Customer Reviews

Stanley 92-716 SAE and MM Combination Wrench Set, 22-Piece

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's official: the Stanley brand is now meaningless. A reviewer five months ago bought these and said they were made in India. The set I bought one month ago was made in China. But that's not my complaint. I don't mind foreign sourcing if it's done right. But there's no way a company can maintain quality control with that much variation in sources and materials, in such a short time. I think my experience proves that point.

This selection would have been great to replace some missing sizes in an old set of classic Craftsman wrenches, many of which I've lost after too many moves over the years. I mostly needed a range of smaller sizes to fill in, in both SAE and metric. I looked at Craftsman of course, but they seemed so expensive (especially since I had not priced them for a long time!) This set would have fit the bill, and I had faith in the brand and in the lifetime warranty. The price seemed unusually low, but I figured it was just some kind of crazy Amazon bargain.

When the set arrived I took it out of the box and looked it over. I had not even gotten as far as detaching the wrenches from the storage tray, when I felt a twinge of pain, and saw blood on my thumb -- along with a speck of shiny metal. Ouch, what the heck was it?

On the outside edge of an open-ended wrench -- which is supposed to be a smooth, rounded curve -- a bit of shiny chrome plating had flaked off. The flake had come from the sharpest end of an underlying crack in the metal, at least an inch long, parallel to the flat sides. I've never seen such a thing in a brand new wrench (or used one, for that matter).

This was not a crack created by the stress of turning a rusted bolt or anything like that. No, this crack came from poor casting of cheap metal.

That wrench was flawed when the metal cooled and it came out of the mold; it was still flawed when it went to another part of the factory, where they machined the edges onto it; it was still flawed when they put it through the plating process; and it was still flawed when they slapped it into that plastic case, boxed it up, and shipped it to the U.S.

Just think about how many steps of quality assurance failed to catch that wrench before it ended up in my home, cutting my thumb. Perhaps most disturbing, think about the fact that the problem was not in the machining or plating, or from bad design, or from misuse.

No, it's a problem with whatever cheap metal they're putting into the furnace and pouring out to make these things. They put the chrome plating on there, and American shoppers like them because they're real shiny. Perhaps people have gotten bad ones before and not noticed, or said nothing. I don't know. But I'm flabbergasted to see a wrench where the metal is so bad that chrome plating won't even stick to it, and where the casting is so bad that they literally made it with a built-in crack.

VISUALLY, the rest of the set looked okay, although the "teeth" inside the box wrench ends were much more rounded than my old Craftsmans. I probably would have put up with that, as much as I really wanted this set to fill the missing gap in my workshop.

But there is no way that I would trust any of them, given my doubts about what lay beneath the shiny surface. In that respect I was glad to have found the flawed wrench right off the bat, rather than getting into the middle of a hard repair job and having one of them snap or slip or whatever. A wrench should be totally dependable from day one, forever. In my experience, the set did not even make it through day one.

I thought about the rating, and I simply can't give it more than one star. I was not about to put any trust the other 21 wrenches, once I saw how bad the quality control was. So I got no use from the product, and found it to be inferior to any reasonable expectation (not to mention the brand name reputation). I had to return the whole set to Amazon, which was a time-consuming pain in the neck, leaving me with a sore thumb and still no wrench set.

I hope this information is useful to other potential shoppers.

I was skeptical abut buying these wrenches because the price was "too good to believe" for a branded product like Stanley. However, the strength and finish of these wrenches is extremely impressive and I'm delighted with the weight, feel and appearance even though I'm a bit of a tool snob.

This product is made in India. This is marked on the box but NOT on the tools themselves. The tools are embossed with the classic, "Stanley" logo, which looks pretty good on almost all of the wrenches; on one of them, the embossing is a little light.

For a homeowner who wants a great set of wrenches at a low cost, this is an excellent choice.

For the price, the quality & the sizes contained in this set, it is a great bargain... and the holder is easy is very user friendly... AAA+++

Wrenches are hard to mess up, but Stanley still knows how to do them well. These are chrome vanadium with no deformities. And while Snap-On is still #1 (or thereabouts) for serious gearheads, for weekend handymen like me, Stanley delivers, and at a good price.

Stanley 92-716 SAE and MM Combination Wrench Set, 22-Piece
I just took delivery of this combination wrench set. Everything looks fine.....except that the handle on the CHEAP carrying case was broken off. I am not going to take the time to return it since I will not be doing a lot of walking around with these wrenches....but still. Very upsetting to get your package from Amazon only to find your new item that you have been waiting for is busted.

The only thing I would change about this set would be the case. It's not built very well at all.

These are well finished wrenches for a good price and they also come with an excellent carrying holder.

Good set, good price. Only downside is that the holder isn't great, but it does keep them together.

For the money this is a very nice set of wrenches. They have a lifetime warranty on them which partially makes up for the fact that they are made in China. Probably 5 star if made here. The storage case that comes with it is nice. It will be nice to work with wrenches that fit for a change and not keep fighting with a cresent wrench. As always, Amazon was great on their end with the shipping.

I putter and do a little DIY around the house and on the cars and I am completely satisfied with the quality of these wrenches. These wrenches are bargain priced and, although I was a little sceptical, they have exceeded my expectations. For years I have been making do with crescent wrenches so it is very nice use wrenches that actually fit!

The storage rack is very handy, making wrench management easy. The only downside is the carry handle for the rack is flimsy. In fact, the handle was broken during shipping and was unusable. I did not think it was worth the trouble of returning it, as the rack is still usable.