3 Harbor Freight Finds That Outshine Amazon In Price And Value

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For better or worse, lots of folks default to a little online shopping instead of walking the aisles of a brick and mortar store. After all, one requires getting dressed and interacting with people (both admittedly good things to do) while the other asks only the effort required to clack a few keys and click a few buttons.

It's predicted that by 2027 roughly a quarter of all retail purchases will take place online. And of all online purchases, more than a third happen on Amazon. The common wisdom is that Amazon is the easiest, fastest, and most affordable way to get whatever your heart desires. The truth is that while Amazon is often a convenient way to shop, it's worth taking a minute to consider your Amazon purchase and to do a little comparison shopping if you want to get the best deal.

If you need a quick replacement for an everyday tool, if you're looking to add to your personal collection, or if you need a gift for the tool lover in your life, it's worth checking out Harbor Freight before you break out your Prime membership. These three products from Harbor Freight outshine some popular Amazon alternatives, offering superior products at more affordable prices.

As the name suggests, a bubble level relies on a small air bubble in a vial of oil or alcohol. Because air is less dense than the liquid in the vial, it always floats to the top. If the tool is level with the ground the bubble should hover nicely between the guide markings. If the bubble favors one side or the other, you know you need to make an adjustment.

Bubble levels are a low-tech solution for figuring out whether the angle of an object (whether a wall or a picture frame) is level with the ground, but that doesn't mean they're all of equal quality or utility. On Amazon, the Kapro 781 Genesis Box Level offers a 24-inch lightweight aluminum frame with three vials for checking horizontal and vertical level. It's accurate to within half a millimeter per meter and sells for $21.78.

By comparison, Harbor Freight offers the Pittsburgh 48-inch Box Frame Level for just $15.99. It's slightly less accurate than the Kapro, with a variance of plus or minus a millimeter per meter, but that's plenty accurate for everyday uses. In addition to being more affordable, its greater length makes crests and valleys more apparent while providing a more accurate average level and you get a similar collection of vials for horizontal and vertical measurements.

A socket set is a foundational tool for just about any amateur mechanic. Anytime you need to fasten or unfasten something, especially nuts and bolts, it will likely come in handy. On Amazon, you can find the Facom ¼-inch Square Socket Set for $109.90. It features 38 pieces including 10 sockets, a ratchet, screwdriver handle, and various bits.

While that's a perfectly serviceable set, Harbor Freight's Icon ¼-inch Drive Compact Socket and Bit Set has more functionality, with a larger collection of sockets and bits, and it's about $30 cheaper at $79.99. It comes with 21 hardened chrome-moly (a combination of chromium and molybdenum) sockets in 5-millimeter, 5.5-millimeter, 6-millimeter, 7-millimeter, 8-millimeter, 9-millimeter, 10-millimeter, 11-millimeter, 12-millimeter, 13-millimeter, 14-millimeter, ³⁄₁₆-inch, ⁷⁄₃₂-inch, ¼-inch, ⁹⁄₃₂-inch, ⁵⁄₁₆-inch, ¹¹⁄₃₂-inch, ⅜-inch, ⁷⁄₁₆-inch, ½-inch, ⁹⁄₁₆-inch sizes.

It also comes with three Phillips bits (PH1, PH2, and PH3), three slotted bits (4.5 millimeters, 6.5 millimeters, and 8 millimeters), eight hex bits (3 millimeters, 4 millimeters, 5 millimeters, 6 millimeters, 7 millimeters, ⁵⁄₃₂-inch, ³⁄₁₆-inch, and ¼-inch), seven Torx bits (T10H, T15H, T20H, T25H, T27H, T30H, and T40H), three Pozidriv bits (PZ1, PZ2, and PZ3), a durable universal joint, and a pair (two-inch and four-inch) of socket extensions, all organized in a solid branded storage case.

If you need to deliver a lot of torque in a controlled way, an impact wrench is the tool to use. On Amazon, you could pick up the Jet ½-Inch Pneumatic Impact Wrench for $197.78. It's a pneumatic tool (powered by pressurized air) offering 1,500 impacts per minute (IPM) and 500 lb-ft of maximum torque, which some users say isn't always up to the task of loosening lug nuts.

Instead, you could save a few bucks and get the Hercules 20V Brushless Cordless ½-inch Ultra Torque Impact Wrench instead. It delivers 2,100 IPM and up to 1,500 lb-ft of breakaway torque. In addition to the added power and lower price tag, it's also battery powered so you don't have to deal with electric or pneumatic cables. Users can control the rate of spin with a variable speed motor so you can slow things down if you want more control, dropping from 1,600 to 600 RPM. There's also an auto mode which adjusts the spin rate on the fly to help prevent over loosening or over tightening. It's a tool with as much power as portability, making it worth your consideration. And if you really don't want to walk into a brick and mortar store, you can order any of these tools from the Harbor Freight website.

People tend to make assumptions about products based on their brands. It's the reason we'll spend a small fortune on a pair of shoes or a bag with the right logo on it. Reality is a little more complicated. 

Whether shopping on Amazon, Harbor Freight, or anywhere else, you can usually find crummy products mixed in with the high-quality stuff. Stores need to accommodate specialized professional use alongside amateur needs. Each product has to be evaluated on its own merit, regardless of its origin.

To that end, we evaluated common workshop products found on both Amazon and Harbor Freight's website. To be considered, each product had to have at least 100 reviews from users, and an average rating of at least 4 stars. That means you're likely to be happy with any of these products, from either retailer, but these were the Harbor Freight offerings that outshone their Amazon competitors in terms of accessories, functionality, price, or all of the above.