Yeah, I know: "HF" & "quality" do not belong in the same sentence 8-) And I know that you get what you pay for. Nevertheless, I do own a set of HF metric combo wrenches. And for several years they have been satisfactory in very undemanding use. Today I found the limit on one of them.
I was replacing a tie rod end and trying to loosen it when the wrench just broke. I was in an awkward position and using a hand on each of 2 wrenches, going opposite ways, so I wasn't leaning on the wrench. Or using a cheater. Pretty modest demand.
In my shop, I reproduced the situation, more or less, using a torque wrench and found that I could exert 65 ft-lbs on an 18" torque wrench, or 43lbs force. 43lbs on the 9" HF wrench is only 32 ft-lbs torque!
The break was on the open end of the wrench, right where the straight side meets the rounded inner side. A stress riser location, to be sure. I'm thinking about taking a die grinder and "fairing" that point on the other wrenches. I wonder if it would be worth it.
Bob