fun curse words associated with them as they’ve led to bloody knuckles.

In this one, the competitors consist of:

• Duralast
• Gearwrench
• Tekton
• Husky
• Icon
• Pittsburgh
• SK
• Snap-On

There is no room for opinion here as each brand of 3/8″ ratchet is going to be paired to a torque meter. It’s all about the facts and data! Each unit will then be worked until failure.

Side note: For those who were thinking of breaking out the super long breaker bar, they might want to think again.

While many ratchets will give in after years of abuse, this kind of test still gives us some helpful insight. Even though someone’s not going to break a ratchet out the box and attach a massive breaker bar to it, this could still speak to the initial quality of some of these brands.

After this test, did your opinion change on your favorite brand of tool?