Are Harbor Freight Pittsburgh Bottle Jacks Any Good? Here's What Users Say

It's been nearly five decades since the first Harbor Freight Tools store opened up in Lexington, Kentucky, and the brand has, quite remarkably, remained family-owned over that span. Along the way, Harbor Freight Tools has also grown into one of the nation's largest, most recognizable retail tool chains, boasting more than 1,600 stores across the nation.

Apart from the company's impressive expansion on the brick-and-mortar front, Harbor Freight has also been stocking those stores and its online marketplace with an impressive lineup of in-house brands that it now claims ownership over, including gear made by a few automotive factions. Among Harbor Freight's automotive-focused holdings, you'll find the name Pittsburgh, which makes everything from hand tools to ramps, hoists, shop cranes and car jacks. That last product list includes a full range of bottle jacks, most of which are priced well under $100. 

Harbor Freight does, of course, carry a couple of other brands that make car jacks, with Daytona being, perhaps, the best known of the lot. But Pittsburgh is a name that will no doubt be familiar to folks who frequent Harbor Freight stores looking to pick up high-quality gear on a budget. If you count yourself among that lot and regularly have some heavy-lifting to do in your garage, you might be interested to know that Harbor Freight's Pittsburgh jacks are relatively well reviewed by real-world users. 

A bottle jack is different from a standard floor jack in that it stands vertically and, via a longer hydraulic pump handle, raises a car, truck, or SUV via a bottle-like protrusion that extends up from within the jack's interior. Bottle jacks can be more useful than floor jacks as they can often handle more weight. At present, Harbor Freight offers 14 different Pittsburgh bottle jacks, ranging from 4 tons to 30 tons in weight capacity, all of which are rated between 4 stars and 5 stars by reviewers. 

We'll start on the low end, with Pittsburgh's 4 Ton Bottle Jack, which is selling for $29.99. The device currently boasts a 4.4-star rating based on 829 reviews, with a 5-star reviewer boasting that it's a "Great jack! Powerful jack and a good price." Others praise the jack as a good option for lifting a pickup truck. Among the negative reviews, several owners claim the jack isn't particularly durable and may be defective, with one stating it only lasted one week, and that "It gets stuck when trying to lower it."

Moving on to the big dog, Pittsburgh's 30 Ton Bottle Jack sells for $119.99 and is rated 4.5 stars by users. Happy customers praise the jack for its power and durability at the price point. One even stated that a refrigerated shipping container, "wasn't even a strain for this jack." However, some users note the jack is prone to oil leaks, with others claiming it failed to hold pressure out of the box.

This article should not be viewed as an endorsement of the Pittsburgh Bottle Jacks being sold through Harbor Freight Tools. The intent is, instead, to provide those who may have an interest in purchasing one for themselves with a first-hand view of the brand's overall quality directly from consumers who have already purchased and used them. In doing so, we read through dozens of accounts — both positive and negative — of Pittsburgh Bottle Jacks from real-world users that are posted on the Harbor Freight website. Whenever appropriate, direct quotes were also used.