Review on EPAuto 3/8-Inch Drive Click Torque Wrench (10-80 Ft.-Lb. / 13.6-108.5 Nm) by George Karadimas

Not discounting the negative review by many, there must be a great deal of quality variance on the production batch. In my case, I must have received a good one, as I was not able to repeat the issues many encountered. Here is my observation:1. In the documentation, it clearly states that the torque wrench function only works in the clockwise direction. This is where it can get some people into trouble, if you flip the switch and rotate counter-clockwise, it acts like a ratchet. There is no click and you can easily over-torque reverse-threaded bolts.2. You don't have to go to the beam type torque wrench to measure torque in counter clockwise rotation. Some click type torque wrench does handle that. I know for certain my Gearwrench digital wrench will do it, as well as my Snap Ons. You may just have to shop around if you like the click type wrenches.3. Torque wrenches like the EPAuto can easily be adjusted for better accuracy if you have the right equipment. You can use weight, or better yet. a electronic torque meter or calibrator to adjust it. There are numerous video on the Internet that covers this subject.4. What most videos do not tell you, is that consistence is far more important. It comes in two manners:4a. Consistence from reading to reading, they should stay within a narrow range and not jumping all over the meter.4b. Consistence across the operational torque range. That means a fairly linear torque reading, so you can stay within the spec from the lowest to the highest torque.5. In the case of my unit, the torque result is within 1-2% of the setting across the range, which is very respectable for a click type wrench.6. More importantly, it is very consistent. I got torque reading under +/- 1% after repeating the procedure 10 times. So if you are tightening a set of bolts, you know they will all receive pretty much the same torque.7. I am very pleased with the result given the extreme low cost of this wrench. I have other cheap wrenches from local hardware stores, I got one where it under torque by over 30%, putting it in a dangerous category. Some varies within a +/- 3-4% band randomly. Yes, it is still within spec, but I would not want to use it on my cars. The wrench I got is perhaps one of the best performance economy wrench I own.8. It does not perform like a top tier wrench, but I paid less than 1/16 the price of the Snap On for it, so it is easy to overlook its shortcoming.9. But based on what I read, this is only true if you get a good unit. I have no idea on the odd of getting a good vs. a bad unit.10. I agree with the statement that if a wrench does not come with a calibration certificate (most low cost brands don't), you should always verify the performance and not trust the 4% spec when you receive it. A design spec does not always reflect the true spec of a production unit if it was never tested. Take my other cheap wrench I discussed earlier for example, if I use it blindly, I would be torquing my wheel bolts to the barely over 50 lb-ft when the manufacturer called for 80. You are at the wheel coming off territory, or suspension pieces falling out, not good.11. Lastly, nearly all manufacturer will tell you the spec is only true for torque setting between 20% to full scale. Since this is a 80 lb-ft wrench, that means setting below 16 lb-ft does not necessarily follow the 4% error spec. I often find cheap wrenches do not click properly at low setting, often the click is so weak that you will miss it altogether and results in over-torquing. This where a more expensive wrench differs (to a degree). If you have a need for low torque work, get a wrench that specifically covers that range. I use a 1/4 wrench that can function down to 3 lb-ft accurately for small fragile fasteners.So bottomline is, this can potentially be a good wrench if you only tighten in one direction. Just test it when you receive it to be sure it is working properly.I gave it 4 star because the product info online does not disclose this is a one-direction only wrench.