Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[California]

$75 for the Earthquake everybody has loved for many years, $55 additional from that to buy the new one with even more torque and is 1.5 lbs lighter. If you earn your living with it, obviously pay the price for the lighter one even if you don't need the torque. For casual DIY use? The first Earthquake serves me fine. Yes its heavy, but I don't need to use it all day.

Also the new ones spec a greater air cfm (6 cfm) that you would have in a commercial environment, while the traditional one at 4.4 cfm matches the typical smaller compressor a weekend warrior is likely to own. My HF 2.5hp (ha!) 10 gallon compressor is sufficient for the older Earthquake, I don't know if it could keep up with 6cfm.

I think its a tossup.

I wonder if they are closing out the traditional one.


Edit - better description, and I added the actual air cfm above.

 

[PhysAssist]

$75 for the Earthquake everybody has loved for many years, $55 additional from that to buy the new one with even more torque and is 1.5 lbs lighter. if you earn your living with it, obviously pay the price for the lighter one even if you don't need the torque. For casual DIY use? The first Earthquake serves me fine. Yes its heavy, but I don't need to use it all day.

Also the new one specs a much greater air cfm that you would have in a commercial environment, while the traditional one matches the typical smaller compressor a weekend warrior is likely to own.

I think its a tossup.

I wonder if they are closing out the traditional one.

Hi CA,

Thanks- that's about what I thought, and for me, carrying around the heavier one is prolly good exercise anyway.

T

 

[newbury]

<snip>
Also the new one specs a much greater air cfm that you would have in a commercial environment, while the traditional one matches the typical smaller compressor a weekend warrior is likely to own.
<snip>

I looked at the specs in the manual for both the Earthquake 1/2 inchers (Item#62835 regular and Earthquakeｮ XT - Item#62891), they both say 6cfm at 90 PSI. And the 29 gal. 2 HP 150 PSI Cast Iron Vertical Air Compressor I'm looking at for $355 puts out 5.9 CFM @ 90 PSI. Do I need more for occasional use of the EQ12XT? Taking off 2 tractor tires etc.

Note the XT3/4" specs (item 62892) are 9 CFM @ 90 PSI and puts out 1500lbs of torque!

 

[Midniteoyl]

I looked at the specs in the manual for both the Earthquake 1/2 inchers (Item#62835 regular and Earthquakeｮ XT - Item#62891), they both say 6cfm at 90 PSI. And the 29 gal. 2 HP 150 PSI Cast Iron Vertical Air Compressor I'm looking at for $355 puts out 5.9 CFM @ 90 PSI. Do I need more for occasional use of the EQ12XT? Taking off 2 tractor tires etc.

Note the XT3/4" specs (item 62892) are 9 CFM @ 90 PSI and puts out 1500lbs of torque!

That 5.9cfm is what the pump can put out, so if you give a little time between lug nuts, you'll be fine.

 

[California]

I looked at the specs in the manual for both the Earthquake 1/2 inchers (Item#62835 regular and Earthquakeｮ XT - Item#62891), they both say 6cfm at 90 PSI. And the 29 gal. 2 HP 150 PSI Cast Iron Vertical Air Compressor I'm looking at for $355 puts out 5.9 CFM @ 90 PSI. Do I need more for occasional use of the EQ12XT? Taking off 2 tractor tires etc.

Note the XT3/4" specs (item 62892) are 9 CFM @ 90 PSI and puts out 1500lbs of torque!

Those 6cfm tools are both new at HF. It's their traditional Earthquake they have sold for several years (68424) rated 800 ft lbs breakaway that specs 4.4 cfm. That one has been described as sufficient in this thread several times. It does everything I need, ie tractor lugnuts. For me the only advantage of the more powerful new ones would be less fatigue from their considerably lighter weight.

I went back and edited my post above to clarify that 4.4 cfm is for the older model Earthquake.

 

[dragoneggs]

I looked at the specs in the manual for both the Earthquake 1/2 inchers (Item#62835 regular and Earthquakeｮ XT - Item#62891), they both say 6cfm at 90 PSI. And the 29 gal. 2 HP 150 PSI Cast Iron Vertical Air Compressor I'm looking at for $355 puts out 5.9 CFM @ 90 PSI. Do I need more for occasional use of the EQ12XT? Taking off 2 tractor tires etc.

Note the XT3/4" specs (item 62892) are 9 CFM @ 90 PSI and puts out 1500lbs of torque!

Occasional use and you would be totally fine!

 

[California]

I was unhappy with the first, cheap HF impact wrench I bought. It used air so fast I had to wait after 2 ~ 3 lugnuts, also it didn't have the power to break loose rusty automotive lugs that were torqued originally to 80 ft lbs. My HF compressor - 2.5 claimed hp, 10 gallons - didn't provide near enough air to make this a worthwhile tool.

Come to think of it the HF needle scaler and the air die grinder were the same, they used so much air that only short bursts of work could be accomplished.

So I think if there is a bad mismatch between compressor cfm and what the tool needs, frustration will result. But in this case 5.9 cfm provided vs 6.0 cfm needed should work fine. Try the new model impact wrench but consider taking it back and getting the traditional 4.4 cfm Earthquake, if you find your compressor is insufficient.

 

[dragoneggs]

I was unhappy with the first, cheap HF impact wrench I bought. It used air so fast I had to wait after 2 ~ 3 lugnuts, also it didn't have the power to break loose rusty automotive lugs that were torqued originally to 80 ft lbs. My HF compressor - 2.5 claimed hp, 10 gallons - didn't provide near enough air to make this a worthwhile tool.

Come to think of it the HF needle scaler and the air die grinder were the same, they used so much air that only short bursts of work could be accomplished.

So I think if there is a bad mismatch between compressor cfm and what the tool needs, frustration will result. But in this case 5.9 cfm provided vs 6.0 cfm needed should work fine. Try the new model impact wrench but consider taking it back and getting the traditional 4.4 cfm Earthquake, if you find your compressor is insufficient.

10gal is marginal at best... 29gal and 150psi should do a wheel easy.

 

[sixdogs]

Hi 6-dogs,

I just bought the regular EarthQuake with a $75-ish coupon after the Memorial day w/e.

I thought I remembered that the recent word of mouth about it has been pretty good too???

Would it be worth the price difference to upgrade just for general use on my cars- mainly doing tire rotations and brake jobs?

Or is the regular EarthQuake reasonably decent too?

I don't really know if I'll need 1200 ft/lb's [at least not most of the time].

Thx,
T

PS: What was the best "with coupon" price you've seen on it?:

The regular one probably gets the highest ratings for performance of all of them but is heavy. If they both weighed the same, the regular one would be a better deal.

I happened to have an older regular one that was not as it should be in terms of ease of use and sticky F-R button. I planned to trade for the lighter weight-- and not XL model--but there was a good price on the LW for $99. Then I tried to return it and wound up with the XL for the same price. I dunno.

The price is all over the place and seems to be coming down. I think I have seen $109 or $119. If you were not bothered by the weight of the regular one you could keep it for a couple years until the XL's come down in price and then sell the heavy one. I sold mine for 2/3 of a new one--$50--and that's after a few years of use. Actually, I think I paid under $60.

Heavy or light, they are all good. Hope this helps. They all have more power than you will ever need. I used to dismantle huge farm equipment with the regular one and never a problem rusty or not. They are the best.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

The cfm rate at the needed psi is far more important than the tank size or the max rated pressure output of the compressor. Folks would come in and ask me all the time "what size compressor do I need?" My answer EVERY time was "It depends on the tools you want to run." Just like pto hp on a tractor, you have to have enough hp to drive whatever tool you attach to the driveshaft.

The one thing I noticed on the older HF air tools was the cfm demand was usually quite high. Most "hobbyist" home shop compressors wouldn't put out enough cfm to keep up with the tool. Constant air demand tools were worse, like air sanders, needlers, air chisels, air ratchets, impacts, etc. Even an 80 gallon air tank will get bled dry if you're trying to run an air sander on it that the compressor can't keep up with. I think some of their newer tools are now being made with less air demand requirements. I have an old 1" impact that takes 12-14 cfm @ 100 psi to even get the impact hammer to hit hard enough to do any good with it. Most home use compressors won't even spin the thing up to speed.

You also have to look at the cfm rating at the psi level your tool needs. Some compressor labels can be misleading. If that impact needs to run at 90 psi, then that cfm rating at 40 psi is irrelevant. It's easier to make a compressor "look good" in the stats if you're only looking at it's low pressure cfm rating. It takes a lot more comressor "grunt" to get high cfm at high psi than it does to get high cfm at low psi. Most of my big demand tools need at least 90 psi to run, so I look at cfm ratings at the 90-100 psi flow rate. That is what will tell me if that compressor will drive my tools. Also, the "max" psi of the compressor is usually meaningless. Who cares (normally), if that compressor has a max psi of 150 psi? Most tools don't need that much, and unless you're doing a lot of blowgun work that actually requires that high of psi (most of the time you're not blowgunning at that much psi anyway), then it's again, a "worthless stat" that just makes the marketing sheet look good.