I've had good experiences with Sealey, Signet, Facom and Wera although they don't see much hard use. My old chap was a mechanic and used these brands amongst others (Britool and Gedore which are also decent); they seem like good value mid-range gear and a cut above the likes of Draper.
As with everything else I think you need to be careful in researching individual items though and not put too much importance on brand reputation as they can change, go bust, get bought out.. while some brands offer better tools of one type than of another.
While I like nice gear and am usually happy to spend a fair wedge on quality, I've personally never had any time for Snap On since quality as it may be, it still seems grossly over-priced and I think their pricing is somewhat exploititive and marketing-led rather than 100% reflective of product quality.
Ultimately if you're not using the gear daily for heavy tasks (hanging off it with 5ft of breaker bar and tube!) any decent mid-range stuff should do you well. I reckon your sealey stuff should be fine
As with everything else I think you need to be careful in researching individual items though and not put too much importance on brand reputation as they can change, go bust, get bought out.. while some brands offer better tools of one type than of another.
While I like nice gear and am usually happy to spend a fair wedge on quality, I've personally never had any time for Snap On since quality as it may be, it still seems grossly over-priced and I think their pricing is somewhat exploititive and marketing-led rather than 100% reflective of product quality.
Ultimately if you're not using the gear daily for heavy tasks (hanging off it with 5ft of breaker bar and tube!) any decent mid-range stuff should do you well. I reckon your sealey stuff should be fine
