Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[Skyco]

Whatever you do don't buy the HF house brand air hose...
I'm arguing with them now over 3 I bought that burst within minutes of hooking them up. If you read their own site reviews for the house brand (Central Pneumatic?) hose you'll see it is a common complaint.
I can't find my receipt and the current store manager refuses to exchange them, even though he knows they are crap, I wanted to pay the difference and get the Goodyear hoses.
The Goodyear USA made hoses are ok and just a few dollars more.
Oh and I ran a credit card analysis and I've spent over $3500 in HF the last 2 years...didn't matter to them at all when I told them this I figure their cost on the 3 hoses total is less than $20.

 

[California]

Did they ask for your phone # when you didn't have the receipt? Seems to me that brings up a purchase history. They always ask for it if I return something broken.

Which reminds me - the last thing I returned was one of the 3-ton jackstands. It was possible to pull the stem too far up, where it went crooked and rested the weight on a concealed shoulder inside instead of on the teeth. I was lifting a heavy farm implement and set that jackstand underneath, then looked and saw it was so crooked that there was no stability from toppling over. They exchanged it, no hassle. (and yes I had hammered in the tab that prevents pulling the stem up too far. This one reached 'too far', slipped out the top of where it should be, before it reached that tab).

 

[deereman75]

My current hose is around 50-60 feet of 20+ year old industrial rubber air hose. It is still in perfect shape, and will last a while yet. I am just wanting another 50-100 feet, for when I need air tools in the other shop, or in the driveway, so it wont be used that often, but I still want it to last. Any recomendations on good, long lasting air hose, that is still reasonably priced.

 

[aczlan]

I picked up some goodyear rubber airhose at a yardsale. $5/50 foot section. Best stuff we have.


Aaron Z

 

[sixdogs]

My current hose is around 50-60 feet of 20+ year old industrial rubber air hose. It is still in perfect shape, and will last a while yet. I am just wanting another 50-100 feet, for when I need air tools in the other shop, or in the driveway, so it wont be used that often, but I still want it to last. Any recomendations on good, long lasting air hose, that is still reasonably priced.

I bought red rubber hose from Lowes about five years ago and it is still perfect despite very hard abuse. I used that hose to connect to Sears standard priced Craftsman hose that is maybe 13 years old and still in exc condition.
The hose I recall to avoid is the stuff that had a "bad rubber" smell to it even when new.

 

[leeinMT]

Rubber air hose, ie Goodyear, is better than the plastic coated stuff, especially in cold weather. My old Sears hose is still going strong after 30 + years.

I recently bought a set of HF wood boring spade bits because they looked good quality and were on sale. They worked great drilling through three layers of floor under a bar for a new sink, and they stayed sharp.

 

[Skyco]

Well I stopped in Northern Tool yesterday for something else and spotted Goodyear Made in USA hose on sale for $5 less per 50ft than HF's sale price. Picked up 3 of them.
Stopped by a different HF yesterday out of town and tried to exchange my hoses...looked promising as clerk got all the info from me, name address, phone number etc then asked for my receipt
Said he couldn't exchange them without it...he should have asked for that first, would have saved us both some time. Asked him to swap for the SAME hoses, mine were obviously brand new but burst. He said NO. Apparently this is a new policy or newly enforced, I've exchanged many items in the past without receipts...
That's OK, I give up...they win...I'll take most of my $1800 a year I spend in HF somewhere else,


I second the PVC hose recommendation, ok in summer tough to deal with in cold weather, get very stiff.

 

[chopped]

WOW they used to have the Guarantee of satisfaction like sears had. But its sad when they have to sway away from these original commitments to the public..
I guess they figure loose a few customers but they will gain it back with new ones.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

RE: Air Hoses...

I bought a 50' air hose from HF about 5 years ago. It was the Goodyear brand stuff (black rubber). I use it often and abuse it when I do. It's held up great.

The PVC stuff isn't worth the storage space. I took mine after it broke and used it in a sprayer. Low pressure, summer use only should work fine.

 

[BigE_]

I bought a couple of their 50' blue house brand hoses back in '96 when I purchased my first compressor. I connected both of them together and put them on one of their 100' hand cranked hose reels. I don't use them every day, but probably on the order of 1x per week. They are still fine. I run up to 135 PSI in the hoses, and I never leave them pressurized. I also have one of the Goodyear 25' black hoses that I ran from my compressor to the hose reel. Same time frame, still going strong.

I also have one of their orange coil 25' hoses that is probably 10 years old. It is fairly heavy duty. Then I bought another one, but this time it was yellow. The yellow one is very light weight and I only use it when I really need the extra length. I could see that one bursting fairly easily. In fact, I may have actually put a new end on it -- I don't recall now.

Finally, I have their 25' auto retracting hose reel with the red rubber hose. The hose reel itself leaks a little if you leave it pressurized, but that red rubber hose is probably the highest quality of all the hoses I've seen at HF, including the Goodyear. I've had this one in use in my garage on my second compressor for about 6 years. This auto retracting hose is regularly priced somewhere around $50-$60, but it went on sale a few years back, and then with a 20% off coupon it came to about $32, so it was a good deal and I bought another for the shop.