Vote for the Worst Harbor Freight Item

[bubinga]

The odds are good that not every lead falls apart instantly. The wires are very thin and the insulation is thinner. The banana plugs are much shorter than normal and I and many others have had them fall apart. If they got you out of a jam, great but that does not make them anything vaguely resembling quality. Just look at the difference between probes, banana plug and wire insulation. The ebay ones even came with tip guards. We are comparing the HF to one of a pair of a $.99 cable set.

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geez.......big time difference.
are the ones you got shipped from USA?
sometimes item overseas are shipped on a slow boat from china..........

i could use a set for my fluke.(0f course i'm not in a big hurry for them)

 

[bubinga]

A crowbar that was huge, like 1.5" thick, and broke clean in half yanking down ship lap off the ceiling in my basement. I'm not THAT strong

0MG..........
good thing you didn't get hurt.

 

[bubinga]

Goodyear rubber air hose. Made in the USA. HF used to sell this years ago !

That's what I heard!(probably on this group)

L0L.........Every time i see your user name, I think of the cartoon "Mr Wizard"
and the boy would ask him how something worked.
He would explain it, and was "cast into" the profession.
And he would not like the job, or get in a Jam, and Spin around and around,
and say..."Help Mr. wizard, I don't want to be "such and such" any more"

anyone else remember that?
I used to say at work all the Time,
"Help Mr. wizard, I don't want to be A auto mechanic any more".....

 

[gungatim]

I've had great luck with most HF things, and I buy a lot there, but have had a few real duds.

the cheap dremel, sells for like $6, comes with all sorts of bits/grinders/cutters. it uses a wall wart DC power, and you can stop it by hand. completely worthless. but I still buy them and throw away the dremel and use the bits. good source to stock up for cheap.

the acetylene torch cart I bought was welded so crooked it couldn't be assembled...probably a fluke but one of the only things I ever returned.

rubber strap wrenches in the 3 pc. set. they stink. and they won't take off my water filter housing let alone an oil filter without bending the handle. did I mention they "stink"?

4" belt/6" disc sander. extremely under powered and therefore useless except for sharpening pencils.

and the hose clamp kit is completely worthless, I think they clamps are made of aluminum, not SS. they strip before clamping anything tight enough to use.

the bottom of the line cordless drill is fairly useless but it's better than my old 3.6v skil from the 80's, just don't expect to do much more than drill drywall for hanging pictures...

 

[gungatim]

I have that (PS pulley remover) set and have used it multiple times, works great for me. maybe I got one from a different factory

same here, but mine is old, red box, who knows the mfgr. but it works great. they've changed suppliers over the years on many things for sure, so what was good may be bad now, and vice versa...

 

[6PTsocket]

geez.......big time difference.
are the ones you got shipped from USA?
sometimes item overseas are shipped on a slow boat from china..........[emoji38]_hitti

i could use a set for my fluke.(0f course i'm not in a big hurry for them)

No, straight from China. For more money you can get silicon rubber leads. These are just PVC but they look as good as the ones that came with my US made Tektronix meter. I would not hesitate to use them for that meter. I was pleasantly surprised when they arrived. I only wanted to replace some HF leads. Actually the ones for the HF needed a little modification. I had to cut off a little insulation around the banana plugs and spread the clips a little. The junky HF type clips are on ebay but no point in buying more of the same The HF clips are not the common 4mm banana plug. They will fit other meters but not visa versa without some very minor fudging.

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[Mark in Indiana]

I've been satisfied with most of the HF products that I've purchased over 20+ years. Although, I've been selective with what I buy.

One stinker is the freebie digital multimeter. I was using one to troubleshoot a 480 volt welder. Although the multimeter was rated for 700 volts, it smoked at 480 volts (yes, I was using it properly). The freebie multimeter may be good for home owner use, but for higher voltages, I'll only use my Amprobe.

Another stinker is the welding tank cart with bicycle tires, I bought one on sale. When I looked over the components after unpacking it, the frame pieces were so weak looking, I just repacked it and got my money back.

 

[deberly12]

I had to really think about it...there are three categories at hf.
1. Really awesome tools: Jack's, some ratchets, clamps, vises
2. Unbeatable for the price: any of the free things (duh), the miter saw, impact sockets, pliars....and well most of the store.
3 ****: Sawzall blades, the French fry cutter, omt blades.

The absolute worst yet was the brake line flaring tool. It was bent and litterally unusable from the box. Anyone else try this?

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[bubinga]

I had to really think about it...there are three categories at hf.
1. Really awesome tools: Jack's, some ratchets, clamps, vises
2. Unbeatable for the price: any of the free things (duh), the miter saw, impact sockets, pliars....and well most of the store.
3 ****: Sawzall blades, the French fry cutter, omt blades.

The absolute worst yet was the brake line flaring tool. It was bent and litterally unusable from the box. Anyone else try this?

No I have not tried it,does it do double flares and bubble flares as well?
I got a good kit, OTC IIRC works pretty well though,
Had a ridge in one if the dies though, was making the bubble flair with s ridge in them, OTC sent me a new die for free.
So I had a hard time getting an perfect metric bubble flair
Double flairs worked quite well,
I did get wonderful consistent double/inverted flares.
So I got me a box of the
Dorman brass adapters from e pay cheap at the time. male end of the adapter was bubble, female end of adapter was inverted /double flair..
I did get a few usable bubble flairs form the OTC kit, But was having too much trouble, so did the double flairs and used the bubble to inverted flair adapters for most of the car. Was replacing every single line and brake hose on my 02 olds alero.
Again this was the OTC kit.

 

[Farmall 1066]

The garden hose quick couplers were absolute garbage.

 

[kythri]

The garden hose quick couplers were absolute garbage.

Y'know, the first batch of them I got worked really well, so I bought 2 or 3 more sets of them for my property, and all the subsequent ones were leaky.

I've given up on the concept and just bought more garden hoses.

 

[M6erfan]

The freebie led headlamp fell apart within the 1st hour of use. Into the garbage bin...

 

[428PI]

The worst was the low cost trigger style air nozzle gun. Broke the first time I pulled the trigger. Another one lasted perhaps 20 tries. I've had an engine diag. meter I bought over 20 years ago and it's still working fine except the pickup for engine rpm. (I'm a professional mechanic too). Bought the more all in one meter perhaps 5 years ago and never did take it to work (one of the LCD segments won't show at first). Have bought hoses, fittings (air fittings are loose and slightly different size and won't work with other similiar ends). Ball joint C clamp-ok. Dust collector-ok. 44 inch tool boxes-great. Bought 2 of the bottom boxes because I loved them so much. Battery powered tree saw-battery showed bad after one usage-finally found the charger suspect but after taking apart and inspecting works good so far-perhaps batteries were ok-love the saw. Ratcheting straps-the ratchet part doesn't hold. Bought some 3/8 swivel impact sockets but haven't used them much as my new job doesn't require my own tools. For some reason the 15mm size is missing (I believe that's the size). They must expect one to buy the SAE set. Rubber gloves split easily. One drill bit set ok but have broken quite a few over the 25 years or so. Love the extra long 1/2 inch breakover bar. Haven't tried their ratchets.

 

[toplessHO]

May not qualify as it "didnt make it home"
got the big pair of tinsnips,I think on sale for $3
walking out to the parking lot bag ripped and they fell 2 ft to the ground and broke into a couple pieces. I turned around went back in store for a refund. Guy asked if they were defective. "Yea I didnt even get to use them before they broke". Got a refund

 

[rlitman]

The garden hose quick couplers were absolute garbage.

The brass ones? I have a bunch, and they're great. Best couplers I've found anywhere. The washers can crack though. But you can buy more of these, as they're a standard size:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001734X5W/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[jessesandy]

The 1/4 to 3/8 inch tubing bender was junk. The link connecting the two pieces of the tool is so sloppy the grooves go sideways.

 

[BroncoAZ]

I checked out their plastic socket rails today, they seem very terrible compared to the Craftsman equivalent (USA made and lifetime warranty). The Craftsman is thicker and more precise, the HF is thin and sloppy to the point where the sockets wobble on the holder.

Needless to say I made a trip to Sears after.

 

[PugetDude]

Had a heck of time using black oxide the HF drill bits to drill old bed rails for my PVC airline racks. The HF sandpaper I used before painting them wasn't much better. The HF Storehouse sheet metal screws I tried to mount them with were very soft, half the heads snapped off. I gave up and just switched back to the red rubber airlines with the alligator cracks, but now the Chinese whorehouse condom dumpster fire aroma burns my eyes every time I go into the shop.

 

[Malaworkerbee]

https://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-x-36-inch-belt-6-inch-disc-sander-97181.html

Couldn't get the belt to track straight to save my life...And incredibly underpowered. The 6" bench grinder makes a close second. No balls at all

You need to adjust it while its on. Doesn't take much to make the belt slide from one side to the other.

 

[davethorik]

I honestly must be more picky about my tools than a lot here, specifically tape measures, but I won't so much as touch one of their free tape measures at HF. I know this is against the grain of most of GJ, who average 20+ each.

It has taken quite some time to train myself that I do not need to grab every free item I see, and the ability to discern "good free" and "bad free" must be learned, and isn't acquired overnight. I think a lot of people see free and grab, lol.

Just grabbing it and feeling how cheesily made it is, I can tell extended use will be an exercise in grinding my teeth. The biggest deal killer of this tape is the very chintzy tape itself used, which may have been a used typewriter ribbon or a blade of .002" feeler stock in a previous life. Mine tore on 1st job, right where hook is riveted on, because of a crease.

So I was done with them before even hearing about potential accuracy issues online, not surprising since HF's R&D department is the general buying public, and how many people do YOU know that calibrate a new tape before use? Lol.

 

[RedneckWelder]

I checked out their plastic socket rails today, they seem very terrible compared to the Craftsman equivalent (USA made and lifetime warranty). The Craftsman is thicker and more precise, the HF is thin and sloppy to the point where the sockets wobble on the holder.

Needless to say I made a trip to Sears after.

Those HF plastic socket rails are complete and utter junk. Not only are they flimsy the retainer balls pop right out

The still sucky metal rails are better if you must buy at HF and I hate those kind.

The Craftsman and Gearwrench plastic rails are great

 

[RedneckWelder]

A crowbar that was huge, like 1.5" thick, and broke clean in half yanking down ship lap off the ceiling in my basement. I'm not THAT strong

Prybars, hammers, and punches are things I will not buy at HF. I put a lot of force on a prybar and I don’t want to get hurt by the pot metal ones breaking. I don’t trust randomized heat treat on the hammers and punches- a metal shard spalling off something that is too hard can easily kill you. Good quality hammers and punches are cheap and widely available

 

[Wyoming09]

I don't buy much there but the worst thing that comes to mind were the one time I bought some of their cables ties. Most of them broke before I even had any pressure on them. Never again.

 

[Krician]

I couldn't stop laughing.. my brother is store manager of a HF, he brought home a huge box of "throw away/recall" . I asked what was inside and he said go ahead and open it, I looked and found dozens of "Jr. Construction worker play set" I asked why are these recall? He said look at the hammer it comes with.. it was a 1lb STEEL framing hammer and the set said " for ages 5-10" I guess kids were smashing their hammer everywhere

 

[Mark in Indiana]

I don't buy much there but the worst thing that comes to mind were the one time I bought some of their cables ties. Most of them broke before I even had any pressure on them. Never again.

That's another HF stinker. I bought 10 bags for a maintenance shop. Most broke. Lesson learned: T&B or nothing.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I honestly must be more picky about my tools than a lot here, specifically tape measures, but I won't so much as touch one of their free tape measures at HF. I know this is against the grain of most of GJ, who average 20+ each.

It has taken quite some time to train myself that I do not need to grab every free item I see, and the ability to discern "good free" and "bad free" must be learned, and isn't acquired overnight. I think a lot of people see free and grab, lol.

Just grabbing it and feeling how cheesily made it is, I can tell extended use will be an exercise in grinding my teeth. The biggest deal killer of this tape is the very chintzy tape itself used, which may have been a used typewriter ribbon or a blade of .002" feeler stock in a previous life. Mine tore on 1st job, right where hook is riveted on, because of a crease.

So I was done with them before even hearing about potential accuracy issues online, not surprising since HF's R&D department is the general buying public, and how many people do YOU know that calibrate a new tape before use? Lol.

I agree, the free stuff isn't even worth taking home.

 

[Ji m]

I didn't read the whole thread,
but the only HF tools I've had so far that break 100% of the time are:

those plastic grip clamps

they break
Every
Single
Time

and the exhaust pipe expander.

I'd get like 2 expansions out of it before the bolt strips,
then maybe 4 more after swapping in a HD nut & bolt.
Then the die cast body breaks.
Fail every single time.

I got a bad torque wrench,
which can cause more problems than just about any other tool failure,
so I'll throw that one in too.

 

[gungatim]

some of these experiences are pretty interesting.

for example, I've never had trouble with zip ties, the black and white ones seem extremely high quality, some of the cheaper colored ones in the multi size set in the plastic tube aren't as nice but the bagged single sizes have always worked really well for me.

hammers and the small axes I think are an excellent value, I use the snot out of the fiberglass hatchet splitting firewood a stick at a time when I don't feel like using the splitter, I beat on it with a 5 lb mallot (also HF) and only broken one from hitting the handle. they did replace vendors on those and the new ones are slightly different than the old but still hold up quite well.

I also use the 3 and 5 lb mallots for pounding tent stakes for party canopys and have yet to break one.

drill bits are another one where I haven't had any issues, especially the newer kits (gold colored ones). seem to last quite a while. (and drilling bed frames is tough on ANY bit, that stuff is extremely hard, as any welder knows building out of that stuff is a **** shoot).

all-in-all, it's hard to really point to bad products, mainly because they change suppliers often over the years, and what was junk 20 yrs ago (impact sockets shattered on me) are now quite high quality, especially hand tools. but again, bad experiences from one supplier may be a great experience with another. and what is high quality today may change again next month...


I think that's the real **** shoot with HF...some stuff gets better, some gets worse, and you never know what you're gonna get (in my best Forrest Gump impression...)

 

[rlitman]

I didn't read the whole thread,
but the only HF tools I've had so far that break 100% of the time are:

those plastic grip clamps

they break
Every
Single
Time

and the exhaust pipe expander.

I'd get like 2 expansions out of it before the bolt strips,
then maybe 4 more after swapping in a HD nut & bolt.
Then the die cast body breaks.
Fail every single time.

I got a bad torque wrench,
which can cause more problems than just about any other tool failure,
so I'll throw that one in too.

Oh yeah. I got one of those plastic clamps as a freebie. What a waste of a coupon!

I have two of the exhaust pipe expanders. If you're using them to actually expand pipe, don't bother. They're not up to the task. But I use mine to take smooshed pipes back to round, and for that, they're ok.

 

[finn]

some of these experiences are pretty interesting


I think that's the real **** shoot with HF...some stuff gets better, some gets worse, and you never know what you're gonna get (in my best Forrest Gump impression...)

Isn’t that pretty much the definition of poor quality?

 

[6PTsocket]

The lawn tractor lift was a disaster. One bent arm had to be straightened during assembly. The supplied hardware was metric class 4.6, the lowest grade made. I had never seen lower than 8.8 before. Real inspiring for something you are going to crawl under. The pump jacked the lift up once and that was it. I read the instructions, topped off the fluid , bled it several times...NG. I had to take the whole thing apart and try and make it all fit back into the box, to return it. When I walked into the door at HF the first words I heard were "bad pump ?" I declined a replacement and got a refund. I found a much better one at TSC that is branded Cub Cadet but is made by Mojack. My tractor is a Cub so the color even matches. It was worth the extra money. Anybody else have trouble with any HF device with a hydraulic cylinder or bottle jack? The lift has a modified bottle jack.

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[BDT/NWMN]

If You buy some of their **** strictly for the Humor; You will usually get Your monies worth.