Harbor Fright?

Question

From Popular Mechanics

Harbor Freight Tools, a nationwide discount tool and equipment retailer, is recalling about 1.7 million Drill Master 18-Volt cordless drills, urging customers to stop using the item immediately and return it to a Harbor Freight store to receive a replacement.

"The drill's internal switching mechanism can become stuck in the 'on' position and overheat, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers," the company announced on its website.

Harbor Freight Tools has received 25 reports of the drill switch overheating, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Six of those reports included burns to the hands and fingers; five reports included minor property damage.

The drills being recalled were sold at Harbor Freight Tools stores nationwide, in the company's catalogue and on its website between May

2011 and September 2015. The item numbers on the recalled drills are
68239 and 68287.

For more information, call Harbor Freight Tools at (800) 444-3353 Monday through Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. PST or send an email to snipped-for-privacy@harborfreight.com.

Swingman · Accepted Answer

Chinese are crying all the way to the bank.

Leon · Answer

Sounds like the switch may only be one of the problems with the drills. If they will overheat from a stuck switch they will probably overheat from extended use. Remember the old battery technology days when you would run the drill until the battery was completely dead to guard against memory recharge problems? I recall the drill running for quite a long time performing that task.

clare · Answer

But genrally not under load - and without load motor current is low, and heat produced is also low as a result.

Also, it is very possible the drill switch is "sticking in the on position" due to a fault that causes high resistance in the switch, causing the switch to heat up, not the motor -and the localized heating creates the fire and burn hazard. (within the switch)

From the recall site - "The metal components of the black trigger switch can wear down over time and with extended use allowing for metal to metal contact, presenting an overheating or burn hazard"

It is only those with a black switch - the grey switch is not involved in the recall. To date ONE person has reported minor burns to the finger from a defective drill......

Leon · Answer

I suspect that if you could not shut the drill off because of the defective switch that the drill HF drill would probably also not be under a load. And popping the battery out would solve the shut off problem.

OFWW · Answer

LOL, Leon had too much hooch tonight? ;0 Popping out the battery would not solve the shut off problem? Sorry, Just couldn't resist.

Ivan Vegvary · Answer

I'm the OP. Building permit because it allows one (Portland, OR) to convert  basement into an ADU. (Legal additional dwelling unit). 800 sq. ft., full  kitchen, bath & 2 bedrooms. Have cut 8 windows, 2 of which are egress. Proj ected rental income should be around  $1,800 per month. Portland is an extr emely hot market.

Leon · Answer

LOL. Well I was thinking in the event that the trigger fails and the drill is heating up.

Harbor Fright?

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