Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[JRobyn]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a PM (previous mechanic) that disassembled/cleaned the carb and wiped it all down with a shop rag during reassembly. It was too big of a piece to have made it through the fuel filter.

 

[JRobyn]

Speaking of chargers, my latest HF cheapo 3/8 ni-cad drill just fritzed. Drill is great, battery is great, wall wart is great. The new design charge connector/controller has evidently fried its LEDs, so you can't tell anything about its status. I really liked the new design up 'till now. I think I've had it for about 91 days.

 

[PhysAssist]

Agree. The HF "maintainers" work as advertised but are dumb. They do one thing and do it well. There are now smart battery maintenance chargers that I believe can desulfinate (is that a word?) which can extend battery life and these higher tech chargers are often built in to care for big expensive battery banks such as found in cruising boats. Not sure when that technology (which couldn't be much more than a few chips and parts from Radio Shack) will make it to mainstream battery maintainers. For now the simple HF devices do the job and are less than $20 so are good bang for the buck.

Last fall, I bought a Battery Minder [the specific model of which is apparently no longer available]: Amazon.com: BatteryMINDer Model 12117: 12 Volt 1.33 Amp (12V 1.33A) Charger/Maintainer/Desulfator: Automotive

I bought it to use on our F-350, which has 2 huge batteries, which don't apparently like cold weather at all, despite being only a few years old, and kept on whenever we weren't using it to plow, which ended up being most of the winter.

I don't know if it had to do with the de-sulfinating or not, but after most of several months being hooked to it [I bought the pig tail connector and bolted the ring leads to one of the batteries terminals], when we left it off and ended up getting several very cold nights in a row again, and needed the truck, it started right up, which it would not have done even in the fall before being through the subzero winter nights.

YMMV, but we're really happy with it, and despite being at the end of a really long extension [12/3 cable wired to plugs and connected to a 20-amp outlet] our electric bill didn't even blip up at all.

 

[California]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a PM (previous mechanic) that disassembled/cleaned the carb and wiped it all down with a shop rag during reassembly.

Ha. First start of my HF 6hp shredder it dribbled fuel all over the place. The float bowl gasket was put in crooked AND the float needle was stuck open.

'Some assembly required'.

A half hour of troubleshooting and 'final assembly' by the customer, and it has been flawless ever since.

This starts easier than any Briggs & Stratton or Tecumseh I've owned. I like it.

 

[PhysAssist]

Ha. First start of my HF 6hp shredder it dribbled fuel all over the place. The float bowl gasket was put in crooked AND the float needle was stuck open.

'Some assembly required'.

A half hour of troubleshooting and 'final assembly' by the customer, and it has been flawless ever since. This starts easier than any Briggs & Stratton or Tecumseh I've owned.

The Predator engines, we bought to replace B&S ones [which got killed by ethanol] on our DR Brushmower and Heathkit splitter [12HP and 6HP] have been really reliable, AND a helluva lot easier to troubleshoot and clean out gummed carbs than even the Honda engine on our newer Troy-Bilt splitter.

The only reason I know about the Honda is that my "helpful" F-I-L filled it up with diesel a couple of years ago, so I had to break down the carb to get the thing to run again, and it was never clear that I ever got it back together exactly right, but it starts and runs well again, so it must have been close enough. [It was thanks to TBN, that I knew what to do BTW]

I used to take the pieces off and lay them out in the order they were removed, but it seemed like something always happened to stir them up before they were reassembled.

Since then, I have learned to use my cell, to document the parts order and alignment before completely scrambling them up- [or rather, have my cleah-handed assistant/SWMBO take the pictures.]

 

[MossRoad]

...(which couldn't be much more than a few chips and parts from Radio Shack) ....

What's this Radio Shack you speak of???

 

[IslandTractor]

What's this Radio Shack you speak of???

My Alzheimer's kicking in again. Should have said Amazon.

 

[Threepoint]

Agree. The HF "maintainers" work as advertised but are dumb. They do one thing and do it well. There are now smart battery maintenance chargers that I believe can desulfinate (is that a word?) which can extend battery life and these higher tech chargers are often built in to care for big expensive battery banks such as found in cruising boats. Not sure when that technology (which couldn't be much more than a few chips and parts from Radio Shack) will make it to mainstream battery maintainers. For now the simple HF devices do the job and are less than $20 so are good bang for the buck.

Island, curious which HF ones you have? I have five of the "deluxe" models (about $17 on sale with a coupon), and have used them now for two years on my tractors, UTV and motor home during the winter months. I know they're smarter than my $5 HF models, because they tell you which stage they're at (charging, approaching full charge, and fully charged). Beyond that, dunno if they do anything else. But I'm very pleased with performance. Every bit as good as the more expensive Battery Tender Jr.

 

[SPYDERLK]

You have an ingenious way of cleaning out all of the metal fileings that get attached to them?

Blow 'em off with compressed air.

... The very best method. No point in fooling around.

 

[crazyal]

Last fall, I bought a Battery Minder [the specific model of which is apparently no longer available]: Amazon.com: BatteryMINDer Model 12117: 12 Volt 1.33 Amp (12V 1.33A) Charger/Maintainer/Desulfator: Automotive

I bought it to use on our F-350, which has 2 huge batteries, which don't apparently like cold weather at all, despite being only a few years old, and kept on whenever we weren't using it to plow, which ended up being most of the winter.

I don't know if it had to do with the de-sulfinating or not, but after most of several months being hooked to it [I bought the pig tail connector and bolted the ring leads to one of the batteries terminals], when we left it off and ended up getting several very cold nights in a row again, and needed the truck, it started right up, which it would not have done even in the fall before being through the subzero winter nights.

YMMV, but we're really happy with it, and despite being at the end of a really long extension [12/3 cable wired to plugs and connected to a 20-amp outlet] our electric bill didn't even blip up at all.

I've had one for about 10 years now. On any piece of equipment that isn't used regularly I put the Minder on the battery for a week or two. Since doing that I haven't had any new batteries go bad on me. I have a few that were older and had gone flat several times that it's kept the batteries from actually becoming dead. It's not cheap but with the price of a new battery around $100 (was less than half that when I bought the Battery Minder) I feel it's more than paid for itself.