# "Northern Tool and Equipment" vs "Harbor Freight"?



## mnib

I see a lot of posts on this and other forums about Harbor Freight, but not about Northern Tool and Equipment which seems like a roughly equivalent company.

Does anyone know (preferably through personal experience) whether Northern Tool and Equipment is in general any better or worse than Harbor Freight?


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## John Hasler

mnib said:


> I see a lot of posts on this and other forums about Harbor Freight, but not about Northern Tool and Equipment which seems like a roughly equivalent company.
> 
> Does anyone know (preferably through personal experience) whether Northern Tool and Equipment is in general any better or worse than Harbor Freight?



I've never dealt with Harbor Freight but I've bought stuff from Northern Tool (formerly Northern Hydraulics) and never had any problems.  Haven't dealt with them recently, though.


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## Sandia

In my experience, the overall quality of Northern Tool is considerably better than Harbor Freight.


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## Cheeseking

Oh ya- I love browsing thru Northern Tool catalog.  From what I can tell it appears to be higher overall on the quality scale.   Not to say there isn't some chicom garbage mixed in.   Either way the enormous variety of cool things they offer is amazing. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## astjp2

John Hasler said:


> I've never dealt with Harbor Freight but I've bought stuff from Northern Tool (formerly Northern Hydraulics) and never had any problems.  Haven't dealt with them recently, though.


Your showing your age, I remember Northern Hydraulics when I was a real young kid and my dad used to get wood splitter parts from them....in the 70's.  Tim


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## Terrywerm

I have dealt with both companies, and continue to do so. In fact, I often comparison shop one against the other for both apparent quality and for price. I tend to find slightly better quality at Northern Tool, but each store carries many items that the other store does not. Harbor Freight seems to have a stronger focus on hand tools and such, whereas Northern Tool seems to focus more on power equipment. Well, it seems that way to me anyway.

In short, both companies have their own strengths and weaknesses, but an enterprising shopper can hunt down the best deals out there with a little bit of homework.

Oh, I still refer to Northern Tool as 'Northern Hydraulics' most of the time. Who remembers the short period of time when they were calling themselves 'Northern Handyman'?


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## Henrymac

I too have shopped at both stores. I believe Northern Tool has higher quality merchandise than Harbor Freight, but that being said, they charge more for that quality. The old adage holds true, you get what you pay for.:makingdecision:


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## Rbeckett

Mnib, tyhey are about the same.  They usually just specify a different color and sticker and off they go.  Sometimes when your shopping for the smaller cheaper 7X lathes they will include more accessories or maybe even include a pack of Junk carbide bits, so they are worth comparing, eve  the miller, Lincoln and Hobart equipment from price wise, but keep in mind those machines are made and directed at the home owner price point markets too.  Unfortunately big boy toys are best from big boy machine and equipment dealers of from the web.  The down side to that is even when discounted they are still significant amounts of money.  As far as the only lathe I have seen in their catalog recently it is the same as all of the rest of the 7X series, just different paint.  And stay away from all of the 3 in 1 welders for 799 or so.  They are pure junk and blow up rapidly.  The vendor will replace them but your paying the freight and that gets expensive quick, especially on the second and third try.  That is why you see so many on CL and Ebay...Sorry to be a buzz killer.

Bob


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## arvidj

I live in the same general area as Terry and like him shop both places. My general pattern is that electrical tools come from Northern, air tools come from Harbor Freight and just about everything else is a toss-up between Harbor Freight and Enco.


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## TOOLMASTER

N T HANDS DOWN


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## Pops

I too remember when Northern Tool was Northern Hydraulics. They seem to have better quality electrical tools than Harbor Freight does. Harbor Freight really tries to get you on their extended warranty. Not really worth what they are trying to charge.


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## Terrywerm

I agree on the extended warranty issue at Harbor Freight. Not worth the money, but they sure try to sell it to you!

 Last week I was there and bought their 20 ton hydraulic press along with a few other odds and ends. The young fellow at checkout asked if I would be interested in the extended warranty, to which I politely responded "No, thank you".  He tried again and again I replied "No, thank you" but with a little bit more emphasis. He decided to try a third time, but I cut him off with "Young man, I told you twice, NO, and I was polite about it. If I have to tell you a third time, you will have to take all this stuff and put it back on the shelf, and I will spend my money elsewhere."  

You guessed it, he gave up.


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## JimDawson

terrywerm said:


> I agree on the extended warranty issue at Harbor Freight. Not worth the money, but they sure try to sell it to you!



I have tried to buy a HF extended warranty on sanding disks, but they don't seem to offer it.  One clerk actually tried to find it.  That's about the only thing I would buy an extended warranty on.


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## mnib

Thank you everyone for your answers.


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## kd4gij

I shop at bouth. I don't see NT house brand hand tools being much better than HF to justaffy the price deffernce. But they do have good sales from time to time. NT does carry name brand tools also and has pritty good prices on them.


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## nickmckinney

I had to buy a new HF compressor head quickly to finish a job, I bought the 2 year extended warranty for $40 as I don't see it lasting that long running 4hrs a day on average..................Their extended warranties work good for production shops on the few items that are worthy of being in a production shop (hand grinders and sanders and thats about it)

The HF head was well worth $179, 15cfm at 5HP, it really showed how bad the old one was when I turned the blast cabinet back on and ran it continuously.


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## RHayes

Northern Hydraulics is still in business and is not Northern Tool.  They have been around since 1963. I purchased a Cross log splitter valve from them recently.  I don't purchase much from Northern Tool, but did buy two 5,000 watt electric heaters from them a couple of years ago.  

In comparison to Harbor freight, some stuff is similar but Northern Tool definitely goes in  different directions.  One item that I compared was their close quarter drill with keyless chuck and magnesium housing.  Twenty dollars less at Harbor Freight.


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## kvt

I have and do use both,  Trailer items at NT are better, other consumables are cheaper at HF,  I also get coupons in the mail for NT with so much off if you purchase so much. 
And the NT around me carry a lot of more commercial type things and larger things than HF.   One even had one of the larger Shop Fox lathes on the floor for sale.
Like someone else also said, NT also caries major brands of some items thus you have a choice,  (But cost on them is not that great).


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## juiceclone

Henrymac said:


> I too have shopped at both stores. I believe Northern Tool has higher quality merchandise than Harbor Freight, but that being said, they charge more for that quality. The old adage holds true, you get what you pay for.



Agree completely..They do carry similar stuff, but a lot of stuff unique to each store/brand.  Northern seems to carry more quality power tools, some of accepted brand names, plus more "hardware store" supplies.    I try to keep an inventory in my head of what each has so when I need something, the little bell goes off with "you saw one of those at xxxxx" .....but the bell's getting old....  :>)


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