Harbor Freight
There are a whole lot of store-owned tool brands available at your local Harbor Freight. Some of them might offer their products at lower prices, while others are focused on offering more premium items. Icon is probably one of the more popular premium brands that the store sells. It specializes in the production of high-end hand tools and mechanic gear that's still significantly more affordable than most of its big-name competitors, offering everything from ratchets to storage solutions. Like with nearly any tool brand, there are a lot of Harbor Freight Icon tools that are worth buying and a handful that you might want to avoid. That said, Icon's products generally tend to rate quite highly in customer satisfaction.
The brand has dozens of items in its catalog already, including hand tools, storage chests, shop tools, diagnostics equipment, and shop furniture, but new products are still coming out all the time, offering fans more and more tools to help expand their collection and provide new solutions for working around the shop. Those who already collect Icon tools, as well as those who are considering investing in the brand, might be interested in checking out what kind of new products the company has recently rolled out. There are several new additions to the brand's lineup that merit a closer look before you take your next trip to the store.
Icon Master Technician Premium Gloves
Harbor Freight
Chrome-plated hand tools might be the first thing most people think of when they picture Icon's products, but the company makes a wide range of other shop equipment as well. One thing that just about every mechanic needs is a good set of gloves, and Icon's new Master Technician Premium Gloves seem to be a good fit. Anyone who's ever had to lean on a breaker bar only ot have their knuckles scraped off on metal or pavement knows that isn't an experience you want to repeat. Getting a good set of gloves can protect the most important tools you have: your hands.
The Icon Master Technician Premium Gloves are primarily made of a synthetic leather, though there are many additions on the outside of the base fabric that enhance the glove's protective qualities and usability. They have EVA padding in the palm, touchscreen-compatible fingertips, and TPR (thermoplastic rubber) plating on the fingers, knuckles, and back of the hand. Icon states that these gloves feature ANSI/ISEA Level 2 impact protection. The finger gusset material is a breathable spandex that is designed to promote both comfort and dexterity, even when the gloves are worn for long periods of time. They also feature a terry cloth brow wipe and a hook-and-loop wrist closure, which is also made of protective TPR.
Even though these gloves are a relatively new addition to Icon's catalog, they have already received several customer reviews on the Harbor Freight website. The gloves currently have an average user rating of 4.7 out of 5, with 95% of customers recommending them to other buyers. These gloves are currently going for $24.99.
Icon ⅜-inch Drive Flex-Head Digital Angle Torque Wrench
Harbor Freight
Another great tool that just about every mechanic needs is a good torque wrench. Every nut and bolt in your vehicle depends on your ability to remove and re-tighten them, and some of these stubborn fasteners require more than a little force to break and re-fasten. The Icon ⅜-inch Drive Flex-Head Digital Angle Torque Wrench is designed for exactly these scenarios.
The Icon ⅜-inch Drive Flex-Head Digital Angle Torque Wrench has a built-in digital display. In terms of the physical design, the wrench has a 72-tooth ratcheting mechanism and a 5° arc swing. The flex head is able to provide up to 15° of rotation for reaching fasteners in tight spaces. Meanwhile, all of the major structural components are made of hardened steel, allowing the tool to safely deliver up to 100 lb-ft of torque, making it compliant with ASME B107.300-2010 torque test safety requirement standards.
Then there are the digital features that come with the display. This has a bilingual readout (English and Spanish) and can provide readings in multiple units of measurement (lb-ft, lb-in, Nm, Kgcm, dNm, and angle). It has a few other useful features as well. You can program and store up to nine torque settings, and it has four different alert modes: audible, vibration, LCD, and LED. These can be used to indicate things like when you have reached a desired torque.
The ⅜-inch Drive Flex-Head Digital Angle Torque Wrench has an MSRP of $349.99, which is likely part of the reason it has only received 13 customer reviews on the Harbor Freight website so far. But even so, all of them have been a perfect five stars, giving the tool a 100% recommendation rate.
Icon 4-Piece Professional 10mm Socket Set
Harbor Freight
Those who decide to pick up Icon's new wrench might also want to pick up a few sockets to use with it. The 10mm socket is one of the more heavily used sizes among mechanics, which also means it's one of the sockets that most frequently get lost when working from larger kits. This is such a common phenomenon that losing a 10mm socket has become something of a meme in the automotive world. Fortunately, Icon has released a brand new 4-Piece Professional 10mm Socket Set that you can get for just $9.99.
The set includes four 10mm sockets: two shallow sockets and two deep sockets, with each style available in ¼-inch and ⅜-inch sizes. They're made from hardened chrome-moly steel with a high-polish chrome finish that is designed for increased torque strength and corrosion resistance. This stronger material allows them to have thinner walls, which makes them easy to fit into tight spaces where a thicker socket might not be able to reach. Each of the sockets has chamfered openings and a shallow hex depth. This makes it easier to engage the socket with the fastener and keeps the outer lip near the fastener's head, even when using the deeper sockets. The 10mm designation is embossed in large font near the base. When you put all of this together, it almost looks like this $10 Icon Socket Set came from Snap-On.
This is another Icon product that has managed to maintain a flawless score on the Harbor Freight website in the time since its launch. The socket set has a perfect 5 out of 5 from the 23 reviews it has received thus far and is recommended by 100% of customers.
Icon Magnetic Tool Mat
Harbor Freight
Is there any worse feeling than when you're working on your car and accidentally knock a tray of fasteners into the engine bay? How about when you're on a creeper and you hear the socket you need roll away to who-knows-where? Keeping all these metal parts in one place is essential, and having some magnetic storage solutions can help with that.
Harbor Freight sells a bunch of different-sized magnetic parts trays, but now Icon has just added something new to the store's inventory: A Magnetic Tool Mat.
This is an 11-inch by 9-inch mat with a polyvinyl chloride faux leather surface that is designed to be durable and abrasion-resistant. Between the layers of this mat rest 83 tightly spaced, high-powered magnets that attract ferrous metals on both sides. This means that not only can you magnetically attach metal tools and parts on one side of the mat, but you can also use the other side to adhere the mat itself to any solid metal surfaces, such as the oil pan on the underside of your vehicle or the side of a toolbox. Unlike most magnetic storage containers, the mat is able to bend and contour to curved surfaces as well.
This tool has perhaps the most impressive score on the Harbor Freight website by virtue of the fact that it already has 147 reviews and has still managed to maintain a perfect 5 out of 5, with 100% of customers stating that they would recommend it to others, making it one of the highest-rated Icon shop tools you can buy at Harbor Freight. The mat costs $24.99, and just like with Icon's hand tools, it comes with the company's lifetime warranty.
Icon Professional Tire Pressure Monitoring System
Harbor Freight
The last new item on our list is also the most expensive. The Icon Professional Tire Pressure Monitoring System runs $699.99. This is pretty affordable when placed next to the $1,255 Snap-On TPMS4 that Harbor Freight asks shoppers to compare it to, but it's nevertheless a hefty piece of pro gear that goes well beyond the needs of the average weekend mechanic.
This toolkit can read, diagnose, and relearn from sensors made by over 30 different aftermarket brands and the Bluetooth sensors that you might find in a newer vehicle. The device itself displays PSI, ID, temperature, frequency, and battery status on a 4.3-inch, full-color touchscreen display with bright backlighting. It's powered by an internal 3.7V, 3000 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery that has an auto power-off feature. The device has a built-in barcode scanner for identifying VIN numbers, a key fob signal strength and battery condition tester, and an eight-button layout on the side of the screen to interface with and initiate programs and tire placard adjustments. It also comes with a few extras, including a nylon case with die-cut foam inserts for storage and transportation, as well as an OBDII cable that you can use for direct ECU (engine control unit) updates when using the on-board diagnostics relearning that the tire pressure monitor sensors provide.
On the software side of things, Icon promises that the Professional Tire Pressure Monitoring System has a "Comprehensive library of vehicle reset, relearn, and registration procedures," which are compatible with a majority of domestic, European, and Asian vehicles. Additionally, it comes with a one-year subscription to free software support and updates.
