WETT 50-piece 3/8 inch impact set review

What you are getting

A 3/8-inch drive impact socket set, 50 pieces, in chrome vanadium steel with a 6-point profile, laser-etched sizes and a high-impact case. 4,800 g (169.3 oz). $39.50.

The 50 pieces, counted out by the maker:

Group	Sizes	Count
Metric deep	8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 mm (0.87 in)	14
Metric shallow	the same fourteen	14
SAE deep	5/16, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 11/16, 3/4 in	8
SAE shallow	the same eight	8
Drive	3/8 ratchet, 3 in and 6 in extensions, universal joint, 1/2-to-3/8 reducer, 65 mm (2.56 in) hex shank adapter	6
	Total	50

Forty-four of the fifty pieces are sockets, which is the point of this shelf

The buying advice on this shelf is a warning: “count the sockets you will actually use, not the pieces on the box. A 216-piece set is often a 40-piece set plus screwdriver bits, and the bits are the part you already own.”

Set	Pieces	Sockets stated	Share
This set	50	44	88%
CRAFTSMAN 262 pcs	262	118	45%
Hi-Spec DT06003	—	21	—
Amazon Basics 201 pcs	201	—	—
CRAFTSMAN 83 pcs	83	—	—
CRAFTSMAN 159 pcs	159	—	—
Sundpey 257 pcs	257	—	—
Hi-Spec 30 pcs	30	—	—

Two of the eight American sets count out their own sockets. This is one, and it has no screwdriver bits and no hex keys at all — the other 6 pieces are a ratchet, two extensions, a universal joint, a reducer and a bit adapter.

The need card on this shelf ranks sets on Pieces, highest first, and says of that figure: “It is the only range here where the number of pieces has a direct meaning.” On this set it does. On the Sundpey, whose 257 pieces include “screws and wall plugs”, it does not.

And it is the only set on this shelf made for an impact wrench

This site’s own guidance, twice:

“A chrome socket on an impact wrench can shatter. Impact sockets, thicker and less hard, are made for it.”

“Can an ordinary socket be used on an impact wrench? No: a chrome socket can shatter under the impacts. Impact sockets exist precisely for that use.”

Of the thirteen sets on this shelf — eight American, five published earlier — this is the only impact set. Every other is a chrome hand set, and this site’s impact wrenches shelf sells the tool that needs these.

The weight is the physical proof: 4,800 g (169.3 oz) for 50 pieces is 96 g (3.4 oz) a piece, against 37 g (1.3 oz) for the 201-piece Amazon Basics set and 32 g (1.1 oz) for the Hi-Spec 30-piece kit. That mass is wall thickness, which is what an impact socket is.

Deep and shallow in the same set, in both measurement systems

Fourteen metric sizes and eight SAE, each in both lengths. A deep socket reaches a nut on a long stud — a shock absorber top mount, a manifold stud — and a shallow one fits where a deep one fouls the bodywork.

Having both of every size is what makes this a 44-socket set rather than a 22-socket set listed twice, and it is why the metric range stops at 22 mm (0.87 in): it is a car set, not a truck set.

Both systems in one box matters on this market, where a hub nut can be metric and a chassis bolt imperial on the same vehicle.

Six-point, with the reason stated

“6-Point: High-torque 6-point design securely grips fasteners and minimizes the risk of rounding.”

The shelf’s introduction: “Six-point sockets grip the flats of a fastener and round it far less readily than twelve-point ones, which exist to find the bolt in a tight space.”

An impact socket should be six-point, because an impact wrench delivers its torque in blows and a twelve-point socket’s corners carry that load on half the metal. WETT states the geometry and the reason; of the eight sets here, three state the geometry at all.

Chrome vanadium, which Craftsman does not state at all

“made of high-quality chrome vanadium steel for enhanced strength and durability.”

Set	Stated steel
This set · Amazon Basics · Hi-Spec DT06003	chrome vanadium
Hi-Spec 30 pcs	carbon steel, chrome-plated
Sundpey	“good quality steel”, brushed chrome
CRAFTSMAN ×3	none — “Full Polish Chrome Finish” is a finish

The shelf’s introduction lists “stated steel grade” among the five things it compares. Three of the eight American sets name chrome vanadium, and so do four of the five sets published earlier — Amazon Basics, KS Tools, QualiapeX and Retoo. The three Craftsman sets name a finish and a full lifetime warranty instead, which is a commercial promise rather than a material one.

Chrome vanadium is the normal alloy for hand sockets. For impact use the usual choice is chrome molybdenum, which is tougher and less hard — and WETT says chrome vanadium while calling the set an impact set. That is the one thing in this listing worth reading twice, and the listing does not resolve it.

What is not published

No ratchet tooth count, which the shelf’s introduction calls “the part you feel” and which the need card ranks on — only the three Craftsman sets publish one. No torque rating, on an impact set. No case dimensions, where Amazon Basics publishes 450 × 330 × 90 mm. No warranty. No hardness figure. No DIN or ANSI standard.

At $39.50 it carries the highest proportion of sockets of any set here that publishes one, and it is the only set that belongs on an impact wrench.

Availability

On sale at around $40 on the American Amazon store at the time of checking.

Prices and availability are what Keepa reported on the date this page was updated; both move.