5 ms·
Harbor Freight's "low quality" tools will work for a great many average home owners doing some upgrading or light work. We absolutely fall into the trap of wan
by bbarn 5y ago
Harbor Freight's "low quality" tools will work for a great many average home owners doing some upgrading or light work. We absolutely fall into the trap of wanting the best thing ever, but how many people actually need the top of the line Milwaukee or Makita brand biscuit joiner for the 2 tables they ever make at 200$, vs the Harbor Freight one at 60 that you can probably find a coupon for to make it 45-50?
On that note though, an even worse practice is when a brand achieves notoriety for quality and starts making "light" versions of their tools. One example of this before they went belly up was Craftsman making nearly identical looking "Sears" brand that weren't covered by the craftsman warranty. Bosch also did this with pimping out their brand name to extend to rather crappy home appliances here in the EU. Black and Decker was synonymous with reliability in the early 80s, and I still have some jigsaws and circular saws from my dad that work great from that era, but anything from them now is arguably worse than the cheapest things you can buy at Harbor Freight.
- barrkel 5y agoI'm sure a bunch of executives made nice bonuses selling the brand value down the river, though. It's an incentive problem. It's extremely difficult to get incentives aligned over a timeline longer than a few years that it might take for options or stock to vest or clawbacks to expire.
- brewdad 5y agoI managed to get a 48" flex bit stuck in my wall when I was running ethernet last summer. Since it was the last hole I needed and it only cost me $9 at Harbor Freight, I left it in the wall and called it good. The $90 bit from Home Depot probably would have meant removing a bunch of drywall and then having to patch it. The batteries on my ~20 year old Craftsman cordless drill are finally getting to the point where they won't hold a charge. I'll probably have to bite the bullet and wade into the mess of "brand-name" tools the next time I have a significant project.
- secabeen 5y agoFor a replacement like that, it's probably worth watching for Father's Day and other sales. With cordless tools, you're really buying into a battery accessory system, and it's good to know what tools are available for the battery you select.
- bbarn 5y ago100%. One of the areas I will spend more on is cordless tools. The modern Dewalt stuff has built me a deck and a campervan, and when it comes to lawn tools the E-go stuff has been fantastic. Both of those definitely locked me into a "system" as you say but both also covered just about any future use case I would have.
- sidewndr46 5y agoI have a 72 inch drill bit "stored" up in my attic amongst the rafters. There was one particular location where I really needed it at that time, so I just left it up there. I think it costs $15 off Amazon. If I never need it again, I figure I can deal with the hassle of getting it down from the attic.
- Vrondi 5y agoFor your 20 year old Craftsman, seriously look around for aftermarket replacement batteries. You might find them out there for pretty cheap. I did for my DeWalt.
- jasonwatkinspdx 5y agoMan, you said it about B&D. My family owned a small business, now bankrupt. One of the things my dad did to try to save it was start selling tools retail. He's very brand loyal, and of an older generation, so he was convinced selling B&D in the 90s was the way to go. The tools were such plastic crap. Meanwhile we had mid century era versions of the same tools in the workshop at home that were still going strong. Obviously my dad's idea didn't work. We got creamed by big box stores and the brands they hawk. And honestly rightfully so. But anyhow, what happened with B&D has happened to so many previous quality brands. It's really frustrating to me.