Brandon3541 t1_isrp5d1 wrote on October 18, 2022 at 5:17 AM

Reply to comment by BallsOutKrunked in Have there been any studies done on "high quality" products lasting longer than their budget counterparts? by crushed-tomatoes

There is testing done on such things, they just aren't scientific-peer-reviewed studies... which isn't as much of a step down as it may sound like (or necessarily at all for that matter).

Myth busters was popular and widely considered a good source of testing things... but they actually fell into the same boat of not being I'm the format of scientific-peer-reviewed studies.

Anyway though... on the topic of Snap-On, testing, and circle-jerking, the general consensus of those that test multiple different brands against each other is typically that on average Snap-On is only slightly better than many brands of "average" grade tools... but those tools tend to be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than them, and so snap-on tools are just generally not a good value.

BallsOutKrunked t1_isrpjhf wrote on October 18, 2022 at 5:22 AM

I think it depends on what you mean by "average". I intentionally compared it to Amazon chinesium. If you want to compare it to Gear Wrench then sure, snapon is a smidgen better but much pricier.

Brandon3541 t1_isrq74w wrote on October 18, 2022 at 5:29 AM

Ah fair enough, I actually have some cheap "chinesium" tools (think $20 for a big set) I keep as spare in my trunk and they work for that purpose where they are just basic tools for if something goes wrong, but they aren't being used night and day in a shop.

I know those aren't going to compare to any decent brand, but that doesn't bother me for as rarely as they see use.

For more normal use I have a smattering of whatever I could find that was decent.

RennoSeenik t1_isz9ujo wrote on October 19, 2022 at 8:01 PM

I bought some snap on metric combination spanners when I was an 18 year old apprentice and I still use them in industry every day 36 years later. I've snapped precisely one of them by using a pipe over it as leverage. The snap on rep still exchanged it without quibble. I've changed the innards of my 3/8 ratchet twice, again FOC. I think a quality brand like snap on, beta or teng that comes with a lifetime warranty is BIFL for sure.

As regards white goods etc, efficiency improvements tend to rule out buying for life and I look for decent longevity and reliability instead...