Outstanding quality for the money. Can't go wrong for the price! Know what you're buying.
Written: Mar 18 '07
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I bought my first Harbor Freight item a few years ago with considerable trepidation. After all, tools that cost pennies on the dollar relative to name-brand items from Home Depot, Sears, Lowes, Ace Hardware couldn't be any good, could they? Lucky for me the Harbor Freight world headquarters and store are only about 30 miles from my house, so I could shop, kick the tires (figuratively), and maybe ask a question about the product to set my mind at ease. But then again, I was looking at a rotary polisher for $25 that was more or less comparable to a $200 Makita one.
I shopped and I bought. One of their rotary polishers. I actually read a few good comments about it in some online forums for car detailing. I spent more on wax and polish than I did on the tool. The rotary polisher did a great job. Actually, it did a better job than the Makita rotary polisher I borrowed from my painter. It probably wasn't as well made as the Makita, but for about 15% of the price, it was a lot closer in quality than price would indicate.
Since then, I've bought a lot of tools at Harbor Freight stores. Here's what I found: for the most part, their tools are at least good to very good quality. If you make your living in the construction industry, you might wear them out, but for the average handy homeowner, it's hard to go wrong. For the price of one name brand tool in Home Depot or Sears that you might use two times a year, you could probably buy four equivalent tools at Harbor Freight. Except it's really hard to justify spending a lot for tools you only need to use once or twice, so you usually made do (or try to) without.
In general, I've found some of the really cheap tools (for example, the $10 half-inch pneumatic impact wrenches) are pretty marginal. (I didn't buy one, because the knowledgeable sales person warned me the return rate due to product failures was around 80%!) But I asked before I bought and bought the $70 one that was well made, had lots of power, and most importantly, virtually never is returned due to breakage. (It works great by the way, and I use it much more than I originally expected I would!) The wrenches and sockets, and most hand tools, have a lifetime warranty. I haven't broken any yet, but they are extremely well made. I've only taken one item back (the thumb sockets in 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" drives), and they didn't work well. No questions asked on the return, and they did confess they got a lot of returns of these items. For the most part, electric tools are pretty good, not top tier quality but definitely getting closer. Auto parts, like jacks and jack stands, look exactly like the more expensive name brands (except for the garish Harbor Freight orange color), and probably DO come out of the same factory in China.
Caveat: if you're a died in the wool "buy American" type, don't bother with Harbor Freight. The harbor their tools come from isn't in America!
My wife hates tools and tool stores. The Harbor Freight stores I've been in (about 6-8 different ones in 3 or 4 states) are definitely not fancy. But in general, I've found their knowledge, help and customer service to be vastly superior to either Home Depot or Sears. Even my wife commented on how good their customer service is (but she still hated the stores).
One final comment: besides tools, they have a great sense of humor, as evidenced by their kitsch. What other tool store carries whimsical painted yard gnomes? I actually bought a set last year at Christmas for a white elephant gift exchange, and the girl working in the store said they actually sell a lot of them all year round. One person's kitsch is another's yard decoration.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? I started with one item, but now I buy most tools there
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