Harbor Freight Tools That'll Help You All Winter Long

The winter months can be difficult for a lot of people, especially when it means breaking out the snow shovels and clearing off the driveways and sidewalks. If you're near a Harbor Freight store or willing to shop online, you can make the heavy snowfalls a lot less frightening. There are plenty of tools you can pick up from a Harbor Freight that'll make winter a breeze. This includes things like getting a hefty shovel and ways to stay warm inside. If you're a Harbor Freight Inside Track Club member, you might even find some deals on things that are impossible to pass up.

High user reviews from Harbor Freight shoppers will back up everything you see on this list. This ensures you're getting a tool that can be relied on, which is especially important if you spend a good chunk of cash on it. On top of being useful for winter, the majority of tools here will also be useful in the other seasons, so there's great value in everything.

Having a good shovel to rely on can make all the difference in the winter. If you need to clean off a walkway up to your door or free up your driveway for your car, you'll want to make sure you have something you can trust. While snow blowers get the job done, not everyone wants to splurge on one. The One Stop Gardens Scoop Shovel offers everything you'd need for clearing snow if you're fine with a bit of manual labor. You can pick this up from Harbor Freight for $22.99, but you'll need to go into the store as this one isn't available online. It features a 15-inch wide blade so you can clear out a large portion of your sidewalk with one go. 

With over 700 reviews on the Harbor Freight website, the One Stop Gardens shovel has a 4.7 out of five rating among buyers. There aren't a whole lot of downsides as you'll be getting a shovel that's relatively lightweight at about 3 pounds, and it's equipped with a sturdy aluminum blade. As a bonus, you'll be able to use this shovel for more than just snow. You can use it to scoop up yard waste in the summer and fall months to get some year-round use.

If you're doing DIY projects into the winter, you might be doing it in a garage that doesn't have any way to get heated up. If that's the case, then Bauer's Propane Heater will be perfect for you. For $99.99, you can pick this up from Harbor Freight either in-store or online. This heater can warm up an area of 1,350 square feet and run for up to 10 hours with a 20-pound propane tank. It comes with an electric start that makes getting it going a breeze, and buyers note this can warm up your garage in under 30 minutes.

Customer reviews on Harbor Freight's website are 4.7 out of five, with no glaring downsides to note. The big thing that can be annoying is having to constantly fill up the propane tank if you're spending hours upon hours working in the garage. If you're only spending a few hours at a time with it on, you can get some decent use out of it before having to refill. A big selling point is the fact that it's portable, so feel free to take it with you to football tailgates as well if that's up your alley.

For people who like to put up lights for the holidays, a generator could be a way to save on energy costs. Instead of plugging lights into your house, you can opt to use something like the Predator Inverter Generator. Any generator could work in theory, but getting one quieter like this Predator would be ideal if you have it running all day. With this being an inverter generator, you'll only output as much energy as you need, so the lights you're powering shouldn't be much of a draw. This should mean you'll be able to get a lot of use out of this generator off a single charge, depending on what the power draw of your lights is.

The generator's downside is that it'll cost you $449.99 from Harbor Freight. However, buyers have given it a 4.6 out of five rating, so it's worth the investment if you can envision yourself getting use out of it. You can use it to power things in your garage or take it camping to provide power for your site. There's a lot of versatility to be had with a portable generator, and it's even nicer when you don't have to worry about it making a ton of sound.

You might have noticed your car tires deflating more than usual in the winter, and that's because of the cold weather. Instead of going to a gas station to add the air back into your tire, you can do it from the comfort of your home if you pick up a portable inflator. The Bauer Cordless Inflator runs off a 20V battery, and you can grab it from Harbor Freight for $24.99. You do have to purchase the battery separately, so make sure you factor that into the pricing. The benefit of going cordless here is the fact you can keep it in the car with you. That means if you're at the grocery store and see the low tire pressure light come on, you can get your tires filled back up before making the drive home.

Based on over 900 customer reviews, the Bauer inflator has a 4.7 out of five rating among Harbor Freight buyers. With no obvious downsides, it's a cheap way to ensure you never have to worry about running on low tire pressure again. If you keep it in your vehicle, you'll have to make sure you have it charged up beforehand.

Many people deal with frozen pipes in the winter, which can lead to many issues if you have a blockage. A way around this is to leave your sinks running just a little, but instead of driving up your water bill, you can opt to pick up a thermometer. The Pittsburgh Non-Contact Thermometer allows you to simply point at a pipe you might suspect is frozen and find out if that's the case. This is nice to have if you can't easily access the pipe in question, and if you see it has a much lower than usual temperature, something is wrong. You can pick this thermometer up from Harbor Freight for $5.97, but it's another option that will be in-store only.

User scores for this thermometer are 4.2 out of five, and the main critique is the fact that you have to get closer to your target than you might expect. With this being a non-contact thermometer, having to get close to the pipe does somewhat defeat the purpose, but you should never have to make actual contact. As long as you're aware of the limitations, there shouldn't be anything stopping you from spending a few dollars here.