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

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.
 
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.
 
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!
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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).
 
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.
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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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