5 Budget-Friendly Home Depot Finds For Father's Day 2024
Father's Day is just around the corner on June 16, and that means that it's time to go gift shopping for your dad or the other father figures in your life. There are plenty of places you could look to find the best possible presents, both in person and online, one of which is Home Depot. The surface version of why is obvious: If your dad is particularly handy, then it's a great place to get all varieties of hand tools and power tools. That's not all, though: Home Depot has increasingly embraced the smart home, as well, with all sorts of smart devices like lighting, air conditioners, and much more available at the chain's stores and even more online.
However, that's not the full extent of what's available. Home Depot, especially if we include online-only items, also sells a surprisingly wide variety of home entertainment items, including some audio equipment that's actually pretty good by reputation. There are also options for if your dad enjoys cooking, like various kitchen appliances that make putting together some amazing meals much easier. With the caveat that we're trying to avoid recommending anything that sells for more than $150, let's take a look at some of the best Father's Day gifts at Home Depot, both among "stereotypical" Home Depot items and the broader inventory that the chain carries both in-store and online.
Edifier bookshelf speakers
Home Depot stocks some tech products that might surprise a lot of people, and that number increases dramatically when you factor in the company's online-only stock. This includes various types of speakers, and though some are from companies like Crosley that don't have a great reputation for quality or value, there are actually some pretty compelling options if you look hard enough. What really jumps out are various speakers available at HomeDepot.com from Edifier. There's a decent chance that you've never heard of Edifier before, but this Chinese company makes powered bookshelf speakers across a wide range of price points, starting under $100 and peaking over $2,000. At HomeDepot.com, all of the Edifier models on offer are under $200/pair.
For whatever reason, it looks like Home Depot's website doesn't use the same model numbers that Edifier and other retailers use. This makes it tricky to find reviews for what's being stocked, much less professional ones, but you should be able to find comparable models on the websites of other retailers like Best Buy and go from there. Regardless, it's not really in dispute that Edifier makes quality speakers for the money. The most prominently-reviewed ones, with recommendations from The Wirecutter, Sound Guys, and Future Audiophile, are the S1000 series in the $400 to $500 range, which Home Depot does not carry. But it's clear that Edifier makes quality speakers for the money, and you can't do much better for the price than the 42-watt Bluetooth models that you can get for as low as $149.99.
Google TV, Roku, or Amazon Fire streaming sticks/dongles
One class of gift that is inexpensive, a great value, and can easily be contextualized to an older parent is the HDMI streaming stick/dongle/box. Home Depot stocks some of the best video streaming devices in various forms, both online and at its brick and mortar locations. Regardless of if your preference is Roku, Google Chromecast with Google TV, or Amazon Fire TV, Home Depot stocks all of them, and, with the right sale — like the current $19.99 deal on the Roku Express — they start at about $20 while topping out around $60. If your dad doesn't already have a smart TV or does but hates the interface, all of these devices can be used to rectify that. Which is the best pick depends on the person, but all three brands have cross-app voice search, one of the more appealing features for older users.
If your dad hadn't previously been into streaming, a streaming stick doesn't come with the loaded implication that your dad has to start paying for a subscription to get sufficient content. Free ad-supported streaming television (FAST for short) is booming, with Pluto TV, Tubi, Plex, FreeVee, The Roku Channel (which is cross-platform), and others providing numerous options both on demand and via linear channels. Even better, these FAST platforms usually have all sorts of classic TV and movie content that should scratch the nostalgia itch, with Tubi in particular having excellent content curation.
Pressure cooker and/or air fryer
If your dad enjoys cooking, particularly if he's looking to make the process more simple, then some modern kitchen appliances would be great Father's Day gifts, and they're readily available at Home Depot. Two of the most popular kinds of kitchen appliances are air fryers and electric pressure cookers, which are sometimes bundled into the same device. Air fryers are fairly simple, a rebranding of the convection ovens that have been around for decades, and work by using a high-powered fan to circulate a cyclone of hot air that can be used to "fry" foods with minimal oil. Pressure cookers use, well, pressure built up from steam to cook meals quicker, and are particularly good for making stews in relative limited time frames thanks to how efficiently they tenderize tough cuts of meat. The modern electronic versions have a myriad of safety features, too, to ensure problem-free operation.
If you're interested in these, you can buy them separately or in two separate kinds of combos. The most expensive kind, like the flagship Ninja Foodi, combines both appliances into a singular unit with a combined lid, but is out of our price range. However, you can also aim for one of Instant Pot's packages that comes with separate pressure cooker and air fryer lids, in which case an 8 quart model with the separate lids retails for $199.99.
Smart lighting solutions
At some point in the mid-1970s, Joseph Enterprises introduced The Clapper, a sound-activated remote switch for toggling electronics — but usually lights — on and off. Commercials for it, backed by an oddly memorable jingle, were all over television, and it was popular, but it was never something that everyone had. The underlying technology, though, is starting to become a lot more common now, however, as it's the basic functionality of today's smart plugs, pass through electrical outlets with Wi-Fi connections allowing them to be controlled via smart home apps. They've been joined by smart lightbulbs with their Wi-Fi connections, making it easier than ever to gain as much control as possible over your lighting.
Many of the acts in the old Clapper ads were older, which makes sense: Being able to toggle your lights remotely is wonderful for someone with any kind of compromised mobility. So if your dad is older but also modern enough to own a smartphone, smart plugs and/or smart lightbulbs — depending on exactly what he needs — could be a great quality of life improvement gift. At Home Depot, the most obvious picks come from the chain's generic/private label house brands, with $11 smart lightbulbs from EcoSmart, $10 smart plugs from Defiant, and $25 smart surge protectors from Commercial Electric. (They also have the popular Phillips Wiz and Hue lightbulbs.) Even if you end up getting a bunch of some combination of these, you're still likely to be well within our self-imposed $150 budget.
A new toolbox
We've deliberately avoided the most Home Depot-ish possible suggestions, new tools, in large part because exactly which tools would be appropriate are going to vary wildly by the dad that you're getting the specific tools for. Figuring out what your dad needs to supplement his existing tool set or replace worn-out older tools is always going to come down to the individual person, so there's no reason for a "torque wrench" or "impact driver" entry on this list. However, there's one thing that's always welcome in a tool kit: A new toolbox for your dad to store his tools in.
Home Depot naturally has plenty of options for toolboxes. If we sort our search results by the most popular items, then the first result is a $139 22-inch rolling modular toolbox from Milwaukee.This one has a lot of bells and whistles, like a weight limit of 250 pounds and IP65-rated water resistance. Specifically, that IP65 rating means that the toolbox is dust tight and is protected from "water jets in any direction." You can't submerse it — an IP67 rating or greater is needed for that — but it should protect your tools from the kinds of water hazards expected around a set of tools.