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Comment by snapetom | Hacker News Reader

A friend of mine needed a chainsaw to chop up a tree branch in her yard. She told her dad she was going to Harbor Freight to get one and he emphatically said, "NO" and bought her a decent one.

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Dad’s hate “Chinese crap tools?” Say it ain’t so!

The average person that says “I need a chainsaw” will likely be well served by renting one from a home store, or buying a cheap one from Harbor Freight. They’ll probably use it a dozen times at most.

Is your cheap chainsaw going to hold up as well as the Husqvarna my dad has been using since the late 80s? Absolutely not. Do you live on a 70 acre orchard? No, so a consumer grade tool will do.

I bought a harbor freight drill press, and the metal pole that holds the drill up cracked the 3rd or 4th time I used it.

Just buy the cheap chainsaw at Home Depot, it costs like $10 more.

I was helping a buddy with his car once. He bought a breaker bar from HF and it started to bend on the second wheel we used it on. Like, dude, you had one job...

A good question to ask when considering Harbor Freight is "when this thing breaks, am I driving back to Harbor Freight or to the hospital?". They do have some decent quality tools nowadays, not to mention the heaps of consumables where quality isn't exactly a critical factor. Their Icon tools come with a lifetime warranty and they seem to be similarly uncaring about "misuse" in an effort to mirror SnapOn's reputation. They will even accept the phone number alone for proof of purchase instead of having to keep track of a thermal printer receipt that will fade away over time like how Lowe's handles warranty exchanges if you don't have the same credit card it was purchased on.

I love Harbor Freight but you'll never find me using one of their chainsaws.

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