Ready Wrench Review

Ready Wrench by Black & Decker

Black & Decker continues to role out innovative tools for home owners and DIY’ers. The Ready Wrench is another example of their innovative tools. The Ready Wrench is a single hand tool that combines 16 popular standard and metric socket sizes in one handy easy to use tool. This single tool can replace up to 16 separate socket wrenches!

The Ready Wrench is a fairly simple concept that uses two rotating heads that serve up the different socket sizes. The handle is made from vanadium steel with a nickel chrome finish. The center of the handle has a nice rubber grip for a comfortable feel.

Available Socket Sizes

The Ready Wrench offers sixteen popular socket sizes shown in the adjacent diagram. Basically Black & Decker matched up SAE (standard) socket sizes with equivalent metric sizes to double the capacity of the wrench. For example, the 1/2 inch socket is also the 13 millimeter socket. A true 13 millimeter socket would be 0.512 inches. I assume that the wrench has taken basic tolerances into account so the two sizes are virtually the same. The few bolts that I tried all seemed to work fine, both standard and metric.

Product Review

At first I wasn’t a bit hesitant about the Ready Wrench concept. I have a great set of sockets (actually two sets) that work great in my work shop. So my first thought was this is just another tool that will sit in my shop and never get used. But then I realized there are several uses for this wrench that I can take advantage of.

Not A Replacement For Sockets – An Extension Of Your Tool Box

The Ready Wrench is now living nicely in my truck’s glove box! Think about how handy it is to have a set of socket wrenches in your glove box that doesn’t actually take up much room. My truck has almost no room to carry a bunch of extra tools in but I definitely have room for this tool in the glove box. Furthermore I would hate to take my nice socket set out of the shop.

Maybe you don’t need one in your truck. You could put it in the “junk drawer” inside your home. I have one of the reversible screw drivers in our drawer and the Ready Wrench would fit nicely in there as well.

My point here is that the Ready Wrench isn’t really a replacement for a full set of sockets. However, it’s certainly a very handy tool and one that most any home owner or DIY’er would find useful.

Ready Wrench Pros:

• One hand tool that does the job of sixteen sockets.
• Small compact size will fit in small tool boxes, glove boxes and kitchen drawers.
• Sixteen popular socket sizes including SAE and Metric sizes.
• Lifetime Warranty
• Open ended socket design allows for deep nuts much greater than a standard deep 3 inch socket.

Ready Wrench Cons:

• Limited number of mixed socket sizes.
• The socket heads are fairly short which places the wrench (and your hand) close to a potential work surface. This could easily be corrected with deeper socket assemblies.

Overall Impression

I think the Ready Wrench by Black & Decker is a great hand tool for any home owner, DIY’er or hobbiest. The MSRP is just $29.99 and it’s a great gift idea for someone this coming holiday season. The Ready Wrench will be available at major home centers, mass merchants and hardware stores this Fall.

Where To Buy Ready Wrench

If you’d like to buy the Ready Wrench then check out the following link: Black & Decker Ready Wrench.