Properly tightening and loosening the nuts and bolts, is the standard safety procedure when dealing with any mechanism. For doing this work appropriately, people mostly use either a Breaker Bar or a Torque Wrench.
Different tools serve their different purposes, and this is not an exception with these two. They have different characteristics to do their work accordingly. It could be little confusing for you to decide whether to buy a breaker bar or a torque wrench. Let us guide you in this regard merely going through their comparison of Breaker Bar vs Torque Wrench.
Comparison Between Breaker Bar vs Torque Wrench
Quicker Fix
Often you might need to fix or unbolt something real quick. If you are that kind of a person who has to provide servicing instantly, we would suggest you to go with a breaker bar. To get most out of your work, make sure your breaker bar has an impact extension with a socket.
However, on the other hand, working rapidly does not go with the torque wrenches. It is more of a measuring instrument that helps you to tighten a nut or bolt with specific stress or force. For this reason, you have to set a certain amount of force for torquing, so it is more time consuming than a breaker bar.
Smarter Pick
A breaker bar might help you with the timing, but if you are involved in more advanced work, and need to maintain a specific amount of torque, then you have no choice but picking a torque wrench in this case. Almost every torque wrench comes with a LED indicator that shows the amount of stress so that you can work smartly.
Convenience
As a breaker bar works using leverage to get a bolt off, it provides quite a large handle for you. So, it is very convenient to use no matter who you are. But with a torque wrench, things are different. A torque wrench is like a ratchet having a small handle compared to a breaker bar. So, it requires more skilled user. Thus, only professionals and pros are suggested to work with this tool.
Efficiency
A torque wrench is very efficient to tighten nuts and bolts. As it ensures a certain amount of force to tighten, you can provide the right amount of torque. As the breaker bars do not have any measurement system, often you might have to end up over-tightening the bolts which can damage your machine.
So, if you don’t want to face this issue of expensive fixes, you better avoid breaker bar to tighten bolts.
Overall Tightening and Loosening
It is highly recommended not to use a torque wrench for loosening nuts and bolts. Specific drivers are made to serve particular services. Only use a torque wrench to tighten bolts with a certain amount of stress. But if you cannot use it for loosening bolts, what you should use when it is about loosening?
Well, probably you got it right. That is where a breaker bar shows its worth. As we have previously mentioned, breaker bars have a large handle, so it is ideal for loosening nuts with it.
If you try loosening nuts with a torque wrench, it will end up throwing out its calibration, which you might not want to happen. Torque wrenches are expensive, so is the exact stress/force of your precious work. Let a breaker bar to handle the loosening stuff. Why would you go for an expensive tool when you can get your job done more swiftly with a cheaper one?
Conclusion
Breaker Bar vs Torque Wrench each of these two tools has their field of work. But, sometimes they can work as other’s substitute which doesn’t mean you can replace your torque wrench for a breaker bar. Don’t get confused with it. Hopefully, our article will help you to figure out their expertise.
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