Torque Wrench Recommendations?

I don’t have a problem remembering to set them at their lowest settings. I’m my Air Force career, we would fail a munitions loading evaluation if you forgot to do that.
 
X2 for precision instruments, I have 1/2 and 1/4 drive. For the price you really can’t beat them. My 3/8 is a snap on, great tool but I can’t recommend due to price compared to P.I.
The big question is how much do you plan to use it. 1or 2 times a year or 1 job. Sure the HF would most likely be fine.
Mine would see usage every day.
 
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Agree with the HF discussions. There is a 1/4" torque wrench also that is worth getting for some applications (e.g., cycling). I recently acquired the Quinn torque wrench to have higher torque values possible. This one is more difficult to use. Click type wrenches are definitive. Electronic takes some getting used to. They took the 20% off coupon on it.
 
Though this may be very hard to believe, the torque wrenches sold by Harbor Freight Tools are accurate and surprisingly good quality. Get both the 1/2" and 3/8" drive sizes, no 1/2" torque wrench is accurate at lower settings like the 20 ft-lbs. you asked about. I have lots of very good quality tools but those low cost HFT torque wrenches do a great job and they're as accurate as far more expensive torque wrenches. The 1/2" usually sells for $19.95 and is often on sale for less than that The 3/8" costs even less. Both are a click style which is easier to use... they make a loud click when you have reached the desired amount of torque.

A buddy refused to believe his $90 Craftsman torque wrench wasn't more accurate but both tightened hardware precisely the same amount of tightness over multiple tests.

I've been using mine for over 15 years. :)
Agreed 👆🏾
 
I have a Snap-On from 1978 that is the bomb, and I also have 2 made by CDI. CDI makes a great tool at a reasonable price. Made in USA as well. Here in the UAE, I have two cheap ones made by Tekton. They work, but I'll not be bringing them home.
 
There's a good video I just saw on on YouTube comparing Snap-On's to HFT's torque wrench. Surprisingly the HFT was literally just as accurate and had just as good of repeatability. In a few of the tests the HFT was actually very slightly more accurate than the Snap-on was.

There are some YouTube tool comparisons that are questionable but not this one, it was very well done.
 
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I have a set of Matco torque wrenches I purchased in 2013. My recommendation would be precision instruments. They make torque wrench for snap on and are much cheaper. The split beam style 1/2" is very convenient.
 
Though this may be very hard to believe, the torque wrenches sold by Harbor Freight Tools are accurate and surprisingly good quality. Get both the 1/2" and 3/8" drive sizes, no 1/2" torque wrench is accurate at lower settings like the 20 ft-lbs. you asked about. I have lots of very good quality tools but those low cost HFT torque wrenches do a great job and they're as accurate as far more expensive torque wrenches. The 1/2" usually sells for $19.95 and is often on sale for less than that The 3/8" costs even less. Both are a click style which is easier to use... they make a loud click when you have reached the desired amount of torque.

A buddy refused to believe his $90 Craftsman torque wrench wasn't more accurate but both tightened hardware precisely the same amount of tightness over multiple tests.

I've been using mine for over 15 years. :)

I just bought one based on your recommendation. $19.95 for a 1/2" torque wrench is hard to turn down.
 
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Hey, I know this is an old thread, but it's still helpful.

Which Harbor Freight torque wrenches are we talking about? I assume it's the "Pittsburgh" ones that go for about $20, and not the "Icon" ones that are pricier? Just wanted to be sure this thread is still true today, in case HF has started selling different brands.

@Jerry Bransford
 
Hey, I know this is an old thread, but it's still helpful.

Which Harbor Freight torque wrenches are we talking about? I assume it's the "Pittsburgh" ones that go for about $20, and not the "Icon" ones that are pricier? Just wanted to be sure this thread is still true today, in case HF has started selling different brands.

@Jerry Bransford
Yes. The Pittsburgh torque wrenches are good for the price and appropriate torque ranges. They can often be had for less $$ though inflation seems to be making it harder for HF to cut prices. I also got a "Quinn" digital torque wrench from HF for quite a bit more money. Control arms and hub nuts needed quite a bit more torque than the Pittsburgh could measure. I'm not sure I would buy that one again. The primary drawback is how much space it requires to ratchet. Because it is so much longer, I would buy a wrench with much finer "teeth" for the ratchet.
 
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Yes, Icon is one of their new "premium" brands. They still have Pittsburgh too. (Protip, "Merlin" is another HF "premium" brand and they have actually started phasing out their cheap air fitting and filtering parts and replacing with "Merlin" which costs 2x)

While we're awakening this thread, just so you guys know you should not rely on any torque wrench unless you check calibration every few years. It's actually pretty easy to do at home using a handheld luggage scale. I do this every 2 years and whenever I am preparing to build an engine gearbox or drivetrain component, whichever comes first. Check youtube.
 
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Hey, I know this is an old thread, but it's still helpful.

Which Harbor Freight torque wrenches are we talking about? I assume it's the "Pittsburgh" ones that go for about $20, and not the "Icon" ones that are pricier? Just wanted to be sure this thread is still true today, in case HF has started selling different brands.

@Jerry Bransford
Their $20 Pittsburgh wrenches. I remember a neighbor laughing when I mentioned I used a $20 HFT wrench and I asked him what he used... he said a Craftsman. I said go get it and we compared them on a whole bunch of stuff. No difference in what both indicated. HFT's torque wrenches were even measured on their "repeatability" which is how consistent they are on things like head bolts and they had as good of a rating as even high-end torque wrenches from Snap-On. A friend who worked in a USAF Standards Lab that did torque wrench calibrations for USAF mechanics took his HFT torque wrenches to work and checked them on their testing equipment and they compared entirely favorably to the usual stuff issued to the USAF mechanics. I guess that means I'm happy to be using them, they have worked well for me. I have their 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2". I think they're probably a loss-leader type of item that gets people into the store to buy other stuff too lol.
 
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Nice. I've been using my 1/2 that I got from them. Started worrying that I would "pay for it" in other ways by using cheap tools. Now I'll go buy a 3/8 to go with it.
 
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Nice. I've been using my 1/2 that I got from them. Started worrying that I would "pay for it" in other ways by using cheap tools. Now I'll go buy a 3/8 to go with it.
That's a good second size, there are a lot of bolts we need to hand-torque that are smaller where a 1/2" is too inaccurate at their lower ft-lbs. requirements. I didn't need a 1/4" until I got inside my automatic transmission.
 
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Good to know about HF because I have a blind spot in the medium torque range...I have a little 1/4" beam type for the in-lb stuff and I grabbed a used SnapOn on Craigslist for $50 a couple of years ago when I needed to torque something to 200 lb-ft and I didn't have a torque wrench that would exceed 150. I was initially hesitant about the calibration because I had no knowledge of how well it had been cared for or even how old it was, but it matches my 1/2" beam type wrench perfectly everywhere at 60 and 150 so I figure it probably doesn't get too far off anywhere in the range as long as it's not way down low at 20.
 
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I have two Pittsburgh wrenches that went way out of calibration over a few years with only infrequent use. Earlier you posted about a video comparing HF against a name brand. This is probably the one but it's HF's "upscale" Icon line not the Pittsburgh (IMO) junk. The Icon actually outperforms Snap-On!
https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/snap-on-vs-harbor-freight-torque-wrench/.
The video I saw was not about Icon, I haven't even heard of that line of tools.