The 5 Best Budget-Friendly Tools Worth Buying From Harbor Freight

Harbor Freight touts that it offers customers a broad selection of tools at a cheaper price tag than your typical hardware store. While that is true, you will need to sift through some low-quality products that are best avoided before you can find ones that offer you the most bang for your hard-earned bucks. With so many options such as power tools and even survival equipment for emergencies, picking the right tools amidst the swath of low-quality products can feel overwhelming.

While you might be tempted to go for the cheapest option available, this can oftentimes lead to a tool that won't even last a couple of months or delivers subpar results. In the long run, it is smarter to spend a couple of extra dollars to ensure what you are getting is reliable and of decent quality. Fortunately, SlashGear is here to help you narrow down your shortlist of toolbox essentials to buy from Harbor Freight that will still deliver solid performance. 

The entries below were curated via personal experience and by considering each item's usefulness, quality, and relatively budget-friendly cost compared to its competition. Aside from that, we also scour and tap into the pulse of the internet to narrow down the most recommended products found in Harbor Freight.

Proper lighting is essential when doing repairs around the house or on your car, but that is not always a guarantee. What you need is a reliable and versatile work light to illuminate hard-to-reach nooks and crannies, and Harbor Freight has one that checks those two boxes and adds affordability to the mix. Specifically, the BRAUN 500 Lumen LED Rechargeable Magnetic Work Light is one of the store's best-sellers at $29, and it is easy to see why with its solid construction and decent rechargeable battery life.

This work light features a strong magnetic base and a fully articulate LED head for pinpoint lighting and positioning. In addition, the foldable design means this item won't take up too much space in your tool box. For its low price tag, this work light from Harbor Freight certainly exceeds what you would expect and is a pretty good deal if you are looking for a budget-friendly compact work light to add to your tools. With a current rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars and over 1,000 units sold, the BRAUN 500 Lumen LED work light already has a solid foundation of trust from customers.

Floor jacks can be an extremely helpful tool that can be used in a variety of ways, not just for lifting your car. If ever you find yourself needing to raise a particularly heavy piece of equipment or furniture at home with no one to assist you, a floor jack can save the day and your back. That said, floor jack prices vary, and cheaper ones tend to be less reliable. Fortunately, a good floor jack product can be found at Harbor Jack at $189 with the DAYTONA 3-Ton Low-Profile Floor Jack with Rapid Pump. The DAYTONA 3 Ton has also cracked Pro Tool Reviews' list of the best floor jacks from Harbor Freight, further cementing its reputation.

With a relatively fair price, the DAYTONA 3-Ton Floor Jack proves to be a sturdy tool that can help you raise cars and other heavy equipment by at least two feet thanks to its dual-piston hydraulic system. Its low-profile design also allows it to crawl underneath most types of vehicles, even "slammed" or lowered ones. For those worried about fatigue, this tool comes equipped with rapid pump feature technology that makes lifting stuff quick and convenient, as it can do so within four pumps on the jack. Purchase one from Harbor Freight to take advantage of its three-year warranty. Harbor Freight has already sold over 4,000 DAYTONA floor jacks with reviews praising it as delivering the best bang for your buck. 

A combination of dependability and efficiency is needed for any noteworthy tool such as a screwdriver, and somewhere at your local Harbor Freight, such a tool exists with a $9.99 price tag. One of the most basic essential tools that all homes need is the screwdriver. However, standard screwdriver sets often are not designed to reach tight areas, and this is where the stubby screwdriver comes into play. The DOYLE 6-in-1 Ratcheting Multi-Bit Stubby Screwdriver combines durable construction and comfortable non-grip handles to ensure that you won't have much of an issue removing screws from difficult and cramped angles.

Also, the 6-in-1 multi-bit design means versatility is firmly at the forefront of this stubby screwdriver. Additional props to the ratchet mechanism that keeps the bits secure when in use. Overall, this particular compact screwdriver is a nice addition to your toolbox for those instances when you are faced with trying to remove screws within confined spaces where movement is restricted. Another highly-rated product that is available at a considerably low cost, reviews from Harbor Freight deem this item as user-friendly and versatile.

An often overlooked home improvement and construction tool is the dead blow hammer. This is a mallet-like tool designed to absorb the impact of each strike. Its main use is to prevent damage to the surfaces of particularly soft materials, a quality that can reduce potential problems when renovating certain areas of the house. The PITTSBURGH Dead Blow Hammer that you can find at Harbor Freight combines a rugged polyurethane build and different sizes to cover all necessary bases along with a cheap $12.99 price tag. Additionally, the bright neon orange color makes it quite conspicuous and easy to find.

This particular dead blow hammer brand has a decent reputation among Harbor Freight customers and is one of their most recommended items. While you will find better and more expensive brands elsewhere, the PITTSBURGH dead blow hammer offers a good balance between cost and quality that makes it a worthwhile purchase at Harbor Freight. In addition, PITTSBURGH products often come with a lifetime warranty as well, which is always a nice touch for these types of tools that will go through the wringer. This PITTSBURGH dead blow hammer currently has a 4.7 out of 5 rating and around a thousand sold.

The PREDATOR 212cc Horizontal Shaft Gas Engine is one of the more popular brands found within Harbor Freight's brick-and-mortar warehouses, and it certainly earns all the praise that it gets. They are used for a wide variety of applications, such as small boats, off-road vehicles, generator pumps, and most often, go-karts. The PREDATOR 212cc engine is a well-rounded machine with consistent performance and an affordable price tag of $149.99.

If you are in the market for a reliable and versatile alternative engine, PREDATOR engines at Harbor Freight should be on your shortlist. From its user-friendly and straightforward design to its broad applications and a relatively budget-friendly price tag, it is no wonder why this is one of the best finds in Harbor Freight and is among the hardware store's most recommended items in their inventory. All in all, this is a highly worthwhile purchase for go-kart aficionados, and if you can get in on a sale, all the better. As one of Harbor Freight's best sellers the PREDATOR 212cc has a current rating of 4.8 out of 5 and over 5,000 units sold.

A single trip down Harbor Freight can net you a cavalcade of cheap tools, but that does not always equate to a good haul. In most cases, cheap tools tend to deliver cheap results. The good news is that Harbor Freight features a slew of decent and reliable hardware tools and equipment within their aisle, as long as you know what to look for. I have personally encountered go-karts using the PREDATOR 212cc engine, and it is a decent beginner's choice while also providing good modification options for those who love to tinker with these machines. The other entries are all highly rated in the community as tools that deliver the best bang for your buck. Based on thousands of customer reviews and input from Pro Tool Reviews, these are some of the best deals that you can get at Harbor Freight.