3 Lowe's Finds That Outshine Ace Hardware In Price And Quality

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Lowe's reports over 1,700 corporate-owned home improvement store locations nationwide. Ace Hardware, on the other hand, boasts an estimated 4,812 hardware stores scattered across the country. This makes it the "largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the world," according to a 2024 news release from the company. 

Lowe's and Ace Hardware offer similar products and services in a lot of areas. Both are among the retail chains with the best tool departments, and they typically have knowledgeable associates on hand ready to offer helpful advice on DIY projects. Lowe's reports higher annual revenues than Ace Hardware, but its increased buying power doesn't always result in lower prices for customers. For example, both retailers sell Craftsman tools, but not every Craftsman tool is cheaper at Lowe's. 

You can shop at either retailer in store, online, and even get some items delivered through DoorDash. However, delivery charges may apply and availability may depend on your location, especially when shopping online at Ace Hardware. While the two DIY-friendly retailers offer product lines that are closely matched, including brands that are exclusive to each store, there are some Lowe's finds that outshine similar products from Ace Hardware when comparing prices and quality of the items.

Good home tool kits require some essential items. Among the first tools you should add when putting together such a kit is a set of screwdrivers. While both Lowe's and Ace Hardware sell similar driver sets from Craftsman, Klein, and Gearwrench, they also sell exclusive store-branded screwdrivers, like the Ace brand from Ace Hardware and Kobalt from Lowe's.

Ace Hardware sells its 4.4-star Ace Pro 6-piece screwdriver set for $28.99 either in store or online. However, if you choose to purchase the Ace Pro screwdriver set online, be prepared to pay extra for delivery. The company says its branded screwdrivers meet or exceed ASME and ANSI specifications. The driver set features yellow chemical-resistant acetate handles with black cushioned grips and non-magnetic tips machined into the ends of their round steel shafts. Specifications show the kit contains two Philips screwdrivers — a 3-inch #1 and a 4-inch #2 — and four flat-bladed screwdrivers — a 3/16-inch with 3- and 6-inch lengths, one ¼-inch by 4 inches, and one 5/16-inch version with a a 6-inch length.

Meanwhile, Lowe's sells the Kobalt 10-piece 6-inch magnetic screwdriver set for $24.98, representing not just a $5 savings but also the added value of a four additional screwdrivers. The Kobalt screwdrivers also have magnetic tips and a higher 4.8-star customer rating. In addition, 92% of responding reviewers recommend buying the Kobalt set, as opposed to the 50% of Ace Hardware respondents that recommend the Ace Pro set. While Lowe's lists the screwdrivers' handles as "bi-material," they are described as ergonomic. The round chrome-vanadium steel shafts lead to four Philips, four standard slotted, and two cabinet slotted tips with lengths from 2.5 to 8 inches.

A pair of snap ring pliers are yet another useful type of hand tool to add to your arsenal. It's also another example where Lowe's outshines Ace Hardware. While the Ace Hardware's 6-inch carbon steel snap ring plier set is priced at about the same as the Klein Tools interchangeable snap ring pliers at Lowe's (around $20), tools from the latter brand are consistently higher rated. In fact, Klein ranks among the best hand tool brands you can buy from Lowe's, with about 70% of the brand's tools sold at Lowe's carrying user ratings of at least 4 stars. This includes the snap ring pliers and their 4.1-star rating; Ace Hardware's version, meanwhile, has a much lower 3.5 stars.

Both the Ace and the Klein Tools snap ring plier sets come with swappable plier heads that allow them to work with internal or external snap rings. The multiple heads feature straight and angled tips with 45- and 90-degree bends. While both sets of pliers offer flexible functionality, reviewers often state their use is best suited to light duty applications, and they may not work for every size of snap ring.

A square is an essential item worth adding to anyone's woodworking tool collection. It's handy for laying out straight and angled lines, checking stock edges to determine squareness or angularity, and ensuring the finished work is flat. While speed and combination squares have their place, it's tough to beat the precision and simple functionality of a steel carpenter square.

The Ace brand 12-inch steel carpenter square sells for $8.99 and holds a 3.4-star rating on the retailer's online storefront. It's made from ⅛-inch thick steel with a silver finish and features a 1.5-inch by 12-inch body with a 1-inch by 8-inch tongue. Both scales have contrasting thermal bonded numbers and line markings with advertised graduations to ⅛-inch, although images on the Ace Hardware site show the product is clearly marked in 1/16-inch increments. Many of the negative ratings with the product report frustration with the placement and adhesive residue of the manufacturer's sticker, while other users claim it took just a minute to remove.

The Johnson Level steel carpenter square from Lowe's sells for less at $7.98, features a higher 4.3-star rating, and has the same dimensions for thickness, length and width of body and tongue, and thermal bonded graduation increments. The Lowe's square features an orange coating designed to reduce glare and inhibit rust, with contrasting color graduations. Oddly enough, the majority of the negative reviews for the Johnson Level square also report issues with removing the product sticker. Likewise, other users report the sticker comes off easily, and praise the high visibility and contrast of the markings for making the square easy to read.

In order to make the list of Lowe's finds that outshined similar items at Ace Hardware, the item had to cost less than (or at least the same as) its Ace counterpart. It also had to exhibit better quality characteristics, exemplified by higher user ratings and/or a deeper feature set. We sorted through hundreds of products from each retailer, comparing them using those parameters to narrow the list to these three entrants. We avoided brands common to both stores; in such cases, there was no quantifiable difference between identical products from the same brand besides price, which we found largely comparable independent of sales or specials.