Good stuff

[Herb and Eneva]

Where`s the good stuff? I mean mostly tools, hardware, and routine houshold things. I bought a hose nozzle at W.M. for $4.00 and it only lasted about 1 month. I didn`t expect it to be a real good one but with 4 hoses that would be 24 nozzles for one season. I went to tractor supply and got a better nozzle for $ 8.00 but it only lasted 1 year. Once I bought a real cheap black and decker drill--less than $10.00-- and thought it would be nice to have an extra set of brushes. They don`t even make extra brushes for this item. I would like to find someplace that sells well made products with metal parts instead of cheap plastic, screws holding it together instead of weak plastic clips--I mean whoever heard of plastic gears in a chain saw. I know I would have to pay more but it would be worth it.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

There are still a few places that sell quality fittings. For a hose nozzle try Lee Valley

For a hose reel try

[grasshopper]

Sears still sells some fairly good quality stuff. "Building Supply" stores generally stock good grades of plumbing.

Lowes and Home Depot are hit-n-miss with both personel and products. Never buy the cheapest grade offered....

[gfretwell]

My Ace Hardware has a small cabinet full of brushes in the tool department with about 100 different styles. I have had pretty good luck matching them up. BTW you may have to ask around, 2 employees said they didn't have any brushes before a guy said yes they did.

[ransley]

Ace and Sears have lifetime warrantys, at least you can exchange items. Craftsman hand tools are good.

[Blattus Slafaly]

It's a throw-away world. They want you to buy cheap products...often. Another problem is design engineers appear to be on LSD. The crap coming out of factories is amazing. I have repaired and improved many items rather than throw them out and buy again. For instance a wind cork screw with side levers. The plastic bottle seat broke after only a few uses. I had to design and make a steel bottle seat that works fine. I've had power transformers for things go bad and I had to hack saw them open to repair wires and diodes. Then tape them shut. I'm into function, not looks. I had a hack saw blade mounting hook break and fabricated one out of a coat hanger. Still works to this day.

[HeyBub]

" 'Tis better to spend than to mend," or so said George Orwell.

[Stormin Mormon]

Try your local Ace hardware.

[dpb]

Hit or miss, too, imo....much of their stock any more is simply Ace-branded versions of the same Chinese imports as everywhere else.

The "real" stuff remains at the actual distributors for the most part w/ the odd local supplier or the internet/catalog store which has a wide enough market exposure to be able to hit the rare consumer who actually does buy something on other than lowest initial cost...

[trailer]

Speaking of nozzles, I just got one from Amazon for about $18. A little expensive, but it's supposed to have lifetime warranty (my lifetime I guess).

Anyway, it works very well. Just search Amazon for hose nozzles.