Quality of Harbor Freight and Chicago Electric tools

[Jim B]

I followed (price) this hose reel for sometimes, last year I paid something like $19, it look and feel exactly like one selling for more than $40 plus elsewhere.

[Lobby Dosser]

I wasn't clear. I buy the clamps off the shelf in the store. Just won't order anything from them online. ALL my pipe clamps are HF - bought the

3/4" for $2.49 ea.

[bf]

In my experience, the drill bits were pure crap. The normal bits (like brad point, but without the brad points), broke with alarming frequency. The Forstner bits dulled very quickly.

Compared to a name brand, there's no comparison in quality on the drill bits.

Also had bad luck with their jigsaw blades.. pure crap.

I'm now of the mindset of the other poster.. you lose so much money off the crap that you buy there, that it's not worth the occasional good value.

The only item I was ever truly happy with was their heavy duty grinder stand. Their pliers/wrenches have poor tolerances.. it's just piss poor. I feel stupid for wasting about $200 there over the years. for basically a grinder stand and about 1/2 the pipe clamps held up ok (the other half stick or otherwise perform substandardly to the Ponys).