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  • Writer's pictureR. Dixon

Selecting A Ratchet Set For Your Home Improving Tool

Of you have a home improvement tool chest in your garage, then you're going to need a ratchet set with both metric and standard sockets. Now then, before you go out and shop the latest sales ads at the local Home Depot, I want you to think about the quality of the tools that you're buying, because not all ratchet and socket sets are made equally and there is a big difference in the durability and quality of these tools.


Of course, if you want a quality set you're going to have to pay for it and it's not going to be cheap. If you do see a sales ads for a socket cordless ratchet sets then there is a good chance they are made in China and are imported by a manufacturer who is interested in selling low cost, high volume tools. Meaning that the chances are it will be of poor quality.



Not necessarily because it came from China, rather because the US company that is contracting through their outsourced Chinese supplier company to build its tools did not specify the durable requirements that you might need.


One way to tell the difference between a good socket and cordless ratchet set from a poor quality one, is to take a ratchet and see if there is any play in it, as you move around the head. If there is any play whatsoever, it might break when you're torqueing down a bolt.

It's very easy to break one of these cordless ratchets and then it is basically a throw away.


Meaning you have to go buy a new ratchet to go with your set. A decent ratchet may cost half the price of the whole set or more. So, you can see you might save money on the purchase, but it will leave you aggravated in the future. Please consider all this.

While cordless impact wrenches have enjoyed an increase in popularity in recent years, the lesser known but affordable and handy cordless ratchet has become an excellent accessory tool for pretty much every tool slinger, as well as a must-have for mechanics.


The design and size of these tools initially struck me as odd or perhaps even a bit cumbersome or unwieldy, but when compared with their air-powered counterparts they are easily unmatched as they are without the frequently-bothersome air hose.


Similar to the compressed-air ratchets, they enable us to get right into some tight spots that are either very difficult for us to get a good amount of beefy torque with our hand tools, or are simply impossible to latch onto with our larger and bulkier impact wrenches.


For these reasons alone, the ratchet wrench presents itself as a very welcome and now even necessary component of a professional shop, if not a serious automobile hobbyist or enthusiast. Without it, many simple jobs would be rendered inconvenient, difficult, and even push us to the brink of swearing on our great-great-grandfather’s grave.

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