Klein Ratcheting Bit Holder Review

Klein Answers the call for a Ratcheting Ball Grip!

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 liked the regular Klein Fast-Bit Tru-Grip, and like plenty of you I said that if it ratcheted, I would love it even more. Now it does. This is the Klein ratcheting Fast-Bit, the tool in my video where I tested Klein’s new ratcheting FastBit against the original. Klein sent me this ratcheting one to test out, and I have been running it at work. The other drivers I compare it with, the Vessel and the Anex 397-D, I purchased with my own money. The grip and the new collar are the story here. If you want all three side by side, that is my Klein vs Anex vs Vessel comparison, and I am not going to repeat the whole thing here.

(You can see the exact model I use here)

The grip is why I kept picking it up

The hand grip is a little different, a little longer than a ball grip, and it just felt a little more, you know, better in my hand. It fit a little better. I have got the big paws, the big bear mitts, whatever you want to call them. I do like the Klein grip just a little better than the other two ball grips, even though I love the ball grip on the Anex. For me the selling point is the grip, and now that it is ratcheting, that is really the stand-up point. I have had this one as my everyday carry at work for about two weeks when I filmed the comparison, testing it out, and I liked it enough that I was still using it every day alongside the Anex.

The collar fix I actually noticed

Another improvement I forgot to mention on the earlier model, the locking collar on the new Klein ratcheting is so much better than the other one. I have knocked a few bits out inadvertently on the old one, just walking along and you barely hit it, walking by and brushing it, and out it goes. This one is locked in place, very little movement in there, very little play. It has got an intentional spring. You have got to really pull that back to get it out of there. The Anex is just a touch tighter in that aspect, it seats in deeper and holds with almost a vacuum fit, but the Klein locks the bit in place and I have not had a bit fall out of it in normal carry.

Ratchet, teeth and back drag, in plain terms

Let us talk about the ratcheting mechanism, because there has been a lot of talk about the Klein’s lower tooth count. The teeth on the Klein have a lower tooth count, but it is real smooth, and you do have a little back drag on it. The Anex has hardly none, it moves one and locks in. So yes, if tooth count is your whole selling point, the Anex feels finer. I have taken the Klein to work, had it about two weeks at that point, everyday carry, and I have not found a problem with it. Your screws come out, your screws go in. The tooth count does not bother me a bit, does not make a difference on the job. If you are an engineering type and you like to make that tooth count a whole selling point, then that is what you can do. For me, it is smooth enough, it locks, and it drives screws without fighting me.

The direction switch is the same story. I tried the Klein and had no issues. I am not sure if it is just because it is new yet, but you really, if you hit it with your finger, you are going to need to really mean to hit it. Whereas the Vessel, it is really light and it will switch on you just with standard use, you are going long, tightening her up, you get too much of a grip on it, you have unhooked it and you are not tightening anymore, you are on the backswing. That was one of the downfalls I saw there. The Klein has not done that to me.

Bits, stubby mode and getting into boxes

They all take pretty much all your standard 1/4-inch bits, all three of them do, and the Klein is no different. It comes straight out of the box with a combination head, a bit with Phillips and flat on it, and it uses reversible bits. If you want a stubby, there you go, you have got one built in. You pull the shaft out, take your new style bit, drop it in the handle and run it in there. The stubby on the Klein does not seat as deep as the Anex, it kind of hangs out the front a little bit, but it works, and if you need longer reach, of course you plug her back in.

Reach is where I use it in industrial maintenance. I am into electrical boxes, control panels and contactor holders all the time at work. The Klein has a slim front end, it fits down the hole, unlike a fat barrel that kind of blocks you on a lot of stuff. With my thinner long-reach Phillips bits I can get down into those little terminal holes without going back to the bag for a precision driver. There are still a few spots where you will need the precision driver, that is just how it goes sometimes. It works with my extra-long bits and my short hex bits as well, so if you want to run a hex screw out or back in quickly, without fighting a regular Allen key for leverage, this handles it.

My take, and where the Anex still wins a point

Would I buy it again? Yes, definitely. When I filmed that, I had seen the regular non-ratcheting Klein go for about $15 to $18, and the ratcheting one had just showed up on Amazon around the $30 range, a dollar more or less depending on where you buy it. I would buy it. If Klein had not sent me one, I was going to be purchasing this on my next trip anywhere. Is it going to replace my Anex? I do not know yet. Nothing holds a bit tighter than the Anex, and the Anex has almost no back drag. So for now my daily two at work are the Klein and the Anex, and I wrote up the Anex on its own in my Anex 397-D review. If your hands are like mine and grip is the first thing you judge, start with this Klein. If the finest ratchet feel is first, look at the Anex. Either one has lasted at work, and if it does not last at work, I do not talk about it much.

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Klein Ratcheting Bit Holder Review: The Upgrade Every Ball-Grip Fan Needs