12 Cool Harbor Freight Gadgets Under $50 That Deserve A Spot In Your House

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Harbor Freight has long been known as a place where bargain-hunting DIYers can find good tools at a reasonable cost. In many cases, their tools perform at or at least near the spec of more expensive tools, and often cost so much less that any dip in performance is well worth the cost. The company doesn't sit on its hands either, releasing tons of new tools every year, and that means there's always something to look at when you head to the website or one of their stores.

Usually, people shop at Harbor Freight for tools and DIY material, but the hardware chain is also known for having tons of gadgets that are more universally useful than just in a garage or workshop. After all, many crafts and hobbies use similar tools as garages and workshops, and even some standard household activities can be made easier with the right gizmo, even if it's meant for something else.

If you're brainstorming some gift ideas, looking for useful stuff for your home, or you're a frequent Harbor Freight shopper curious about what else the store offers, here are some interesting, enjoyable, or useful gadgets you can pick up for under $50.

A good flashlight is a reasonable investment for any home, because flashlights are universally useful. They're one of those items that is recommended for emergency kits, and it never hurts to have a couple lying around for general use. A good flashlight is actually pretty easy to find, and there's no doubt that you'll find a use for them if you have a couple around the house.

There are thousands of them on the market, and the Braun Rechargeable Flashlight is a good place to start. It ticks all the boxes you'd want for a basic flashlight to have around the home. It boasts an 1,800-lumen light and can throw its light further than a football field, depending on how dark it is, with a twisting zoom function for close up or long-range use. It also has an IPX7 water resistance rating, so it can be used in the rain. Pair that with reasonably good battery life, according to user reviews, and a rechargeable battery, and you have a great flashlight for emergencies or daily use.

Some folks prefer a flashlight that takes standard batteries, since they can be swapped out during power outages. For those, the Braun 800-lumen Tactical Flashlight uses common AAA batteries.

It's not a bad idea for any household to carry a multimeter, and there are a ton of them to choose from across a number of brands. These are very useful for measuring electrical current and can help diagnose many problems. For example, if you get your electrical panel replaced, you can use a multimeter to check that all the outlets have 120V of power, ensuring the electrician did their job well. They're also useful for measuring the alternator current of your car or riding lawn mower battery.

Harbor Freight has some nice ones for under $50, and the CEN-Tech Digital Multimeter is about as good as it gets. It supports up to 600V of power, which is enough for household and workshop use, and tests resistance and current in varying ways. It also has a data hold button that will keep a reading in memory for later use. The detachable leads are pretty common among multimeters, but they're still nice to have.

There isn't much that separates the CEN-Tech multimeter from competitors, but it is cost-effective and easy to use. At just $25, it undercuts most big-name multimeters, and with a 4.7-rating across over 750 reviews, most users haven't found any problems with it.

It's never a bad idea to have devices that can test the things you use most often, and a receptacle tester is a very cheap one that doesn't hurt to have around the house. These little guys plug into your electrical outlets and tell you if there is anything wrong with them. They do so by using a three-light system on the back, and the readings can tell you if your socket is messed up and, if so, how it's messed up. For example, it can show you if the ground is connected at all, or if the hot and neutral wires have been reversed.

All of these work the same, and Ames Instruments sells one at Harbor Freight for $6. It tests seven different wiring conditions and can quickly help you learn what's wrong with an outlet. It can also test GFCI outlets like you'd find in a bathroom or kitchen. While you're at it, you might as well pick up the same brand's non-contact voltage tester for another $5, which can tell you if something is receiving an electrical current, whether it should be or not. You likely won't use these tools a ton, but you'll be glad to have them when you need them.

When people need more than two sockets on an outlet, the usual solution is to get a good power strip from a reputable brand and expand it that way. There are other solutions to this problem, though, like wall taps. These handy little guys plug directly into the wall socket and turn it into several outlets. There are benefits to this, like a cleaner presentation than something like a power strip, and you can buy wall taps in different shapes.

A good example of this is the Vanguard 6-outlet, 3-prong Side Entry Tap. Despite its long name, it's really just a wall tap with six outlets. Three outlets come out of each side, and that lets you connect and run wires along the wall instead of out into the middle of the room. It's helpful to keep things tidy, and it's small enough to fit behind couches and furniture. It also works behind beds, although wall taps can be flame hazards, so using them so closely to the flammable material you sleep on isn't the best idea.

These little taps are all of $4, so you can get several for under $50.

These days, many people control their outlets with a smart plug of some sort, which lets you manage what's on the plug through an app on your phone. It's a nice solution, and some smart plugs have gotten pretty inexpensive over the years. Old school, remote-controlled versions still exist, though, and you can buy a set of remote-controlled plugs at Harbor Freight. It includes a remote and three controllable outlets for $20. The remote has three buttons, one for each controllable wall outlet, all simple on/off switches. The remote boasts 80 feet of range and works through walls.

Something like this would be great for Christmas lights. Simply connect them to a controllable outlet, and you can turn them off with the press of a button in the morning and turn them back on in the evening. Any time you have something at the other end of a space that you want easy control over, a product like this is useful.

Smart plugs are probably a stronger option over the long-term, especially if you want to start tinkering with automations and are building a smart home setup where most things are controlled by your phone, but if you want to rock it old school, Harbor Freight has you covered.

A butane torch is a handy gadget that is useful for a lot of things. People often use these to start bonfires in their backyard, and it's often used by cooking content creators to add char to food or caramelize sugar for crème brûlées. They can also be used for heat shrinking electrical connections, melting various things, and for removing bubbles from resin casts or reforming plastic. Butane torches are stronger than standard Bic lighters that you find at gas stations and can be refilled with butane cans, like this one from Zippo.

Harbor Freight sells one called the Micro Torch for $15. It's technically designed for soldering, but you can use it in any other activity that would require a torch of some sort. It has an adjustable flame, it's small enough to hold easily, and, as with all butane lighters, can be refilled and used many times over. The $15 price tag is a pretty good price for one of these, as even no-name brands on Amazon tend to run for $30 to $40. It is smaller than those torches, so you'll need to refill it more often, but you don't really need a bigger one unless you're a heavy user.

Harbor Freight had a viral moment with the U.S. General Mini Steel Toolbox, as the product line became fairly popular in 2024. Its primary competitor, the Kobalt Portable Mini Toolbox from Lowe's, has also seen its fair share of viral spotlight over the last few years. It's easy to see why. These mini toolboxes are built like their larger, more expensive counterparts, but are small enough to put on a desk or a countertop, making them excellent choices for storing small items of different kinds. Plus, the U.S. General version comes in six different, very bright colors, so it doesn't look out of place indoors.

You can definitely keep one in the garage to put small tools and items like nuts and bolts in, or you can plop one in a project room for use with art supplies, office supplies, or even music supplies like guitar picks and Allen wrenches. Each U.S. General model has two drawers and a top that flips open for a third storage compartment. They're also cheaper than the two-drawer variants of the Kobalt Mini Toolbox, which is always nice.

While not strictly necessary, it's highly recommended to have some sort of emergency kit around in case things take a turn for the worst. A good kit includes a lot of things, like emergency water, food, a radio, and other things. You can get a sizable percentage of those recommended items in the Gordon Emergency Survival Kit. It's essentially a toolkit with survival-oriented items in it. If you get one, you'll put it in a closet and hopefully never use it, but on the off chance you do need it, you'll be happy to have it. 

This kit comes with a knife, a spork that doubles as a whistle, a flashlight, a wire saw, an emergency blanket, fishing tools, a fire starter, and some other items. Some of those items you might make use of before a big emergency, like the flashlight during a power outage, or the knife for basic stuff like cutting fishing line. However, most of the kit is designed to be there if you ever need it, and it might not be a bad idea to carry one while hiking or in your car as well. At $28, it's a small expenditure that has many usable gadgets.

A good pair of jack stands is nice to have in any garage for any time you need to work on your car, be it repairs or oil changes. They work similarly to car ramps in that they sit in a fixed position and hold up your car. You use a good floor jack to get the car up and then put jack stands under the car's frame, to hold it in place while you work. Generally speaking, jack stands are safer than floor jacks for holding a car up long term, and anyone who does work on their car should have some.

The Daytona 3-Ton Ratcheting Jack Stands at Harbor Freight are excellent for this. They boast 6,000 pounds of holding capacity, which is enough for most consumer vehicles in this day and age. They use a ratcheting mechanism to adjust the height and have reinforcement braces welded in for more stability. They sell for $50 for a pair of them, which is very reasonable considering the cost of jack stands. In addition to automotive use, jack stands can hold almost any heavy object that you might need to get under, and some use them to hold up tables, too.

Anyone who's ever had a birth certificate or social security card reissued can tell that the process is a real bummer; enough so that a safe for sensitive documents like that is worthy of serious consideration. Harbor Freight sells many safes, one of which is the Union Safe Company Document Safe. It's large enough to hold things like IDs, passports, birth certificates, and money, and the lock helps keep out prying eyes.

On top of that, it's also waterproof and fire-resistant, lasting 30 minutes in up to 1,550 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hotter than most house fires. It can also be dunked in three and a half feet of water for up to 24 hours without getting the inside wet. We wouldn't recommend dropping this to the bottom of a lake or letting it sit in a sustained fire for a long time, but if disaster strikes, this safe has a chance of surviving long enough for emergency services to retrieve it.

On top of sensitive documents and money, you can also keep other keepsakes in such a safe, like important photos, family heirlooms, and jewelry. We don't recommend this for firearms, however. You'll want a gun safe for something like that.

The humble step stool is arguably one of the most underrated things a home can have. Usability is pretty simple to explain. Step stools let you get to the top 20% or so of your interior space much more easily. From there, you can clean, get items off of high shelves, or hang Christmas lights. When done, stepladders fold up and can be hidden in a closet or against the garage wall until needed again.

The Franklin 3-Step Steel Folding Step Stool is a solid choice, and it's $50 on the nose. It comes with three steps, support for up to 225 pounds, and its fold-in design is less than three inches deep once it's all folded up. Harbor Freight carries several high-quality ladders, so it's no surprise that people tend to like this one quite a bit. It's made of steel and plastic, which makes cleaning it easy, and that's about all there is to it. It's a capable, competently made stepladder that, according to its dozens of positive reviews, works quite well.

At $50, it's less expensive than many models you'll find in other hardware stores, and less expensive models usually only have two steps instead of three.

There are few tools more useful for a household than a good screwdriver. Tons of stuff around the home is held up (or together) with screws, including light switches, power outlets, shelves, and more. Repairing these is part of the DIY experience, and a good electric screwdriver can save you a ton of time. The Bauer Cordless Screwdriver makes for an excellent addition to a home toolkit, and it costs a mere $20, which undercuts most competitors by at least half, and often even more.

The Bauer is a simple little handheld gadget that basically does what you would expect it to do. You hold a trigger and the little guy screws things in or takes screws out. The grip is twistable, which allows the user to swap it from an inline electric screwdriver to a pistol grip. There is also an integrated LED flashlight along the bottom of the grip that can help illuminate the thing you're working on.

This electric driver should work with any 1/4-inch bit set you have around, but if you don't have any, Bauer includes two Philips bits and two slotted bits, which is good enough for some household tasks.

These products were chosen for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, they all qualify as gadgets, which are defined as small mechanical or electrical contraptions that are designed to perform specific tasks. They're also all under $50, and those prices don't take into account limited-time sales or clearance pricing. That means you can find them at this price today, tomorrow, or next month.

Every item on this list has either been used by us or has immaculate review ratings from the shoppers at Harbor Freight. Each product here had to maintain at least a 4.0/5 rating across 50 minimum reviews, although most products have well into the hundreds. The Daytona Jack Stands were the kings here, with a 99% approval rating, a 4.9 out of 5 actual rating, and nearly 5,000 total reviews.

Finally, we chose items based on their usefulness around the house, and everything here should be something you can easily squeeze into your home without much trouble.