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Today I am looking at a Nepros NBS2L 200mm or 8" quick spinner handle - more commonly around here called a breaker bar or flex handle, which can be found on eBay US. It's a 1/4" (or 6.35mm) square drive model.
This is the longest 1/4" square drive breaker bar Nepros currently offer at 200mm - they also have a 150mm in the NBS2 (eBay US) and a shorter 100mm in the NBS2S (eBay US).
There's not a lot on the packaging:
The back:
Out of the packaging the breaker bar is quite the elegant tool:
The chrome is top notch:
It's quite slim - the widest part of the handle is 13mm in diameter or a hair over half an inch:
The square drive end has a spring loaded ball bearing for socket retention:
The square drive angles easily through 180° with a stop in the middle - here shown with one of the Ko-ken Zeal super shallow sockets installed:
In use the NBS2L couples nicely with a small, high-tooth-count ratchet like the Nepros NBR290. The smaller wrenches give good access to tight spaces and the breaker bar comes in handy to break loose any particularly stubborn bolts that are too hard with the ratchet. The NBS2L is also pretty low profile - and with the aforementioned sockets results in a very shallow setup which can reach tight fasteners with ease.
Cost-wise it's about $50AUD before shipping - about half the cost of the comparable Snap-On breaker bars - the TM10G (eBay US) is a 150mm/6" unit with a slightly thicker head at 15.8mm TM9G is a touch longer at 9" (eBay US). The TM9G is rated by Snap-On to handle 30ft/lb of torque where the Nepros doesn't state a torque figure - I have reached out to KTC/Nepros to see if they can provide a spec for that.
On the cheaper end of things in Oz you can pick up a Kincrome K2946 Taiwanese-made 150mm breaker bar for around $30 online (eBay AU). At about half the cost of the Nepros unit and being two inches shorter it's definitely a cheaper way to get a quarter inch breaker bar, though the fit and finish is not close to Nepros.
Another option staying within Japanese-made flex handles is the Koken 2768 - the 2768N has a knurled handle (eBay AU), the 2768P polished and the 2768J plastic. Ko-ken call them hinge handles rather than breaker bars, and they're all 130mm long with a head that's 14mm wide - weighing 86, 70 and 73gm respectively. At the time of writing Ko-ken don't appear to have any hinge handles in their 1/4" Zeal lineup.
Alternatives aside, this is a high-quality tool that feels good in the hand and works well - the length is good for both breaking stubborn bolts free and also for access in tight spots. I had to recently remove the centre console section of a VF Commodore and this breaker bar was a perfect fit for getting the bolts started that were hard up against the drivers and passenger seats, where a 3/8" bar was too thick to fit in the same space. Highly recommended if you're looking for a nice quarter-inch breaker bar to add to your tool chest.
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