Harbor Freight Quality Control

Sometimes hunting the cheapest price does not pay off.


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I hope they discovered the defect before someone was depending on it to support a vehicle or machine and got hurt. There are many tools you should look at quality not price.
 
Some of you wake up hoping to find something negative you can post about HF, dont you?
 
I'll say that at least they are making a good effort notify people and rectify the problem. Some companies love to pass the buck and blame vendors. At least this guy is owning the problem.
 
We had two of those stands fail while holding up a Honda Civic, they were not overloaded OK? Luckily my sons had just got out from under it. My youngest who is a very practical thinker looks at me and asked why we would trust our health and safety to the cheapest measures available? I went to NAPA and bought the very best quality stands they sell in 3 different sizes. Ya, I spent a LOT of money. While the boys unboxed the new ones I cut up all the HF stands(so the junkyard dogs would not be able to save them) and threw them in the scrap pile.
I am NOT a HF knocker, we have a lot of thier stuff but I ask you all the same question so as you might think about it.

Why trust your life to the cheapest available????
 
Makes me wonder how many other tool dealers sell the very same stands, made by the same company, but with a different label.

Are they recalling them?

How would you know?

Just looking at them they look pretty good.
 
"Well at least they admit they have a problem. Most would put the blame on someone else."

Maybe. Or maybe they planned on doing nothing until the government stepped in and made them do a recall.
 


HF sells a lot of good stuff and some junk. But so does almost every other retailer. I wish I could buy US made stuff with the same quality we got back in the good old days but that stuff is either no longer available or so outrageously expensive that there's no way I can afford it. I prefer not to support Communist China at all. I'm trying, but since everything seems to be made there these days, it's not easy.
 
Problem is how to notify buyers of recall, no way to do that. They just can only post in store so if you do not get to store you have no way of knowing about a recall. I had a chain saw from them that the switch stuck on and saw would not stop, exchanged it no problems. Next time was in store noticed a recall, happend to be for my replacement, never had out of box. they replaced it no problems. And I do own a lot of HF tools, no problems with them any more than from any other place. Only problem is discontinuing batteries for power tools you have had for 5 years.
 
Many used to admit when something was wrong. I went to work for Onan in 1980. They put out a PSB every month. On problems they found. You were required to read it and put your name on the list.

We had a customer with a new unit. Started having oil leaks. We never could find them. Two months out of warranty. He was back same problem. We called the factory. Told them what we had done. They told us. Install a new unit no charge. Send us the old one.
 
Yes, that would be nice to buy something made in ones own country, but nowadays who wants to drive around all morning to buy a pipe wrench or a lawn chair? Just two examples and yes I know, some of those are made here but finding one takes time (and more money unfortunately). As for finding something German-made, that would be an even more difficult task. I'm guessing you might be of German heritage to mention that.
 
Comments made earlier about wishing they could buy an American made product instead. I agree, but if you find an American made product, be prepared for a higher price. Cost of manufacture here in the States is what has driven manufacture off shore. Most folks only look at price, and not quality.....or country of origin, when making a purchase.

Just the way it is.

Never trusted HF products where quality of the metal is critical in the durability of their products.
 
Difficult sometimes but possible. I bought a Leeson motor to put on a drill press last week. Claims to be made in the US. It was priced favorably to ones made in Brazil in Mexico.

I looked for a floor jack made in the US. I did find one manufacturer but they were just over a grand for a 3 ton(?) model!
Ooof!
 
(quoted from post at 10:26:44 07/08/20) I got their recall email as well.

I got the recall email and I give HF credit for the way they are owning up to this and handling it.

The recall is also posted in the stores. About the best any company can do with a non-registered or licensed prodcut where there is no data available about who bought it and who owns it now.

Every mechanical object can fail. Doesn't matter where it's made, all it takes is one operator messing with one setting to put out a bad lot of thousands of items. Nothing can be 100% inspected with 100% accuracy, so if you make enough of something, defects will be present.

Jack stands in particular I'm always going to double down on in terms of capacity. No way am I going to get under even a 3000 pound object that's resting on jack stands rated for 4000 pounds. This is one item where over-buying makes a lot of sense to me.

Grouse
 
Some years ago a good friend's father retired and went on a big European trip that included Germany. While in Germany he bought a particularly fine looking wrench. When he got back he boasted about this wrench and how it was made of "good German steel". My friend examined the wrench and noticed some fine writing on the back. Upon close examination the writing said: "Made in Brooklyn USA". My friend kidded his father about that for years.
 
I got the e-mail, but it was not flagged as Harbor Freight. It started out " me Eric " . It's good to see that he is trying to warn everyone,but in the end he's only trying to cover his own behind!
 
I haven't found that American made tools are any better anyway. You can buy Chinese junk cheap or spend a lot of money on American made junk. In the end you just get junk to work with.
 
I returned a pair of 3 ton stands back today and got a $32.09 gift card. I never had a problem with them but why wait.
 
I bought a HF lift used from a guy who threw in a set of tall (60") jack stands he used with the lift. He had cut down the tubes and shortened them to work better under the lift. One of the welds actually broke when I laid the stand in the back of my truck.

I figured I'd never use them for holding up a vehicle by themselves, maybe just to stabilize one when on the lift, but have found multiple uses for them around the shop already. I would like to re-cut them all and weld them back up properly, or, more likely, have someone who really can weld redo them.

When using my old ramps or even my old, sturdy jack stands, I still like to keep a floor jack or bottle jack under the vehicle just in case- something to give a person enough space to roll out from under a car in case of a failure.
 

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