4 Harbor Freight Tools That Outshine DeWalt In Price And Quality

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In the world of toolmakers, Harbor Freight brands like Icon and Daytona could not be more different from DeWalt. The latter is a premium brand aimed at professionals and those with significant disposable income, with a focus on power tools and an eye toward essential and important hand tools. Meanwhile, anything that gets sold at Harbor Freight is made with affordability in mind, which also means more hand tools and fewer choice of power tools, especially cordless tools.

Given this premise, it's easy to come to the conclusion that Harbor Freight is where cheap, half-decent tools live, and that DeWalt is always the best choice, if you can afford it. That's often the case, to be honest, and there are quite a lot of undeniably excellent DeWalt tools around, but it's not a rule to live by. Sometimes, Harbor Freight creates something unique that other brands don't make yet, or it offers a basic corded tool that cordless alternatives can't quite rival. Other times, DeWalt just messes up, while one of Harbor Freight's many brands nails it.

The closest comparison to the Icon 10-inch Pliers Wrench from Harbor Freight is the much more expensive Knipex Pliers Wrench. Few other tools use this type of design, in which standard tongue-and-groove pliers are rigged so that squeezing the handle doesn't cause a rotation, like what you see in scissors and regular pliers. Instead, these tools close their mouth while keeping the two jaws parallel. Both the Icon and the Knipex have a push-to-lock button and etchings on the side, to help you set the opening to the right dimensions.

DeWalt does not make a tool like this. Its Pushlock Pliers are slightly cheaper than the Icon ($30 against $39) but lack the extra functionality of the version you can find on Harbor Freight. Things get interesting when you consider that, according to the brand, the Icon pliers wrench is highly adaptable, with the parallel jaws making it usable on any fastener. In fact, the Knipex tool that Icon has — so to say — taken inspiration from, is branded as a replacement for "a full set of open end wrenches." If that's the case, the Icon, too, should be worth as much as a full set of traditional DeWalt pliers, which the brand sells for $66.

Harbor Freight's Daytona is one of the most popular brands of floor jacks, with very positive review on all its products, from the small 1.5-ton aluminum floor jack, one of the best for DIYers, to the big and expensive 4-ton version.

Daytona isn't the only company making tools for lifting your car, however. Even DeWalt is getting in on the action, though its offering is far from the most appealing. The Daytona 3 Ton Low-Profile Floor Jack with Rapid Pump from Harbor Freight seems very similar to the DeWalt 3-Ton Steel Hydraulic Floor Jack sold by Lowes. Just looking at pictures of the two makes it clear that the construction is very similar, and the price is nearly the same, but we can only say it appears that way because the main difference is in information.

While there is a lot of information available on the Daytona, the DeWalt is not even mentioned on the company's website. Few users are talking about it and fewer recommend it. More importantly, if this tool has the same ASME-PASE certification displayed on the Daytona's product page, DeWalt is in no hurry to show it. When it comes to a tool that's responsible for keeping your whole body safe, you can't trust the brand name alone.

Yes, we're talking about Harbor Freights' meme tool again. It might be a meme, but there's a reason so many people bought this tool set. The Icon Locking Flex-Head Ratchet and Bit Set is a pretty good deal, as it contains 32 bits, a flex-head ratchet, an extension, and an adapter, all for about $40. It's also an uncommon tool: Ratchets are not new, of course, but a set of driver bits made to be driven by a ratchet? That's not as common as you might think.

Why, DeWalt doesn't even sell one in a bundle. The closest it gets is with a regular ¼-inch Drive Flex-Head Ratchet, sold as standalone for $29, which won't be compatible with commonly sold driver bits unless you also buy a $5 adapter that translates ¼-inch drives to ¼-inch bit holders. After all that, you still need to buy the driver bits.

Unless DeWalt decides to package all these tools in a neat bundle, sold at a significant discount, Harbor Freight will continue to offer the easiest and cheapest way to use the power of a ratchet wrench on poor, unsuspecting screws. Plus, the Harbor Freight kit comes with a case, an extension (that can be used in multiple ways), and an adapter that turns the tool's slot for bit drives into a regular ¼-inch drive ratchet.

Bauer's 3-amp Variable-Speed Oscillating Multi-Tool is a powerful corded tool that can help with small scraping, cutting, and sanding jobs, but with the must-have oscillating accessory, you can do a lot more. Whichever the task, it will require a dedicated blade, so we suggest you pick up a set of blades or select the ones you need to go with the multi tool.

DeWalt doesn't offer a corded multi tool, but it does make the pretty popular Atomic 20v Max Variable Speed Cordless Multi Tool. It doesn't get as fast as the Bauer, with only 18,000 OPM against the corded tool's 20,000, and it has a variable speed trigger instead of a 6-speed dial, potentially making it more precise, but less consistent. The DeWalt is also bigger, heavier (when you factor in the battery), and ridiculously expensive, about five times the price of the Bauer. If you already have DeWalt batteries and chargers, then it is only four times as expensive as the Bauer.

Of course, we're ignoring the reason the price is so high: the DeWalt is cordless. However, the extra value given by not having a cable depends entirely on its use. If you're a professional or if you often travel with your tools, the DeWalt might very well be its price. That being said, if you're going to be near an outlet every time you use your oscillating multi tool, you're unlikely to find this price worth the upgrade. One possible downside of this particular unit is that the eight feet cord could feel too short, but a good 15-feet good extension cord that supports way more than a 3-amp tool is just $10, and you probably already have one.