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Harbor Freight’s Icon brand has established itself as a compelling alternative to tool truck brands like Snap-On, selling clones of popular tools like wrenches at a far cheaper price than the latter brand. Many of these Icon tools are backed by hundreds of highly positive buyer reviews, with both professional and hobbyist users giving Icon the seal of approval. One particularly popular product is Icon’s 12-piece semi-deep socket set, which retails for $39.99. Harbor Freight compares that price to a similar Snap-On socket set, which costs $331.

Semi-deep sockets help professionals and amateur wrenchers reach into awkward spaces, providing a middle ground between deep sockets and standard shallow sockets. That’s why one reviewer called Icon’s semi-deep socket set “the perfect in-between size,” noting that they’ve “been using these as my go-to sockets unless the job requires […] shallow or deep [sockets].”

Another reviewer said they were “an auto mechanic for 37 years,” and had used tools from every major big-name tool brand. However, they say that when they are “asked about what tools to purchase, I’ll always recommend Icon tools […] because of their price, quality, and durability.” A third reviewer reports that the sockets are “tool truck look and quality without the tool truck price.”

These are just a small snapshot of the socket set’s reviews on the Harbor Freight’s website, with more than 230 reviewers leaving their thoughts to date. Across those reviews, the set has accrued an exceptionally high average score of 4.9 out of five stars, with 99% of reviewers saying that they’d recommend the set.

One of the significant drawbacks of many Harbor Freight products is their short warranty, which can often only extend to 90 days. In those instances, buyers have to weigh up whether or not the retailer’s extended warranty is worth the extra money, or whether to take a gamble on the longevity of the tool. However, buyers of Icon’s semi-deep socket set have no such worries, since the set is backed by a lifetime warranty.

If there are any defects in the product, Harbor Freight will replace it without charge, although according to one reviewer, buyers might be waiting a while for their replacement to arrive. They claim that they lost a socket and have “been waiting for almost eight months now” since “[the replacements] have been on back order.” They add that they’ll be heading “back to Snap-On where I can get replacements when I need them.”

While waiting months for a replacement is understandably frustrating, in this case, the price difference between the Icon and Snap-On socket sets is so significant that buyers could buy a second complete Icon socket set and still save a significant amount of money compared to buying the Snap-On set. The semi-deep sockets aren’t an anomaly either, since Harbor Freight has a range of highly-rated alternatives to Snap-On tools that are far cheaper than buying from the tool truck.