Which Ratcheting Screwdriver Brand Wins?
We compared 14 ratcheting screwdriver options head to head. PB Swiss came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
PB Swiss
Price shown in test: $144
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LTT
Price shown in test: approximately $70
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Black and Decker
Price shown in test: $16
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Arc swing efficiency (passes for one rotation) | Ratchet back drag | Shaft wobble (build quality) | Shaft rotation in lock position | Magnet strength | Bit retention/grip strength | Phillips number 2 bit failure load | Destructive handle/ratchet failure load (excluded from overall ranking) | Overall average ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1PB Swiss$144 | 9.8 passes, third position | 66.98 g, about six and a half times as much back drag as the leader | 0.058 in, barely more than Snap on, not enough to take the lead | 0.17 in, about 2 to 3 degrees, best of all brands | 199.48 g (restated as 199.5 g in the closing recap), best of all brands, more than twice the next competitor | 2,199 g, about 4.8 lb, best of all brands | 144 in lb, strongest bit of all brands | ratcheting mechanism began spinning out inside the handle at 230 in lb, but the mechanism held up fine, no full failure recorded | 3.3, best overall, declared winner |
| 2LTTapproximately $70 | 9.3 passes, best of all brands | 9.08 g, best of all brands | 0.041 in, three way tie for first place with Megapro and Irwin | 0.745 in, notably worse than Megapro despite less back drag | 89.9 g, took the lead from Wera at that point (second best overall behind PB Swiss); only brand with a dedicated magnet included in the bit set, strong enough to lift the screw, a block of wood, and the scale at over 300 g | 1,201 g, about 2.7 lb | 128 in lb, broke without twisting the flutes | 295 in lb before letting go, described as far exceeding its performance rating | 3.8, runner up |
| 3Megapro$34 | 9.5 passes, took the lead from Milwaukee at that point | 19.48 g, took the lead from Black and Decker at that point | 0.041 in, three way tie for first place with LTT and Irwin | 0.42 in, second place behind Milwaukee | not magnetized | 890 g, close to Husky | 130 in lb, took the lead from SATA at that point | gearbox held up fine but the shaft finally failed at 252 in lb | 5.3, third place |
| 4Williams$36 | 11.8 passes, good enough for third position at that point | 13.88 g, took the lead from Megapro at that point | 0.048 in, performed almost as well as Megapro/Irwin/LTT | 0.556 in, better than average but almost twice the Milwaukee's rotation | 68.89 g, first brand in the testing order with a genuinely productive magnet | 898 g, very close to Megapro and Husky | 110 in lb, bit was brittle and broke without twisting the flutes | 404 in lb | 5.5, fourth place |
| 5SATA 19-in-1$17 | 12.5 passes, moved into the lead at that point | 240 g, about eight times more than Black and Decker | 0.061 in | 0.519 in, about 8 degrees | 8.1 g, not very strong | 1,227 g, about 2.7 lb | 126 in lb, bit twisted noticeably before breaking | handle finally broke at 477 in lb after the ratcheting mechanism refused to give up | not tested |
| 6Lenox 8-in-1$17 | 12 passes, took the lead from SATA at that point | 129.5 g, more than four times as much as Black and Decker | 0.048 in, least amount of shaft wobble recorded up to that point | 0.637 in, better than Black and Decker but not as good as SATA | 8.3 g, about the same as SATA | 1,216 g, very close to SATA | 115 in lb, bit was extremely brittle and snapped without visible twisting | not individually stated for Lenox in this segment of the transcript | not tested |
| 7Husky$18 | 11.9 passes, barely edged out Lenox | 44.88 g, second place behind Black and Decker at that point | 0.081 in, about twice as much slop as Lenox | 0.495 in, moved into the lead at that point | offers very little help, not able to lift a screw | 899 g, gave up a little sooner than the competition at that point | 120 in lb | ratcheting mechanism began grinding parts at 361 in lb | not tested |
| 8Klein Tools 15-in-1$20 | 12 passes, two way tie for second place with Lenox | 39.89 g, better than Husky | 0.072 in, performed a little better than Husky | 0.547 in, could not quite match Husky | performed about the same as Husky, not able to lift a screw | 1,155 g | 111 in lb, first bit to experience cam out; badly twisted but stayed in one piece | ratcheting mechanism broke free inside the handle at 326 in lb | not tested |
| 9Milwaukee$24 | 10 passes, a commanding lead over Husky at that point | 38.38 g, barely edged out Klein Tools | 0.152 in, most slop of any brand recorded up to that point | 0.308 in, about 5 degrees, moved into the lead at that point and finished second overall on this specific test | not magnetized | 1,181 g, fourth position | 108 in lb, gave up a little sooner than average; tip of the bit broke off with some flute twisting | gearbox described as more durable than the handle, failing at 319 in lb | not tested |
| 10Irwin 8-in-1$34 | 12 passes, performed just like Lenox | 319 g, about 20 times as much back drag as Megapro | 0.041 in, three way tie for first place with Megapro and LTT; narrator notes this brand has the most back drag of all, which helped this particular result | 0.718 in, about 11 degrees, about the same as Black and Decker | 2.58 g, struggled to register on the scale | 1,220 g, second position, almost the same as SATA | 127 in lb, barely edged out SATA for second position; bit is very hard and broke without significant flute bending | ratcheting mechanism broke free inside the handle at an eye popping 552 in lb | not tested |
| 11GearWrench$40 | 11.6 passes, barely edged out Williams | 39.8 g, more than twice as much back drag as the leaders | over a quarter inch of movement, worst of any brand recorded up to that point | over an inch, struggled due to the two position handle contributing to movement | 49.88 g, second best magnet recorded up to that point, about 20 g less than Williams | almost made it to 1,000 g before letting go | 141 in lb, refused to break and cammed out instead, taking the lead from Megapro at that point; bit badly damaged | 468 in lb before the ratcheting mechanism gave up | not tested |
| 12Wera$47 | 14.5 passes, the worst efficiency result of all 14 brands | 29.8 g, better than average, but twice as much as Williams | 0.066 in, about 50 percent more side to side movement than Megapro and Irwin | almost an inch, struggled on this test | 69.8 g, barely edged out Williams to move into the lead at that point | 1,436 g, about 3.2 lb, strongest hold recorded up to that point, finished second overall on this test | 118 in lb, refused to break and cammed out instead; oval shaped flutes offer less grip than other brands | 602 in lb, the most of all 14 brands before letting go | not tested |
| 13Snap-on$90 | 13 passes | 30.88 g, about the same as Wera, three times the back drag of LTT | 0.061 in, more slop than the top three brands | 0.599 in, very close to average | 54.9 g, good enough for fourth place behind Williams | 498 g, gave up early on this test | 105 in lb, snapped off, 9 in lb better than Black and Decker | began grinding teeth at 335 in lb, shaft finally failed at 433 in lb | not tested |
| 14Black and Decker$16 | 14.7 passes, the most of the brands tested early in the video | very close to 30 g, about 1 oz; performed fairly well for a budget screwdriver and held the early lead | 0.142 in, quite a bit of slop | 0.708 in, about 11 degrees | not able to pick up a screw at all | 989 g, about 2.2 lb | 96 in lb, bit sheared without twisting the flutes | ratcheting mechanism first popped out of position at 213 in lb | not tested |
How it was tested
- working arc swing efficiency (back and forth passes to complete one full rotation within a 50 degree space)
- ratchet back drag (grams of force to advance to the next gear tooth)
- shaft wobble/build quality (inches of side to side shaft movement)
- shaft rotation in the locked position (inches of rotation measured 4 in from the shaft)
- magnet strength (grams of pull needed to drop a screw from the bit)
- bit retention/grip strength (grams of force needed to pull a bit free)
- Phillips number 2 bit failure load under a drill press (in lb)
- screwdriver/handle destructive failure load under a drill press, excluded from the overall ranking (in lb)
- internal teardown and gearbox/pawl design comparison (Megapro vs LTT)
“And the PB Swiss came out on top with the highest average ranking of 3.3.”
Data notes and caveats
14 brand head to head across 7 measured sub-tests plus a separate destructive failure test that the narrator explicitly excludes from the overall ranking ("I decided not to include the bit in the screwdriver destruction test and ranking since this really isn't a style of tool that's designed for rugged use"). Only the top 4 finishers (PB Swiss 3.3, LTT 3.8, Megapro 5.3, Williams 5.5) are given an explicit overall average ranking number; the remaining 10 brands are listed in this file in their fixed transcript testing order (Black and Decker, SATA, Lenox, Husky, Klein Tools, Milwaukee, Irwin, GearWrench, Wera, Snap-on), not a stated final rank, with each brand's own per-test placements preserved in its results/notes. Meta chapters are a mix of per-test-category chapters (Arc Swing, Tool Weight, Tool Efficiency, Shaft Rotation, Failure Load) and per-brand intro chapters for only some early brands (Black and Decker, Lenox, Klein Tools, GearWrench, LTT), so chapterMap is false. The video's biggest brand resolution issue is SATA: captions render it as "Sata" once, then "Asada" for the rest of the video; resolved as SATA per the description's Products Tested list and the fixed 14-brand testing order, and documented in the SATA and Irwin entries.