Best hydraulic jack?

I hated bottle jacks forever until I got an air powered one. I don?t remember the brand of my good one but I had it rebuilt about a year ago and bought two rural king specials that were 20 ton I think. I wouldn?t even purchase on that wants air now. I also feel much safer with them because my face is not right by the jack while raising and I always use wood blocking to support what I?m lifting. About 20 years ago my neighbors son had a tire off a combine and need to raise just a bit more. The jack slipped and being right next to the jack it fell on him and that was it. I?ll spend the money for air because no piece of equipment is worth injury or my life
 
For what application? A bottle jack is usually good for construction work but a pain for working on a car. The floor jack would be good for working on a car unless you don't have a hard surface to work from. Then you end up having to put down wood on the ground to set the floor jack on.

I've only used cheap jacks. They work well but perhaps don't last as long as a more expensive one. I'm currently using Harbor Freight jacks. I have a 2 ton floor jack and a 20 ton bottle jack. I've been using the bottle jack to level my house and so far it hasn't failed to lift anything. Sometimes I have to put a 24" long piece of 3" angle iron under the wood to prevent the jack from crushing the wood.
 
Looks like Northern Tool has the most brands and sizes as anybody. A Hein-Werner brand is the oldest name brand I'm familiar with but they come with a bigger price tag.
I bought my 8000# capacity no-name bottle jack 45 years ago and it still works fine. Used it on cars, trucks, tractors, things much heavier than it's rating.
 

Honestly, if I couldn't find a good used older USA made jack I'd go to Harbor Freight. Haven't had anything but a metric tap and die set fail me from there yet. It's a hydraulic jack, not a space ship.
 
I don't care what jack, find out if you can buy a rebuild kit. Good chance you can't. No rebuild kit, get a cheapie HF jack. They won't have rebuild kits either.
 
Something cheap. My house is pier and beam. I live on Clay.....Civil engineer doing our water station said about it: "Its unsuitable for dwellings and roadways". No truer words were ever spoken. Over the years I have probably bought over a dozen in an attempt to keep the house somewhat level and doors close as they were designed to do and a few of the older, original (40 year old) ones leak pretty good but most still do the job. I usually buy the 20 ton bottles. Last ones I bought were stubby to fit in a short opening, but worked just fine.

Never had a cheap hydraulic jack fail me, being bottle or floor. On floor type, always use jack stands but never needed them.
 
Walker went to Lincoln,Hein-Werner, Black Hawk are all one name now. Shin-Fu has the whole lot. They market usuing Hein-Werner and Black Hawk names. Jet makes pretty good jacks.
 
Thanks for all the great replies. I was in Menard's yesterday (not planning to buy a jack) and while there I decided to look at their jacks. They sell BIG RED and the 20 ton was on sale for much less ($45) than what I had noted anywhere else, so for that price I now own a 20 ton BIG RED.

I don't think anyone mentioned BIG RED so it may not be the greatest, but for the price I'll not complain.
 
As I said I buy what's the cheapest. Some are red, orange, blue, green, and alum. When I get to jacking up my house it takes several and some places are low clearance so I have to use the short 20 ton bottles.
 

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