Whether you’re just getting started with your first DIY project or you’re a veteran DIY’er who’s been tackling ambitious projects for years, you’re probably familiar with Harbor Freight. Found in most states across the U.S., Harbor Freight is a DIY dream place to find discount tools, equipment, and auto supplies. There’s even a page on the retailer’s website dedicated to DIY project ideas if you’re running low on inspiration.

Although Harbor Freight has a ton of budget-friendly gems, there are a few pieces of coal in the mix as well. It’s important to read through multiple user reviews, find any applicable coupons before you check out, and generally avoid making the most common mistakes people make when shopping at Harbor Freight.

If you don’t have the time or energy to thoroughly research tools, supplies, and other products before you spend your hard-earned cash on them, we’ve got you covered. We’ve rounded up 15 Harbor Freight products every DIYer will wish they’d had sooner, each with a high average rating and an impressive recommendation score from Harbor Freight customers.

Adjustable wrenches from well-known brands can be expensive, and a regular set of wrenches in various sizes takes up a lot of space. Enter: the Pittsburgh 15-Inch Adjustable Wrench at Harbor Freight. This adjustable wrench is budget-friendly, space-conscious, and of great quality, everything a DIY’er could hope for.

It’s constructed with durable carbon steel and a triple chrome plating that resists corrosion and looks nice. With this adjustable wrench’s comfortable handle and 15 inches in total length, you’ll have plenty of leverage for loosening fasteners during your next DIY project. Customers say it’s easy to adjust, though some people note it may need frequent adjustment; it is solidly built and works just as well as higher-priced options from more recognizable name brands. At the time of writing, 97% of customers, who have left nearly 750 reviews in total, would recommend Pittsburgh’s 15-Inch Adjustable Wrench and have awarded it an average rating of 4.6 stars.

DIY’ers may overlook hammer tackers, but they can greatly speed up certain jobs around the home, like installing insulation, siding, house wrap, carpet padding, roof felt, and any other material you’ll cover in the end. A hammer tacker, which can also be referred to as a hammer stapler or a slap stapler, works similarly to a staple gun, but staple guns require squeezing the handle to trigger the spring inside, and hammer tackers only need to be whacked against the surface you want stapled.

Harbor Freight customers love the Fasten-Pro Hammer Tacker for its comfortable one-handed use, durable quality, and overall value. Some people have even said this affordable Fasten-Pro option outperforms more expensive hammer tackers from top industry brands. This all-steel hammer tacker currently has a 4.4-star average rating and an 89% customer recommendation rate, compiled from just over 500 total customer reviews.

One of the simplest, yet potentially most useful products for DIYers is a pry bar. The Pittsburgh 15-Inch Flat Pry Bar from Harbor Freight is incredibly cheap, but most customers rave about how sturdy and high-quality its construction is. It’s made of heavy-duty steel with a powder-coated finish to keep rust at bay, measures 15 inches in length to provide plenty of leverage, and both ends of the bar have nail slots, though the ends differ in shape to help with various prying jobs.

Whether you’re frequently demoing rooms and furniture, building a budget-friendly mechanic’s tool kit, or pulling nails out of old wood you’d like to repurpose, this pry bar is an excellent pick. Happy customers rave about this pry bar’s overall value, excellent leverage, and well-placed nail slots. At the time of writing, Pittsburgh’s Flat Pry Bar has gathered almost 2,800 total reviews, an average rating of 4.7 stars, and a near-perfect customer recommendation rate of 98%.

Even for non-crafty homeowners and renters, a simple utility knife would likely get a ton of use, through opening boxes and breaking large cardboard pieces down to more manageable sizes for recycling. If you dabble in DIY, it’s a good idea to upgrade from a simple utility knife to a more feature-rich option like the Doyle Professional Retractable Utility Knife.

The knife body is constructed from zinc alloy with nickel plating to extend its life, and it features built-in blade storage for five replacement blades, which are included with your purchase. After you’ve used the utility knife’s blade to cut or score the material you’re working with, all you have to do to put the blade away is press a single button to trigger the retraction mechanism and lock the blade in this ‘closed’ position.

Many utility knives will have a feature on the blade for cutting strings or wires, but with this Doyle Utility Knife, you don’t even have to get the blade out; there’s an integrated string and wire cutter that you can use while the blade is locked away. With all these features for less than $10, it’s no surprise this utility knife boasts an average 4.8-star rating and a 96% customer recommendation rate with nearly 1,100 total reviews.

For anyone with a ton of painting in store during their next DIY project, consider treating yourself to an Avanti 2.5-Inch Angled Paint Brush from Harbor Freight. Its tapered bristles are made with a polyester/nylon blend and are epoxy-bonded, which simply means they can hold more paint and you don’t need to go back to your paint tray as often. As its name implies, the brush is angled, making it the perfect option for precise cutting-in work, whether you’re using it with latex or oil-based paints, stains, and sheens.

For durability and a secure grip, this Avanti brush has a nailed, high-strength stainless steel ferrule and a sanded hardwood handle. With around 1,000 customer reviews currently, this angled paint brush has a 4.7-star average rating and a 98% customer recommendation rate. If you have even more paint-forward DIY projects lined up, Harbor Freight has quite a few useful paint-spraying accessories in addition to Avanti brushes.

If your DIY projects tend to involve a lot of small pieces or intricate work that requires a steady hand and a watchful eye, you might fall in love with this Harbor Freight Tools Fluorescent Magnifying Lamp. It’s equipped with a 22-watt, circular lamp surrounding a 1.75x magnifying lens with a five-inch diameter and a dust cover you can close when you’re not actively using the lens. With this magnifying lamp, using a precision toolkit to repair electronics or a router to create delicate details in wood won’t feel nearly as tedious as it used to.

You can clamp this lamp to the side of a table or workbench and easily move it where you need it, thanks to its flexible swing-arm design. Most customers find the lamp’s brightness and magnification levels excellent, and it’s easy to assemble and set up. With nearly 1,200 reviews at the time of writing, the Fluorescent Magnifying Lamp has an average rating of 4.6 stars and a 96% recommendation rate.

One of the most essential tools for welders and woodworkers is an angle square, and the Pittsburgh 4-in-1 Aluminum Angle Square is one of the most affordable options you’ll find that doesn’t sacrifice quality. In addition to working as an angle square, this nifty DIY tool also serves as a ruler, protractor, rafter square, and combination square. It has a solid base that lets the square stand in place while measuring depth adjustments, and the measurements are cast into the tool in both inches and centimeters to make them easier to see.

Plenty of customer reviews rave about this angle square’s price (it’s only $3), how great the quality is despite that low price, and how lightweight and easily portable it is. This Harbor Freight product currently has around 2,850 reviews contributing to its impressive 4.7-star average rating and 97% customer recommendation rate.

One product DIYers never seem to have enough of is sandpaper. Whether you’re using it with a power sander or hand sanding, high-quality sandpaper is a must for a ton of at-home projects. It can be helpful to have a variety of sandpaper grits on hand, but this dry 100-Grit Hercules Sandpaper is quite versatile, as it works well on paint, wood, metal, plastic, and drywall. This pack comes with five 9 x 11-inch sandpaper sheets, each with a tear-resistant backing and an anti-clog coating designed to extend its life.

According to multiple customer reviews, these sandpaper sheets with ceramic alumina grain do indeed last much longer than regular sandpaper, at a lower price, too. At the time of writing, this pack of five sandpaper sheets has earned an impressive customer recommendation rate of 96% and an average rating of 4.7 stars, with just over 750 reviews.

If your DIY projects typically involve painting, you’ll love having this Quinn 14-in-1 Painters Tool in your toolbox. It’s super cheap, and yet, it can do so much. With this single tool, you gain a paint can opener, a spreader, a convex and concave scraper, a crack opener, and a chisel. To remove hardware before painting, this tool can serve as a Phillips and flat-head screwdriver, a nail puller, a ¼-inch and ⅜-inch nut wrench, and a chisel. Then, there’s a convenient cutout that works as a roller cleaner, letting you quickly squeeze excess paint from a roller back into the can.

Most customers find this painter’s tool comfortable to hold, thanks to its nonslip, ergonomic grip, and its stainless steel construction is durable enough for most projects. At the time of writing, about 850 customers have left reviews for the Quinn Painters Tool, resulting in a 96% customer recommendation rate and a 4.8-star average rating.

There are multiple types of clamps you can use in woodworking projects, but this user-recommended Pittsburgh 6-Inch Quick-Release Bar Clamp might soon become your main go-to. Among more than 5,100 reviews, we spotted multiple customers saying they love to pick up multiples of these clamps from Harbor Freight, especially during sales, bringing their already affordable price down to downright cheap.

This bar clamp features a carbon-steel bar with a powder-coated finish to prevent rust, a comfortable handle for a secure grip, and a quick-release lever to speed up the project. Most customers really enjoy the quick-release feature and find it incredibly handy, but some have said it isn’t easy to use or requires too much strength. That said, Pittsburgh’s Quick-Release Bar Clamp has maintained an impressive 98% customer recommendation rate and a 4.7-star average rating.

It can be difficult to find a budget-friendly rotary tool kit that’s also durable and powerful, but the Chicago Variable Speed Rotary Tool Kit proves itself as a worthy contender. Compared to some of Harbor Freight’s other highly rated tools for DIYers, this 31-piece kit’s average 4.2-star rating and 87% recommendation rate (with about 3,000 reviews) are simply good, not great, but at such an affordable price, we’re certainly not complaining.

Recent customer reviews report that the tool delivers a lot of power, works smoothly, and fits easily into tight spaces. The kit comes with everything you’d need for DIY projects involving shaping, sanding, deburring, grinding, and polishing, as well as a blow-molded case to store everything. With variable-speed control from 8000 to 35,000 RPM, you can use this tool to remove rust and cut through metal, plastic, and wood.

This 6-Inch Digital Caliper from Harbor Freight’s in-house brand Pittsburgh is constructed with a combination of durable stainless steel and ABS plastic and it can be used for inside, outside, step, and depth measurements up to six inches. Its digital LCD display can show you fractional and decimal readings of both SAE and Metric measurements and, according to its product listing, it will measure precisely to within 0.001 inch or 0.03 millimeter.

This digital caliper comes with a storage case that protects the tool when not in use and makes it easy to travel with between projects. It has a built-in auto shut-off feature to help preserve battery life. Some customers say the battery dies quickly, while others say they’re still using the included battery at purchase a year later. Ultimately, roughly 2,400 customers contributed to this digital caliper’s solid average 4.4-star rating, and 90% say they’d recommend it.

If you love taking on DIY projects, you need a good multi-tool on hand. The Gordon Multi-Tool at Harbor Freight is an excellent option with 20 different tools packed into compact dimensions of 4-by-0.9-by-1.5 inches. DIY’ers will most appreciate this multi-tool’s built-in pliers, needle-nose pliers, wire cutter, wire stripper, eight-inch ruler, bit driver, screwdriver, wood file, metal file, knife, saw, crimper, and scissors.

If you get in the habit of keeping the multi-tool on you at all times, you can also use it as a can opener, bottle opener, diamond-coated file, gut hook, serrated knife, or window breaker. With just over 550 reviews at the time of writing, Gordon’s Multi-Tool has earned itself a respectable 4.5-star average rating and a 90% customer recommendation rate. If you want to see what other options are out there, check out these multi-tools under $50 that are worth buying at Amazon.

The Hercules 16-Inch Tool Bag is one of the best tool bags you can pick up at Harbor Freight. It’s a beautifully bright shade of blue and has six pockets inside to keep all your tools, batteries, bit kits, and other DIY gear organized well. The bottom is padded to protect tools inside from damage, and the 16-inch-wide mouth opening is reinforced with steel to help it stay open while you load in or take out tools.

It comes with a convenient shoulder strap to leave your hands free, and on the outside, it’s made with tear-resistant fabric and heavy-duty stitching to help it last through tons of DIY projects. Just over 2,500 customers have left a review for this Hercules tool bag, and 99% would recommend it. The average rating for this medium-sized tool bag is 4.8 stars, and customers praise its overall durability, affordable price, and interior organization.

Despite holding over 9,000 customer reviews, this Pittsburgh Pneumatic Roller Seat maintains an impressive average rating of 4.6 stars and a 96% customer recommendation rate. It’s made up of a thick cushion on top, 2.5-inch diameter nylon casters on the bottom, and a 360-degree swivel seat mechanism in between. Then, there’s a powder-coated finish to prevent rust, a lift range between 15.25 and 19.75 inches that can be adjusted with one hand, and a built-in tool tray right above the wheels so you can conveniently bring along the tools you need for the job at hand and not lose track of screws and other small pieces while you work.

People love most how easy this rolling stool is to assemble, how smoothly it operates on solid ground, and how affordable it is for the value it provides. Older adults and those with physical disabilities particularly appreciate how comfortable this stool is and how it makes working for long periods much more manageable, unlike the Pittsburgh Automotive Mechanics Roller Seat, a tool you should think twice about buying from Harbor Freight

To find the 15 DIY products users would recommend at Harbor Freight, we started with our own collective experience here at Read with DIY projects to identify potential tools that would come in handy for any DIYer. From there, we looked up specific products on Harbor Freight’s website and found in-house brands that were well-reviewed. Then, we found some items simply by perusing highly rated tools and other products at Harbor Freight.

For an item to be considered worth recommending, it needed to have at least 500 reviews and an average 4-star rating. That said, many of the items we picked have over 1,000 reviews, an average rating of 4.5 stars or higher, or both. Next to an item’s overall rating, there’s an average percentage of customers who’d recommend the product. With the exception of a few items, most products we selected have a customer recommendation percentage of over 95%.