Harbor Freight - Hall of shame

[Bob Kontak]

Was thinking a repository of tools from Harbor Freight Tools that fail may not be be a bad thing.

I use them plenty but I have had plenty of failures.

My offering is below. Broke it on a caliper to steering knuckle bolt. Whacked the wrench with a hammer and pop goes the weasel. Have been using my MAC 15mm box wrench for this type of stuff for 37 years - of course the 10-19 mm set is over $300 new and it has to be forged. The cast freight stuff set was maybe $15 and is of fair quality for easy hand work but forget about them taking stress.



8 Piece Metric Offset Box Wrench Set

[Trackrash]

Looks like that offset wrench was a POS.

I have two sets of combo end wrenches from HF and have had no problems. Now if I was a pro and used my wrenches eight hours a day I would spend for the best. For the occasional use I give my wrenches HF has been fine.

[John1180]

I brought my broken HF wrench back and they gave me a new one, no questions!

[Nostril Cheese]

I needed to charge the AC on a friends car, but didnt have a pump or gauges. Harbor freight rental service to the rescue.

[JTL]

Their stuff is obviously mostly cheap crap. I bought a air regulator for my garage compressor from them a while back. When I opened the valve to pressurize the adjustment knob and spring blew right off. Lucky I or the cars didn't get hit. They gave me a full refund with apologies. Replaced the unit with a Craftsman brand and it is still working 6 years later.

I sometimes still buy some things from there but very selectively.

[Nostril Cheese]

Whats with the smell in Harbor Freight? It's like the stale odor of oil and sweat. All the dead exploited Chinese workers ground up in the machinery.

[Dan J]

They opened one near me to much fanfare. I went in looked around and couldn't buy
a thing. Life is to short for shyt tools. For me part of the satisfaction of working on mechanical things is using good tools to do it. I may be a snob-don't know, don't care

[zippy_gg]

I mushroomed a deep socket from HF while working on my rear suspensions...

[wwest]

Originally Posted by Bob Kontak

Was thinking a repository of tools from Harbor Freight Tools that fail may not be be a bad thing.

I use them plenty but I have had plenty of failures.

My offering is below. Broke it on a caliper to steering knuckle bolt.

Whacked the wrench with a hammer and pop goes the weasel.

Whacked the wrench with a hammer.....

I've done that but with a rubber mallet type "hammer". Given the weight of the hammer and the "swing" you took the result might be fully expected.

Have been using my MAC 15mm box wrench for this type of stuff for 37 years - of course the 10-19 mm set is over $300 new and it has to be forged. The cast freight stuff set was maybe $15 and is of fair quality for easy hand work but forget about them taking stress.

That wasn't "stress" that was SHOCK!

Granted, HF's stuff isn't for everyday mechanic but for home owner use......provided you don't abuse it.

[weseeeee]

I got a bunch of HF hand and air tools and so far no issues, however I don't use them everyday. If I had to make a living with my tools I would buy the good stuff.

[winders]

Originally Posted by zippy_gg

I mushroomed a deep socket from HF while working on my rear suspensions...

Well, to be fair, that is a "thin wall" deep socket and is not intended to be used in the same way as a normal socket.

Scott

[SilberUrS6]

This thread could be like damnyouautocorrect.com

Post all the pictures of broken tools - cheap or otherwise.

[tdw28210]

When it is all said and done, Harbor Freight sells hammers..nothing else.

[Joe Bob]

Chinese Stuff is crap.....

[wearl]

i own a lot of harbor freight hand tools and have never broke one unless i was beating them with a hammer or doing some thing with them i shouldn't have been doing. i have never broke one of their impact sockets. the mechanics at work break mac tools, but they REALLY miss use there tools, but the mac guy comes around all the time so they don't have to take time to return them. thats what they like about them.

[wildcat077]

I have the same set,although only six pieces from SnapOn which i bought nearly 15 years ago ... i had to purchase another 17/19 wrench over the Summer because i misplaced mine and urgently needed one and i paid $67.00 for that one wrench !

That is a great price for the HF set but it definitely is not suited for long time abuse,although i would probably carry a few of them in my track toolbox ...
Always comes down to,you get what you pay for

Cheers !
Phil

[Laneco]

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

Whats with the smell in Harbor Freight? It's like the stale odor of oil and sweat. All the dead exploited Chinese workers ground up in the machinery.

YES - WHAT IS THE SMELL!!???? I have to pull my shirt over my noise when I'm in there... There has to be some serious weird off-gassing that must surely be horrible to breathe... It's just GROSS!


angela

[Reiver]

I use one of their electric 1/2 in impact wrenches...finally broke it after 5 years of use...I'll get another for 35 bucks.

[Nickshu]

I try to be selective on what I buy at HF. If it's something that may be a safety issue (ie Jackstands) then I buy elsewhere.

If it's garden variety stuff I find HF to be a great value for the home mechanic. I could buy about 25 Harbor Freight socket sets for what One socket set costs from SnapOn. Yes SnapOn is very nice (I have a few SnapOn tools I cherish), but really for the amount that I use my tools HF works fine on many items.

I did buy a 450 ft lb impact wrench from HF a few months back that after about 5 uses won't even remove a bolt at 50 ft lbs. Of course it quit working about 1 month after the 90 day warranty ran out. After reading the above posts maybe I should just take it back and see what they say.

[porsche930dude]

harbor freight is a huge money saver. I dont have many tools from them but for stuff like grinding wheels, safety protection, tarps and things. Every other place is just no comparisson in price. Iv never had anything fail so bad that i had to take it back