5 Of The Most Overpriced Snap-On Tools
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Snap-on is one of the most recognizable tool brands on the market, thanks in part to its very visible sponsorship deals across the motorsports world. Its products have long been selected for their build quality and the associated lifetime warranty, but in recent years, that reputation has slipped a bit. In particular, Snap-on tools have often been derided as overpriced, particularly for at-home users, and some customers have observed that the quality of its products may have slipped. And with that? The price of Snap-on tools has become harder to justify. It also doesn't help that, at least when it comes to hand tools, Snap-on is not the only brand to offer a lifetime warranty.
Given all of this, it stands to reason that some tools in Snap-on's catalog stand out as much more egregiously expensive than other items from its line. With that in mind, let's see if it's possible to narrow down the worst value propositions available from the company's franchisees in their "tool trucks."
Click torque wrenches
One class of Snap-on tools that has brought complaints about pricing is the company's click torque wrenches. Torque wrenches are used when a specific level of torque needs to be applied to a task that requires a wrench, like tightening a nut or bolt, with the "click torque" version making an audible "click" noise when it reaches the desired level of torque. For a half-inch drive version with 50 to 250 pounds of torque, Snap-on charges a whopping $484.00.
For comparison's sake, let's look at what's offered by Craftsman, a brand long associated with Sears department stores that has more recently expanded to other stores. It's a popular brand with a long history that offers its own lifetime warranty on hand tools, so it makes as useful a comparison point as any. At Lowe's, the Craftsman version of a click torque wrench with the same specs costs $105.00. That puts the Craftsman wrench at just under 22% of the Snap-on price.
An upgrade from a click torque wrench might actually be a better point of comparison, though. If you stick with Craftsman and want to upgrade to a torque wrench with a digital readout instead of a click indicator, then that will cost you $229.00 at Lowe's. So even the upgraded digital Craftsman version is still a substantial savings over the fully-analog Snap-on version.
Stainless steel 12-inch ruler
This is a particularly peculiar one: Snap-on offers a 12-inch stainless steel ruler with a chrome finish for a whopping $80.50. Being that it's a ruler, a very basic item without moving parts or any other real durability concerns, it's not exactly something that one would expect to be subject to the usual Snap-on markup. What exactly is the concern here? What void is this filling with such an overpriced version of such a basic everyday product, one that small children use in school every day?
If we look to Craftsman again as a point of comparison, we come up empty because Craftsman doesn't even sell rulers. Searching on Google and beyond shows just how outlandish it is that Snap-on is offering a "premium" or "professional" quality ruler. Though not all claim a chrome finish, you can find genuine stainless steel rulers for as low as $1.99 for a Pittsburgh model at Harbor Freight. Staples, meanwhile, has one from their generic brand for $4.69. Even rulers from Shinwa, a high-quality brand using Japanese steel, only go for about $20.00 on Amazon. As much as there may be justifications for professionals going with Snap-on in some cases, this does not appear to be one of hem.
Screwdriver sets
Like the stainless steel rulers, basic screwdrivers don't have any moving parts, so they're relative outliers as far as deserving the kind of markup that Snap-on puts on its tools. That said, unlike the rulers, screwdrivers are prone to wear and tear, so quality does matter. For regular, non-mechanical screwdrivers, Snap-on's line of soft-grip drivers is something of a showpiece and cost $203.00 for an eight-piece set. In June 2022, though, automotive-themed YouTube channel Donut put that Instinct screwdriver set through extensive testing alongside other, much less expensive screwdriver sets, including a few discount options available from Harbor Freight. And the results were ... interesting.
After tests that included cutting off the end of the screwdriver to use as a bit with an electric driver, checking how many pounds of torque the screwdrivers could withstand, and using them as pry bars to see how much pressure it would take for them to break, Snap-on did not fare well. In the torque test, in particular, it was Snap-on and Pittsburgh, the cheapest brand, that did the worst, with the tips outright breaking. Overall? Donut felt that the set that fared the best was a Doyle-branded set from Harbor Freight that goes for just $24.99.
In this case, the difference was pretty stark, with Snap-on boasting an 8.1x markup over a better-quality screwdriver set.
Impact Wrenches
Snap-on's tools being overpriced extends to the company's power tools, as well. For instance, there's the Drive Monster cordless impact wrench, which sells for $887.95. An impact wrench is exactly what it sounds like, an electric wrench used to get work done without the physical exertion required when using a manual wrench. And once again, the folks at Donut decided to see how Snap-on compared to the less-pricey competition, doing a video in January 2022 that tested and compared the Drive Monster with a $120.00 (at the time; it's now $44.99) Bauer-branded model from Harbor Freight and a roughly $370.00 to $380.00 Milwaukee Fuel Gen-3 impact wrench kit.
For removing nuts, the Snap-on was actually the slowest by over a second, while the Milwaukee was the fastest and the Bauer was just 12 hundredths of a second slower than that. All three performed about the same in a stress test, while Snap-on was in the middle as far as battery life, behind Milwaukee but ahead of Bauer. And finally, in the durability test, all three were doing fine until the water resistance test, where Bauer and Snap-on both failed from being poured on, while the Milwaukee still worked while and after being submerged.
The testers concluded that under normal use, all three brands would last pretty well. All things considered, though? The Snap-on arguably came in last place despite its significantly higher price, more than double that of the significantly more durable Milwaukee and almost 20x the current price (about 7.4x the old price) of the Bauer.
Ratchets
We return to hand tools for Snap-on's ratchets, more specifically of the 3/8" variety that Project Farm on YouTube tested alongside many other, mostly lower-priced brands in September 2022. The video doesn't specify the exact model, but from the specifications mentioned (3/8" drive and "Dual 80 Technology") and the price ($129.00 when the video was made), it looks like the F80, which goes for $135.00 as of this writing.
Compared to 17 other similar ratchets starting one from Performance Tool that went for $7.00 and went even beyond Snap-on's price point but going all the way up to a $150.00 iteration from Mac Tools, the Snap-On performed well, but not ~$130.00 well. It did particularly well in the durability test that checked its failure load, scoring an A+ grade, but so did other, much more reasonably-priced ratchets from Kobalt ($28.00), Husky ($30.00), GearWrench ($34.00), Milwaukee ($35.00), and Icon Pro ($40.00). The top pick overall was the GearWrench, which scored an A+ in every single category, with the SATA ratchet being the best value pick at $13.00 since it scored at least an A- in every test category.
So at least in testing? The Snap-on ratchet was not the best, one that it had almost a 4x markup on was. But perhaps more tellingly, it was outperformed overall by a ratchet that it had a roughly 10x markup on. Compared to Craftsman, given the comparable warranty, Snap-on did better in some categories, including durability, but not all of them.