Northern tool

[bgunter418]

I have never been to northern tool. How are they with there quality and price range when it comes to tools and thing for the garage

 

[JimVonBaden]

Same as Harbor Freight. Good prices, quality can be hit or miss. Generally not bad, but not Snap-on either.

Jim

 

[lotsoftools]

They're kind of like an upscale Harbor Freight

 

[tdkkart]

Alot of their stuff can be had cheaper somewhere else. Yes, lot's of chinese **** scattered in with alot of pretty decent stuff.

 

[byoungblood]

They do sell many US made brands as well though. All of their in house stuff is mostly imported though.

 

[Al Bundy]

Unlike HF you can find quality products at Northern. At times they offer the best price, but it pays to shop around.

 

[Ign]

Most of their house brand stuff IS Harbor Freight. Look at offerings like sets of pry bars, sets of picks, etc and it's visually identical to HF. They just charge more for it. Engine hoists, pipe kinkers, electric impact wrenches, same story.

No idea about the Klutch air tools tho.

 

[Mike_C]

I bought my quincy air compressor at Northern tool, their selection of air compressors and air tools is impressive. They also have a good selection of hydrolic press's, floor jacks, and welding equipment.

I've bought some larger wrenches from them as well, for projects where I needed to cut wrenches down and modify them to access a hard to reach fitting.

 

[5lima30]

IMHO, I think they are several notches above HF. Their prices on heaters are tough to beat. They do sell name brands as well as things that that HF doesn't have.

 

[Zeke]

Kind of a heavy duty HF overall, but underneath the skin is the same ol' same ol'. Little more variety on some bigger items. I think the model at HF is to sell a lot of beads and trinkets rather than wait for a large sale.

If I lived 200 miles in each direction from HF in a community of 250,000, I'd open a store and buy their stuff in bulk.

 

[Stainless169]

I also bought my Quincy there. They had the best price. Still waiting on it to arrive though.

 

[brownbagg]

they got good price, but shipping will kill you, so unless you can pick it up.

 

[Doug1]

We have both here and I agree it is a notch up from Harbor Freight as an overall exprience. Still plenty of cheaply made stuff but the more expensive stuff like compressors, welders, plasma cutters, etc. are often name brand stuff like Hobart, or Ingersoll Rand.

They are considerably more expensive than Harbor Freight though.

 

[jamesemery728]

I have ordered some things on line from Northern and their packing is horrendous. I think you could train a monkey to pack better than they do. Heavy tool items with hardly any tape on the box, one small piece of packing paper inside the box. Everything I have ordered from them has arrived with the box half open due to terrible packing. I have written them letters suggesting that they train their shipping people how to properly pack a heavy tool but nothing seems to help. Customer Service was nice enough on the phone but the crappy packing did not improve on the next order I placed.

 

[melliott28]

I also think that they are a step above HF. They sell some Channellock stuff, Quincy and IR compressors, some Dewalt and Milwaukee power tools. But, they also have alot of HF type items that are overpriced. Also, they sell nice tool boxes, but charge a lot more than HF. One more thing, some locations have a lot more things than others. In fact, one of the Northern Tool stores near me carries items that you won't find on their website.

 

[AuroraSC]

They opened one near me recently and I try to go by to see what the specials are going on once a month. As has been stated, its an upper class HF. I bought 3 Homak bottom boxes for a little more than the HF ones while they were on sale and I love them!

 

[Deltarat]

they got good price, but shipping will kill you, so unless you can pick it up.

They have free shipping on lots of stuff. Mainly the heavier expensive stuff.

 

[LutzTD]

I use Northern branded sockets for my pick and pull set, pretty decent and not a killer if lost or stolen. the same cost HF set of sockets was leaps and bounds worse.

 

[1grnlwn]

I buy a lot from Northern mail order. No store close. Much more variety than HF. With varying quality. At HF everything is cheap and lower quality. Yes I have been burned by northern a few times. A little common sense goes a long way. Like never by cheap drill bits or taps.

 

[Northstar]

I have both close to me. I prefer Northern, what I have bought has been better quality, but it's not top notch either. HF is good for cheap shop supplies and consumables, plus some of the handier small shop tools like screwdrivers that need to be modified and stuff.

 

[HIRISC]

I have both close to me. I prefer Northern, what I have bought has been better quality, but it's not top notch either. HF is good for cheap shop supplies and consumables, plus some of the handier small shop tools like screwdrivers that need to be modified and stuff.

+1

They are a staple for Minneapolis residents.. They do have some cheap stuff (to compete with the local junk-merchants at Menards), but sell/have access to top brands, ie BendPak, Quincy, Honda, etc.

I'm at a Northern Tool every week.

 

[OldracerJones]

I like them very much and have purchased many items. A good indicator of what I like best about them is their customer service. I ordered a Jet trolley for a chain hoist, price was great and allowed me to use the I-beam in my garage to lift my compressor. It arrived the first time in a too big box and it felt light. Opened and found a catalog and paper the trolley was wrapped in, no trolley though! It appears the box being too big and the shipping company moving it around caused it to come through the bottom of the box. The tape pulling away confirmed it. I called Northern , told them and they issued a trace that night. I waited two days and called back, they immediately sent another out to me.

The second arrived in two days but I waited a week to install. When I finished the install I couldn't figure out how to attach the hoist since there wasn't enough clearance. Turns out is was missing a part. Called Northern, they tried to connect us to the manufacturer but they wouldn't help. Northern sent me another, told me I could use it or take the part I needed and use it with my original one. It arrived in two days, I removed the part I needed and taped the box back up, wrote on the box the missing part number and said it was missing. The next day UPS showed up with a prepaid label, took the box and I was done with it. No shipping, no restocking fee, nothing. Pain in the *** but they took care of it the right way.