Chrome sockets vs. impact sockets

[John68040]

Buying SnapOn or any expensive sockets is a waste of money. When they are covered under warranty, you have to wait until you can meet up with a truck. And they're several times more expensive than Craftsman - who will always honor the warranty on broken sockets. When they have them in stock that is, half the stores' socket inventories are disasters.

I swear by my SnapOn ratchets but stick with Craftsman sockets and wrenches because of the tremendously lower price, good enough quality (gone downhill the past decade), and much better availability.

And most of my impact sockets are parts store or no-name ones, because I got what I needed at the time and only use them a couple times a month on average. They certainly work well enough for the price. And I've worked in plenty of harsh environments where they held up fine. Chain tire shop using cheapo impact sockets, usually got a year+ out of them with heavy use and then they'd occasionally crack. Never saw one shatter but I have seen it happen on misused chrome sockets...

 

[jagec]

As for the popularity of 12 point sockets, it's because if you're working in tight areas and can't rotate the socket too much, a 12 point helps a lot.

Luckily, I own a set of ratchets that can themselves be rotated in very small increments to allow me to use a a 6-point socket no matter what. I can even flip a clever little lever on the top to make it rotate in only one direction, which is very useful when loosening bolts in said tight areas.