The 5 Harbor Freight Power Tools With The Most 5-Star Ratings

Harbor Freight may just be one of the most popular hardware stores around, especially for budget-conscious buyers. It's not exactly synonymous with quality, but as always, there are exceptions; the tools on this list received a staggering number of five-star reviews, and many of these buyers have a lot of positive things to say about their purchase. Some products are very powerful for the price, others are so much cheaper than any alternative while still being reliable, and others yet are multi-function tools with surprisingly few limitations. All are a bit special in some way or another, and would deserve your attention even if they weren't extremely popular with Harbor Freight buyers.

Before we get into the article, we should point out that the premise of the list is a little biased toward cheap tools. We're looking for the most five-star reviews, so basic tools with wide appeal will be more represented than niche or pro-grade ones, even if they have a lower average score. It's therefore natural that a $20 corded heat gun that performs its function adequately will have more top reviews than an $80 cordless one with a slightly higher max temperature, as many people may be more likely to buy the cheap tool to save cash.

The tools on this list are all decent quality (and some may be incredible for the price), but you'll need to do your own research to make sure they fit your needs.

With 4,950 five-star reviews at time of writing, the $55 Bauer 20V Cordless ½-inch Drill/Driver is one of the most reviewed tools on Harbor Freight and easily one of the most popular. There is a catch, however: Unlike almost every other tool offered by the store, the Bauer isn't sold online but only in brick-and-mortar locations. On top of that, supplies are not always available. In other words, you may be unable to buy one of these models without traveling to a Harbor Freight far from your home. The same is true of the similarly-rated Bauer 20V Cordless ¼-inch Hex Compact Impact Driver, (4,198 five-star reviews). While extremely popular, both tools may be on their way out, so we decided not to give them too much space.

If you're looking for a new drill or impact driver and can get your hands on one of the Bauers, they would probably be a great purchase. Neither Bauer nor Harbor Freight are anywhere to be seen on our list of the best major cordless drill brands, but according to the reviews, this one is a safe bet. Multiple reviewers praise the ½-inch drill/driver, specifically saying that they've had one of these for years and they're still going strong. Plenty more can attest that it makes good use of the 1.5Ah battery it comes with and that it's decently powerful, with 1,700 RPM and 450 in-lb max torque.

It's a similar story for the impact driver. The brand itself doesn't exactly inspire confidence, but the thousands of positive reviews do. One calls the impact driver powerful enough to make it jump in your hand and twist it unless you've got a tight grip, while others say it's very durable and that, like the larger drill/driver, the small battery it comes with lasts surprisingly long.

Coming in at 4,163 five-star reviews, the $20 Warrior 1,500 Watt 11 Amp Dual-Temperature Heat Gun is one of many corded options on this list. Not that users care about being constrained by the six-feet-long cable; perhaps predictably, they often praise this heat gun for the price-to-quality ratio. Other features most users seem to be happy about are the max heat (1,000 degrees Fahrenheit on the highest setting) and how fast the tool reaches that temperature.

The store page names a handful of uses for the tool, from stripping paint and varnish to thawing pipes, but there are lots of other uses for heat guns, and many reviewers haven't limited themselves to Harbor Freight's instructions. Multiple users made a review saying they employ this tool when making fishing lures, whether to dry their paint or to use the heat to shrink them. As for negative feedback, there isn't much. Most one-star reviews are from buyers who seem to have received a defective unit, which is bound to happen to some, given the price.

Since the warranty lasts only 90 days, this is a risk worth keeping in mind. If you do end up buying the Warrior heat gun, you want to run it through its paces extensively before the warranty period expires to make sure your model is free from manufacturing defects.

Part of the Portland Electric Outdoor line, the 12 Amp 230 MPH/375 CFM 3-in-1 Blower Vacuum Mulcher by Portland comes with 3,788 five-star reviews and plenty of recommendations. Unlike similar products on this list, the blower/vacuum/mulcher doesn't have a near-perfect score, with 4.3 stars overall and less than 90% of its users recommending the tool to others. Yet it's still the third Harbor Freight tool with the most five-star reviews, meaning it must be doing something right, but it may not be as much of a safe bet as others on the list.

Pleased users leaving perfect-score reviews (which account for more than half of the total number it's accrued) often mention how much of a good deal this is. Sure, a corded blower can be inconvenient, but for just $50, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better alternative, cordless or otherwise. Another user says that this tool can easily blow away wet leaves, which is not something you can say for all cheap blowers. The max speed of 230 mph and airflow of 375 cubic feet of air per minute (CFM) should be enough for small and mid-sized yard, but may become annoying if you have a huge plot of land to deal with. Of course, a wide space will make the cord become annoying way before the limited CFM.

As for negative reviews, vacuuming and mulching (which some users claim are actually one function) don't seem to work quite as well as blowing. Some users say the vacuum function is a little awkward to use, while others point out that, to make the vacuum work as intended, the blower tube needs to be switched for the included concentrator nozzle attachment or the opening will be too large and produce little suction.

The Bauer 2.8 Amp, 5 in. Random Orbit Palm Sander received an average review rating of 4.3 stars and 4,627 reviews in total, 3,425 of which are five-star ratings. This is a corded palm sander priced at just $38; like many products on this list, it found the right mix of affordability and quality to become a fan favorite. Some users even report buying it on sale for $20, which would have made the price-to-quality ratio even better. Bauer makes Harbor Freight's highest rated sanders, so it's no surprise that even this small, corded option is highly rated.

Harbor Freight's product page claims the Bauer is ideal for "smooth, swirl-free finishes," which is what random orbit palm sanders are usually used for, but one review mentions using it on minor auto body work with great success. This sander comes with a dust collector that some users appreciate, many say it's a weak point, and others replaced with a shop-vac. The reviews claim that replacement pads are cheap and easy to remove and install. We can't comment on the second claim, but a compatible 15-pack of Bauer sanding discs costs just $15, which is pretty cheap.

At $75, the Bauer 8.5 Amp ½-inch Impact Wrench is a pricier tool than other popular options at Harbor Freight (especially corded ones), but the price is not too steep for the rated strength of 1,050 ft-lb of breakaway torque. A max speed of 2,600 RPM, up to 3,000 blows per minute (BPM), and a trigger with separate controls for forward and reverse round up the offer. It may not be the most popular Harbor Freight impact wrench, but it does have a respectable but not exceptional average review score of 4.7 stars. It's also a lot cheaper than any cordless model with a nearly perfect five-star score.

Plus, none of those other Harbor Freight models on offer come close to the 3,380 five-star reviews awarded to this corded Bauer impact wrench. Since we're counting the number of positive reviews, we're bound to favor cheap, broad appeal models over more expensive (and probably higher quality) tools, but that's not to say this impact wrench isn't very capable. Buyers are impressed with the strength of this item — comparing it favorably to pneumatic impact wrenches — and with its durability.

Many users don't like the rocker switch, but many say it is the only thing they'd change about the tool and still gave the Bauer a 5-star rating. Another common complaint is the non-adjustable torque, which makes the tool hard to use in tasks that require some finesse.

To create this list of Harbor Freight tools with the most five-star ratings, we started with a list of every tool on Harbor Freight, ordered them by "top-rated," and then manually looked at all the results with a review count in the thousands. Only the five tools with the most five-star reviews made it onto the list.

For the most part, we didn't alter the list in any way after finding these items. The only exception are the Bauer 20V impact driver and drill/driver, both of which are only available in-store, and only in some locations. They have more five-star reviews than any other Harbor Freight tool, but since they'll be hard to obtain for many, we decided to place both in a single section to avoid crowding the list with tools that may soon be unavailable to most buyers.