They put the "Fright" in Harbor Fright.

[gfretwell]

I got a Harbor Freight acetylene torch kit a while ago and I used it once, then out it back in the black plastic case and put it away. Jump ahead a year, I needed to braze up some pipe so I got it out and started using it. Immediately I smelled acetylene. I shut everything down, got my handy dandy soapy water spray bottle and went looking for the leak. I expected a loose connector or something but it was the hoses. Both had pin hole leaks along their whole length.

I threw them in the trash and bought a Hobart set.

I still get a little shudder when I think of what would have happened if that caught on fire.

[micky]

Darn. That was my last chance to own an acetylene torch.

[Stormin Mormon]

Yes, that could have been quite the fire, explosion, and it only gets worse from there.

They are very good with the returns and exchanges at HF, you might be able to get your money back.

[DerbyDad03]

My son bought a set of HF ratchet tie down straps to use with a car top carrier. They were rated for 300 lbs each. That 300 lbs might work for a "hanging weight" of 300 lbs but it says nothing about the "cut strength" of the straps.

He barely made it 50 miles into a 2000 trip when the metal slot on the car top carrier cut through one of the straps. He was driving through a January Polar Vortex snow storm at the time. He ended up emptying the car top carrier, cramming some of the stuff into the cab of his pickup, the rest into his girlfriend's car and leaving the carrier by the dumpsters at a rest stop. He didn't want to deal with it for another 1950 miles, even with upgraded straps.

As we all know, HF has some good deals, but I wouldn't rely on their products for anything really important.

[DerbyDad03]

I'm not being argumentative, but you'll note that he said "Jump ahead a year".

HF's standard return policy is 90 days. My local HFs are pretty strict with that. I tried to return a trailer spare tire mount beyond the 90 day period and both stores said no. (I bought it on sale and sold it on Craigslist for the same price, so I made out fine, as did the buyer.)

Unless he could have gotten the hose replaced under warranty, I don't think HF would have taken it back under their standard return policy if it was a year later.

[gfretwell]

I am still not even sure why I bought this. I have a little Prestolite rig that does about 99% of what I need to do but I wanted a bigger rig to cut some big steel last year. It worked fine for that. The hoses went bad in the case since then.

Actually the metal parts (regulators and torches) seem to be OK but these pretty hoses are crap. The Hobart hoses were only $30 so at Northern, if you did end up with a HF torch set, I suggest you throw the hoses away right away. I looked at them closely today and even though they look perfect, if you bend them you see spider cracks across even the slightest bend.

I cut one open and you can see the inner hose is totally gone

I fished them out of the trash and I am going to pursue this a little farther. Since I bought them online, there should be a record of the actual purchase date.

I am wondering if CPSC might be interested in this. There might even be a "silent" recall on these hoses, although I am not sure I would trust the new ones.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Or if he can prove it is a material failure that should be subject to recall. That would probably be time consuming and more costly than buying a good set of hoses from a real welding supply house.

[Stormin Mormon]

Worth a phone call or email, or two. Might save some other HF customer a lot of grief.

[DerbyDad03]

Why do you say the straps were misused?

The original woven straps that came with the carrier when purchased, and used for many years without incident, have been misplaced. He bought a set of woven straps as replacements and used the same slots as had been used many times in the past.

Where's the misuse?

[sam E]

One reason for never smoking cigarettes - they mess up your sense of smell.

[snip]

[Larry W]

Suggest checking the HF online reviews for anything of significant cost there. They appear to be legitimate and HF does not seem to shy away from posting unfavorable reports. The same issue of hoses being poor quality and having short life is mentioned in many of those reviews.

[Jon Danniken]

[snip]

It doesn't take much imagination to figure out that the thin straps (I have a set) are not going to last very long when they are abraded by a metal edge.

For what they are designed to do they work great, but if you're putting any type of strap against a metal edge it is not a matter of if, but when, they will eventually give way.

Jon