Skil started airing commercials for their Secure Grip wrenches. I also came across an Iron Bridge sales site that is offering a holiday promo bundle where you get some free tools with your first 3 Skil Secure Grip wrench set purchases.
Here’s the ad:
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http://youtu.be/lh09ZzUBgZc
And here’s my Skil Secure Grip Wrench preview post that went up after I spotted these wrenches at the local Home Depot a couple of months ago.
If you’re thinking that this was going to be a “I changed my mind” recommendations post, you’re wrong. I still have few good things to say about these wrenches. The advertisements I’ve seen contain some very big claims that I don’t quite believe.
To start, are these even wrenches at all? Skil Secure Grip wrenches are emphasized for their usefulness on rounded, rusted, and painted-over fasteners. They show how simple pliers, sockets, and wrenches won’t work, but Secure Grip wrenches will.
Even the spokesman calls this a last chance wrench.
These are tools that help you to grip it and rip it out fast.
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This, and what I noticed when I saw these in store, would make me hesitant to use these on delicate or intact fasteners that aren’t already damaged.
Skil and Iron Bridge advertise the Secure Grip wrenches as being the most innovative hand tool on the market. They also say: whether you’re a DIY’er or a serious tradesman, the Skil Secure Grip wrench is the tool for you.
Unfortunately, I disagree – I don’t think these are innovative must-have for all types of users. They might be innovative, but that doesn’t make them widely practical.
I hate to be so discouraging, but I don’t see the appeal of these tools, and as mentioned in the preview, there are a couple of specific reasons why I wouldn’t use them. When I first saw these wrenches in person, I didn’t quite get their purpose. Now, it has become clear that they’re more designed to be used exactly how you would use locking pliers and other nut-busting tools. In that case, why not just use locking pliers or other tools typically used for fastener removal purposes?
The current holiday promotions emphasize the Skil Secure Grip wrenches’ benefits when used on rounded and other damaged fasteners gives me added pause. But then the commercials and ads also claim that the Skil Secure Grip wrench set can handle 27 fastener sizes and can do more than a whole toolbox full of sockets, wrenches, and pliers.
I doubt that.
Here’s a screenshot from the above-embedded commercial, showing a Skil Secure Grip wrench being used to assembly a children’s swing set:
Do you see what I’m seeing? The fasteners on the right are fully seated within their counterbored holes. The fasteners on the left, which the Secure Grip wrench has installed, are left sticking out proud a little bit. Aren’t they supposed to be fully seated, within the recess? It doesn’t look to me like the wrench head can fit inside the recess to turn the fasteners the rest of the way needed to complete proper assembly. Seems to me like the you would still need a socket or deep offset wrench. So why use the Skil Secure Grip wrench at all?
Also, let’s say the swing set has to come down. It doesn’t look like these Skil Secure Grip wrenches could fit around the counterbored fasteners on the right side.
But, I’m open minded. Just because these don’t have a place in my toolbox, doesn’t mean some people won’t like them. If you’re interested in checking them out yourselves, they’re sold at Home Depot. Try them during your next visit. If, you have similar tool preferences and needs as I do, you’ll probably put them right back down. But if you like then, come back and speak your mind. Maybe there’s something about these wrenches that I’m still missing.
I’m really hoping I’m wrong about these wrenches. What do you think? Am I spot-on, or missing the point?
Buy Now(via Home Depot)
Here’s another commercial that’s a little longer than the one above:
http://youtu.be/3z6CdgFll6M
Pencil Neck
I think this sums it up:
https://i.imgur.com/s2ln8xq.jpg
skfarmer
nope, you are not missing anything. that said, i think they would be more useful that the ratcheting universal socket handle thingamabob you featured a while back. the guys that come up with that stuff are slightly off kilter.
Pete
I have seen these at Home Depot, after inspecting them for 30 seconds I set them back down. They have no use in my tool box. IF there was a absolute need for them years down the road I would buy them then. However If I had a stuck bolt I would use a Irwin bolt extractor set. Or some sweet milwaukee locking pliers with the torque ring at the bottom.
Gimmick tool
Andrew
I think you are right on, sir. They look gimmicky. The screen shot is ridiculous as it is clearly photoshopped and the commercial in my opinion is embarrassing. If these “wrenches” we’re actually useful I don’t think Skil would have to sell it as hard as they are or not be as illusive which the marketing seems to be. … Thank you for always being willing to look at the details. That’s why I am an avid reader here. … It baffles me how many consumers don’t take a closer look at details which allows for so many gimmicky and bad tool products to be out there like this one.
jesse
The Milwaukee Torque Lock pliers seem gimmicky to me. I could replace the thumbscrew with an eye bolt if I wanted to, and get the same effect for next to nothing.
Pete
That’s why the Milwaukee torque lock pilers where made. Guys were doing just that, welding a nut on the end of the thumb screw tensioner. I would agree with you however I have played with the Milwaukee pliers and they seem to be more robust and have some tighter tolerances. It really seems like they can handle the higher torque than my Irwin pliers.
Chad
chincy cheesy and a gimmick, if a bolt is that rounded off break out the torch and the jack hammer and the BFH……. Tim Taylor grunts!!
Eric
I haven’t used them, but I think they still look like they’d make great bottle openers.
Mahalo
The claim that these are great “for virtually every size nuts and bolt under the sun” has me concerned about all those nuts and bolts not located under the sun……
Grady
I think these skill wrenches would make a good paper weight, but so does a rock.
joe
Out of topic, but I found it funny how the promotional image shows using the tool on bolts but on the right side of the picture, the tool cannot be used since the bolt heads are recessed. The tool would not work on those…the lowest bolt even looks like it was heavily sunken in – no go there either.
joe
On the positive side, the innovation is not bad…pliers would damage more the heads since the gripping is not distributed equally all around. I would actually want to test these as to how badly they deformed the head bolts… I picture them chewing pretty good on non-harded metals though…but harden ones, not that much.
Implement the technology to sockets too skil and i’ll keep a set in my tool box.
Stuart
That’s not really off topic, as this exact impossible scenario is discussed in the post. I think it’s just a case of marketing and advertising people not understanding how the tool actually works.
Dave
Dumb.
Worthless.
I guess if you have a nut way out in the open, then they might kinda work, but for real wrenching, they’re useless. I’d be embarrassed to own them to the point that if someone gave them to me I’d throw them away.
Phill
After reading this thread, I sense that there is a bunch of Sunday arm chair mechanics piling on these tools. I have been working in property maintenance more than I have particularly cared to, and have run across a bunch of painted and rusted bolts that I rather not have dealt with. Vise grips and locking pliers are a poor choice in such instances (I know, I have tried), and if these tools have a chance of working they would be better than those.
I do think that saying they replace traditional wrenches goes a bit far, but if they can deal with the ornery nuts, then I’m in. I really think that the only way to tell is to put them into your toolkit and see how they work. It’s not enough to judge them in the store. Many times I have questioned the practicality of a tool only to be surprised at how they came through in specific situations later. BTW, if people want to diss on a tool for a specific reason, they should be ready to offer up more than one practical alternative.