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Harbor Freight tool/socket set

Another subject that gets everybody's nnalert in a wad and almost turns into a fight....
 
Aside from anyone's opinion of the quality of Harbor Freight's Pittsburgh tools, those sets with hundreds of pieces usually include a large number of items which are unlikely to ever be of any use to you. To see if it's a good deal by price, check what it would cost you to buy only the tools you actually care about. Even with a lot of useless items, the set might still be a bargain, but then again, it might not. You won't know until you check.

Stan
 
Did you happen to go to the Harbor Freight website to see what people had to say about that set? There were 186 reviews, and 124 of those gave the set five stars (out of five). The average rating came to 4.5, so not many people could have had much bad to say about the tools. I've read Harbor Freight reviews for years, and I've come to believe that they are not edited or faked. H/F tools that I know to be good get good reviews, and tools I know to be bad get bad reviews. For example, when I needed a replacement wheel for my lawn mower recently, I found one on the H/F website that looked like it would work, but every review said it was total junk. That reinforced my belief that H/F doesn't edit the reviews. Anyway, why would they care? Plenty of people think that there are no good tools at H/F, but that isn't keeping them from opening one new retail outlet per week in the U.S. So, if they go ahead and publish the bad reviews, that just makes people like me more inclined to believe the good reviews.

Stan
 
My experience is that they have some pretty good stuff and they have some not so good stuff. Got a 4 drawer tool cart from them on wheels for $99 with a coupon that is pretty solid and I thought was an excellent deal. When I picked it up I was looking at a welding table that was barely standing (all the bolts were tight). I like to see what I'm interested in by taking a look at it first(no mail ordering) and then deciding if its worth the money.
 
A coworker has Pittsburg tools, end wrenches, socket set, etc. They seem to be holding up ok, haven't heard any complaints.

Shop carefully though, some of those sets leave out common sizes.
 
plow hand,
I think I read that HF pro tools come with a lifetime warranty. If so keep receipt and go for it. I'm thinking HF will be around for a long time. Can't say that about sears and K-mart. I going out on a limb, say someday when sears close, K-mart already has in TH. Other places selling craftsman may not fix them like sears and tell you to call an 800 number and pay the freight to get craftsman tools replaces. Bet then broken craftsman tools will make it to the recyclers. Go for it. Like craftsman and Kobult tools , there will be many small useless pieces. I would look for deep sockets in the set.
geo
 
I just bought the 301 piece set with coupon and sale it was $150.It comes with a plastic case.I went for quantity not so much quality..Craftsman was 50.00 more ,no case just a bunch of free moving tools flying around I would have to spend another 100 to get them organized(with tool box)It is a spare set to keep in my truck. It drives me crazy to take my tools from work to home only to forget them at one place or the other..ps. see what happens
 
I have 2 HF stores within 20 minutes of where I live and yes there are some HF tools in my tool chest. I have a set of Pittsburg 1/2" sockets that I bought 5 years ago that I use all the time and have yet to break one even on an impact. The only thing I do avoid is their cordless tools. Some of their stuff is pretty good but some is marginal. You can't beat their small engines for the price.
 
Kinda depends what you intend to do with those "spare" tools. If you just need an emergency tool kit to shove behind the seat of your pickup, the HF tools are a good fit. However, if you expect to use those tools to make a living, you might want to look elsewhere.

I bought some HF tools to assembly an emergency tool kit for my motorcycle, and was surprised at how good the overall quality is.
 
I know the wrenches and sockets are good. As for the rest of the tools in the kit I don't have any experience with them.
 
Bought a set of 3/8's drive, 1/2"s drive and 3/4"S drive to carry in the truck tool box back in the 80's, still have them today, I think we did crack a couple of sockets but using a 3' cheater barr may have been the reason for that.
 
In general, I usually do not even look at the "big" sets of tools. Many times they have useless items in them just to puff up the tool count in the advertising.
I do buy sets of wrenches, sets of sockets, etc. That way, I get the tools that I will use rather then a bunch of useless tools that I will never even look at.
I also note that the quality of the tools in the larger sets is well below that of the smaller sets of just sockets, just wrenches, etc.
The whole thing being in a convenient case is a plus, but you can just as well get a small tool box to put everything in. I have a smaller tool box that I carry to the junkyards when I go. I put in just the tools that I know I will use along with a few "just in case" tools. Many times, I find small tool boxes at auctions for a dollar.
 
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