4 Harbor Freight Power Tools To Steer Clear Of (According To Owners)

Harbor Freight has come a long way from its days as the store where you'd buy cheap tools fully expecting them to break after one job. These days, house brands like Hercules and Bauer offer a wide variety of products that get the job done (over and over again) at a fraction of the price. However, despite how massive their lineup is, quality can be pretty inconsistent even within the same brand family. You might grab a drill that becomes your go-to for years, then pick up a saw from the same line that makes you regret not spending the extra $100 on DeWalt or Milwaukee. That inconsistency makes shopping at Harbor Freight pretty tricky. So to save you from buyer's remorse, we went through thousands of customer reviews on Harbor Freight's own site to find the power tools that just aren't worth the purchase.

We're not talking about tools that are just good enough for the occasional small project around the house or tools you'll describe as decent for the price. These are the ones where customers specifically warn others to stay away: tools with design flaws, performance that doesn't meet even modest expectations, or serious safety concerns. Whether you're a Harbor Freight regular or shopping there for the first time, here are some of the power tools that owners say you just shouldn't add to your cart.

Bauer has some great products that are worth buying, but the 5 Amp Variable-Speed Drywall Screwdriver with Adjustable Nosepiece isn't one of them. At first glance, it doesn't seem like such a bad choice with the 3.9 out of 5-star rating on Harbor Freight's site. But when you take a closer look at why anyone would rate it 1 or 2 stars, you'll realize it's a pretty unreliable product. There's a good chance you might get a driver that works okay, but you might also get one that starts overheating and quits halfway through your project. And for $50, that's too much of a gamble.

One customer who needed to hang about 150 sheets reported that it took seven guns to finish the job. Ultimately, they were only able to exchange six of them under Harbor Freight's return policy. Every single one failed within three days of use. And this isn't an isolated problem. Other customers have experienced the motor dying mid-project, and the depth adjuster also failing to sink screws properly, even at its deepest setting.

A couple of people mentioned struggling to keep the bit holder in place, but one person in particular said that when they finally got it working, the speed control was impossible to regulate. The gun took off so fast that it stripped bits immediately. In their case, a piece shattered, sending steel fragments past their safety goggles and into their eye. This happened despite them wearing proper eye protection, which shows just how dangerously unpredictable this tool is.

Next on our list is the Warrior 1/4 in. to 2-1/8 in. Forstner Drill Bit Set, which has a 3.6 out of 5 average star rating. Most people who rated this tool 5 stars describe the bits as okay for light use or good for the price, often admitting they'd only tried it once on a small project, and not long enough to give a full review. But when you read through the rest, more than half of the 236 customers who left a full review were less than satisfied.

The biggest complaint is that these bits arrive dull straight out of the box. Multiple customers report having to sharpen every single bit before they could actually use them. Even after sharpening, the set still isn't sharp enough to cut clean, precise holes. Considering one customer reported struggling even with softwood like pine, hardwood is clearly a no-go area.

Overall, if you're comfortable sharpening your own bits, this set might serve as a cheap practice kit. Just keep in mind you run the risk of ruining the wood while you're at it. But if you're spending $43, expecting clean cuts straight out of the box, you'll be disappointed. As one owner put it, "On the plus side, you get a decent price and size range. On the minus side, and it's a big minus, these bits are NOT sharp. Not even close." So, unless you enjoy tuning up brand-new tools, you might want to skip this one.

At $100, the Chicago Electric 3/4 HP Concrete Vibrator isn't exactly cheap for a Harbor Freight tool. Nonetheless, the 4.3-star rating makes it seem like a solid choice. But that's until you scroll through the 1-star reviews and notice multiple customers describing nearly identical experiences. They get the tool home, plug it in to test it, and immediately know something's wrong.

One person's unit started smelling like hot plastic within seconds and wouldn't vibrate unless they turned it sideways and shook it while it was running. When they exchanged it for another unit, it had the exact same issue. For others, they only discover something was off while using it. One unit lasted all of 20 seconds before dying completely. Another worked for roughly 2 to 3 minutes during a pour before giving up. Some customers get vibrators that technically run but deliver such weak vibration that they're pretty much unable to get anything done.

Interestingly, we found a YouTube review calling out this product, and in the comments, someone mentioned there's a trick to getting it started properly. They claimed that it works just fine once you figure out the technique. A few people on Harbor Freight's website mentioned having to hit it a few times or shake it pretty hard to get it to vibrate, while one frustrated reviewer ultimately gave up and finished their pour by hand. 

The Central Machinery 16 Ton Hydraulic Pipe Bender doesn't immediately seem like a terrible option. It's $220, which is affordable compared to professional-grade equipment, but it has a 3.7 out of 5-star rating. After reading through customer reviews, it becomes clear that this tool has a hard ceiling on what it can actually do. 

The bender handles gentle curves without problems, but once customers start pushing it past 30 degrees, the pipe kinks or collapses. That's a dealbreaker if you need it for exhaust work, which requires tight radius bends. One customer bought it for exhaust tubing, tested it, and realized it just couldn't create the curves the job needed. Another person tried bending 1/8-inch aluminum and watched it kink after 20 degrees. Some owners say a 90-degree bend is essentially impossible without crushing the pipe, even with the standard tricks like filling the pipe with sand or heating it first.

Then there's the sizing problem, which is less obvious but equally frustrating. Someone bought the 16-ton model specifically because they needed to bend a 3-inch schedule 40 pipe. They maxed out the roller width, and the pipe still wouldn't fit. Now, here's the kicker: another customer already knew Harbor Freight's 12-ton model couldn't handle 3-inch pipe. So they upgraded to this 16-ton version, assuming more capacity meant bigger pipes. They had the same problem. And that suggests that beyond tonnage, there's a fundamental design flaw with how the frame and ram are positioned.

We combed through thousands of customer reviews on Harbor Freight's website, then narrowed them down to power tools with at least 100 reviews. Many of these tools have plenty of five-star reviews, and we're not disputing that some people genuinely love them and haven't had a single problem. What caught our attention were customers who had gone out of their way to warn others after having an unfortunate experience with the tool because it had failed right out of the box, didn't live up to expectations, or was a potential safety hazard to a good number of customers.

Everything on this list is available for purchase at Harbor Freight at the time of writing. However, considering the fact that manufacturers occasionally update their products to address quality issues, it's still worth checking the most recent reviews to see if anything has changed.