Anex 397-D Review: Ratcheting Ball Grip Shop Test

This Ratcheting Ball Grip Screwdriver is one of my new Favs!

Disclosure: I buy most of my own tools, and sometimes companies send me items to test. Nobody has ever paid me for an opinion. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

I have had several comments telling me the Anex 397-D is the one to get. This is the screwdriver of screwdrivers, the ratcheting model. One guy said it was the only one that even mattered, something like that, paraphrasing of course. Several comments have stated that the Anex is the king of the kings here. I have a bunch of ball grip specials, Vessel and Klein among them, and every one of them seems to be great. I do not know how it could be any better, but we are going to find out. Is the 397-D from Anex the best ball grip ratcheting screwdriver available? Maybe. Let us see.

(You can see the exact model I use here)

First look, and why the size matters

First thing, let us run it down. It is Japanese made. It is a ball head grip like many others. We have a couple of Vessels, we have the Klein Fast-Bit Tru-Grip, and we have a Vessel non-ratcheting but similar. This Anex is in a kind of a class by itself, but not completely. The bit is a combo bit, Phillips and a straight in there, so one bit doubles up as everything, and it does have the ratcheting bit still. Unlike the Vessel ratcheting grip, you do not get a separate ratcheting piece that gets in the way. I will tell you what I like so far about it: it is the little compact model. My original Vessel is about the same size right there. This is a compact little model, and that matters when you are trying to get down into places.

You pop it in the middle and you have just a regular drive bit, no ratchet. Move it one way to back a screw out, and all the way the other way is the drive. It also comes with the other bits in the box, and because it takes a standard 1/4-inch hex, your Vessel bits fit in there and I bet your Klein bit will fit in there too. If you want something a little longer, you get just another half inch or so, and it has the pressure fit in there. That is nice.

That 72-tooth ratchet

I will tell you this, the 72-tooth ratchet feels like it is about a thousand teeth. It is so smooth in there. The Klein is smooth, but it does not sound quite near as toothy as the other one, and that is neither here nor there. With the Anex, I am still sitting here liking that little smooth ratchet. When I later lined the three up, the Anex still had hardly any back drag and the tightest bit seat, almost a vacuum fit. For Klein, Anex and Vessel head to head, see my ratcheting screwdriver comparison.

Hardwood and sheetrock, on purpose

Let us see if it can drive some stuff. That is the true test. You have seen this test before. It is no real scientific test. It is just a check of the ratcheting mechanism of our screwdriver in question, just to see what kind of torture it can take. This is, I do not know, an inch and a half piece of hardwood, oak maybe, a little hickory in there, I am not sure, but it is a hardwood. So we are just testing the ratchet ability, the grip of the teeth, and no slippage.

That little one-inch machine screw, it takes nothing, just two fingers. Yeah, there is a little resistance, but there is no slippage in that ratchet. It drives it right on in there. Then we have an inch and a quarter sheetrock screw, same deal. We will get her in there, get her started, and it is in there. Look at that move. Your wrist will start wearing out before this thing will. That is nice and smooth, and you feel that bit kind of gripping in there on that sheetrock screw too. Hardened bit, very nice. Back it out and it comes out really nice too. One of them took a little more to back out because I was in there crooked a little bit, that was me, not the driver.

Now, are you going to be driving screws into wood with a ratcheting screwdriver? Probably not. Like I said, this is just a test of the strength of the ratcheting piece, the teeth. If it will do that in hickory and sheetrock without the ratchet slipping or feeling notchy when it hits resistance, it will do the screws I actually drive at work in industrial maintenance.

The recessed lever is the other big deal

Here is another bonus. Comparing to the Vessel, I have seen other guys in the comments saying yeah, you can hit the switch, and I do the same thing. I have hit it before while I am not watching what I am doing, trying to drive something in there, and you will knock it out of the ratchet position or knock it backwards. This one is recessed and you have got the little lever right there, protected around it, so your fingers cannot knock it over by accident. You are not going to accidentally switch that one off unless you really, really try. It might be one of the better ones for that reason alone.

That, and the slim front end, are why a compact driver matters in my bag. With the Vessel, that bit holder piece kind of gets in the way on some stuff, especially in electrical boxes, like you are trying to get down past the anchor screws to anchor down some stuff and you have to go through the hole to get back to it. It kind of gets in the way. The Anex is slimmer up front, so I can get in there without going back for another driver first.

My take

So yeah, I guess they are right, the guys are correct. The Anex 397-D is one of your better ones right there. I thought the others were great, and they still are, but the smooth teeth are amazing, the compact size is right, and the recessed lever fixes the one thing that bugged me about knocking a driver out of position mid-drive. You know the drill, I took it to work and ran it through the paces, carried it around, and saw how it looked after real use. I cannot see any issues with the way it drives screws. The honest downside from my own hands is that I liked the Klein grip just a little better than the other two ball grips, so this becomes a carry choice, not a knockout. If you want the smoothest ratchet and the tightest bit fit, this is the one I reach for. If you want the grip comparison as well, read the comparison linked above and my Klein ratcheting holder review.

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Anex 397-D Screwdriver Review: Is This Truly The King Of Ratcheting Screwdrivers?