5 Harbor Freight Tool Find That Outshine Milwaukee in Quality and Prices

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Milwaukee is widely regarded as one of the most powerful tool brands on the market. The company offers many products that are popular with home DIYers and professional tradesmen alike. Its cordless power tools are well known for their power, durability, and reliability, making Red Team one of the most popular choices for those investing in a battery system.

Harbor Freight, on the other hand, is primarily considered a discount retailer. It owns more than a dozen boutique brands that focus more on shopping, than quality, design and performance. While Milwaukee may be one of the biggest players on the block overall, there are a few rare cases where certain budget models from Harbor Freight outshine Milwaukee in terms of both price and performance.

The term quality can be quite subjective, especially when you consider things like the longevity of the tool. There will always be those diehard Milwaukee fans who will absolutely refuse to believe that anything from Harbor Freight will ever be able to surpass their beloved red and black tools. That said, by checking the specs and features listed on certain products, and looking at what customers and pro reviews (if any) have said about them, we can clearly see that there are a few times when the Harbor Freight tool has an edge over the Milwaukee model.

The Milwaukee M18 Compact Brushless ½-inch Drill Driver (2801-20) is one of the most popular models sold by the company. It has 4.6 out of five stars on the Milwaukee website, delivers 500 in-lbs of torque, has two speed modes that offer 0-50 or 0-1,800 RPM, and retails for $129.00. That said, the Harbor Freight version might be a little better.

There are two main types of cordless tools sold at Harbor Freight. Hercules likes high quality while Bauer likes affordability. The Hercules 20V Brushless 12-inch Drill/Driver (HCB91B) has a lot in common with the Milwaukee drill. It has two speeds, a ½-inch chuck, all-metal construction with a textured overmold, and an LED work light. Hercules also matches Milwaukee’s 5-year limited warranty, but this practice has two major advantages. The first is that it can provide 1,200 in-lbs of torque. This gives it more than double the power to use tools and drill through dense materials without stopping. The second benefit is that it comes with a detachable side handle for extra support. It also retails for just $69.99.

The Hercules Drill has a 4.7 out of five rating on Harbor Freight, with customers citing power, price, quality, and value as reasons for their positive reviews. There are also plenty of reports on sites like Reddit from users who say the tool outperforms several top brands at a fraction of the cost. “Improving on previous generations of Hercules 20V Impact Drivers and Drills, the brushless motor not only adds power but also value from extended operating time and tool life,” said Eric Jopp of Tools in Action. “This line makes professional-grade tools more accessible to non-professionals.”

A circular saw is another important tool for woodworking, construction, and home DIY. This comparison is a bit more of a toss up, with the Hercules only surpassing the Milwaukee if you factor in the large amount of cuts you get from a single battery.

The Milwaukee M18 Fuel 7-¼-inch Rear Handle Circular Saw (2930-20) is an impressive $299.00 tool. It has 4.4 out of five stars on the Milwaukee website, and promises to produce speeds of up to 6,300 RPM. This beats the $149.99 Hercules 20V Rear-Handle Circular Saw (HCB72B-1) in terms of raw power, as the Harbor Freight item clocks in at 5,800 RPM.

That said, the Hercules saw can cut 725 times on a single 12 Ah battery, while the Milwaukee saw 700 cuts on the same size battery. Both of these are relatively small trade-offs, but you might also think that the non-fuel Milwaukee M18 7 ¼-inch Circular Saw has less desirable features with a top speed of 5,000 RPM, and it still costs $229.00, $80 more than a Hercules-drive worm.

The Hercules 20V Rear-Handle Circular Saw is rated 4.9 out of 5 by Harbor Freight. “Very quiet, passes 2×4 like butter,” wrote one reviewer. “I used it to cut bricks with the addition of a concrete bar. I also put a chainsaw beam cutter attachment on it, and it worked great.” Professional reviewers were also impressed by the tool’s power-to-price ratio. “This is a bargain, and almost identical, design very similar to the Milwaukee M18 Fuel,” said YouTube reviewer G-manCan.

Those interested in doing more mechanical work will probably want to get themselves a good torque wrench. The Milwaukee M18 Fuel ½-inch High Torque Impact Wrench (2767-20) is a solid option that costs about $340, capable of delivering up to 1,000 lb-ft of tightening torque and 1,400 lb-ft of torque. It also has 4.8 out of five stars on the Milwaukee website from over 2,000 reviews.

That’s pretty surprising, but the $197.99 Hercules 20V ½-inch Ultra Torque Impact Wrench (HCB85B2) is capable of producing 1,000 lb-ft of tightening torque and 1,500 lb-ft of breaking torque, just barely out-powering the Milwaukee. Both tools have friction ring anvils, steel gear construction, and built-in LED work lights. In addition, the Hercules has multiple speed range settings, offering a range from 0-600 RPM, 0-1100 RPM, and 0-1600 RPM.

The Hercules Ultra Torque Impact Wrench has a rating of 4.9 out of 5 on the Harbor Freight website. “This electric gun has not let me down at all,” said one reviewer. “It took out bags, nuts, transmissions, bolts, leaf spring hanger bolts – you name it. It didn’t disappoint me at all. […] I think it trumps other influences [in] my opinion.” The Torque Test Station compared it extensively to models from Milwaukee and DeWalt and found that it was inferior in most tests, but excelled in situations that required high RPMs under stress, making it more effective on heavy rust bolts.

Not all tools are powerful, however. It’s also worth looking at a few Harbor Freight hand tools. The company’s Icon series tools are often compared to Snap-On’s premium brand of tools and truck products, and are considered some of the most valuable items in the shop. The Milwaukee ⅜-inch Drive Ratchet (48-22-9038) is one of the lowest-rated tools on the company’s website, with a score of 1.7 out of five. There are several reports that the $45.99 ratchet broke within a few uses. Sadly, the tool has a very high score of 4.4 out of 5 on the Home Depot page, although there are a few similar complaints there as well.

The slightly cheaper $42.99 ⅜-inch Drive Professional-Low-Profile Ratchet has a lot in common with this tool. It has the same 90-tooth design, 4-degree arc swing, narrow head profile, and chrome finish—only the Icon boasts a 4.6 out of five with the highest durability values. “If you like high quality and durability at a reasonable price, you’ll love Icon ratchets,” said one reviewer.

“I have a closet full of different types of ratchets, and my Icon ratchets are my favorite. If you could offer me a popular tool truck brand ratchet or Icon, I would choose Icon.” Likewise, Shop Press noted in their review that, while it can’t compete with the top ratchets from Snap-On, the high number of teeth, limited back drag, and convenient direction selector all make it a good tool for the price point. So with all that in mind, this seems to be the Icon tool worth buying.

Almost everyone needs a good set of cutting boards. These are useful for working with ropes and plastics, among many others. Quality is very important here, as a cheap pair may not be able to cut dense material easily. Fortunately, there are a few Doyle tools at Harbor Freight to buy too.

The Milwaukee 8-inch Diagonal Cutting Pliers (48-22-6108) is a simple tool that boasts an iron carbide edge, a pointed nose, and a fish tape puller. There are only two reviews for this on the Milwaukee site, but both reviewers identified themselves as professional traders, and both gave only one star citing poor thread stripping ability. The tool has an excellent 4.5 out of five at Home Depot, where it retails for $21.97, but there are still many negative reviews complaining about the quality.

The Doyle 8-inch High-Leverage Diagonal Cutting Pliers (64570), on the other hand, costs just $15.99, and boasts laser hardened, beveled cutting edges that can even cut through screws and nails. This designer has a 4.8 out of 5 rating on Harbor Freight. “The Doyle brand [cutters come] pre-lubricated and [flop] it opened freely with a precise hinge joint,” said one reviewer. “The quality of the metal seems to be very well made and it cuts the wires cleanly.” YouTuber Snap Ring Chronicles tested this on many things. “It was able to cut through really thin wire and nails and thick screws,” they said. “So, this looks like a decent diagonal, but it’s not safe, so it’s not safe.” high-voltage work.

Comparing the quality of different tools naturally involves a certain amount of accountability. There are many factors that are difficult to account for, and individual needs can dictate which tool is best for a particular user. However, by examining the specifications, features, and customer and professional reviews (if available), we can get a decent idea of ​​when the price is weighed in favor of one product.

In making this list, we started by examining some of Harbor Freight’s most popular tools and comparing them to options from Milwaukee, looking for products that are reasonably comparable and choosing cases where the version offered by Harbor Freight was more affordable and offered superior design and/or performance features.

In doing this, we quickly discovered that while Milwaukee often offers pro-grade versions of these tools, such as the Fuel line, many of Harbor Freight’s pro grade tools are less expensive and more efficient than Milwaukee’s entry-level lines. After selecting a few examples of this, we compared specifications and prices, made an argument as to why the Harbor Freight version may seem to be of higher quality, and looked at consumer and expert reviews to ensure that these tools really work as described in real-world testing.