Unpopular opinion: buying cheap tools is costing you more in the long run - here's my wakeup call

Bought a $30 drill from Harbor Freight last year. Worked okay for a few months. Then I had a job installing 50 curtain rods in a new apartment building downtown. Drill died halfway through. Had to wait 2 days for a replacement. Lost the whole contract. Guy next to me had a Milwaukee that's been running strong for 8 years. Realized I was basically paying for tools twice. Anyone else been burned by the cheap tool trap?

3 comments

3 Comments

noahmartin8d ago

Losing a whole contract over a dead drill sounds rough, but it also sounds like you were running a job that was too big for a single guy with a backup plan. Could have picked up a cheap replacement drill from the hardware store the next morning for forty bucks and kept going. Not saying cheap tools are great, but blaming a thirty dollar drill for losing a contract is like blaming a flat tire for missing a flight. Maybe the real issue was not having a spare or a rental lined up for a job that big.

kellyjones8d ago

Totally agree with you @noahmartin. I had a similar thing happen on a small deck job where my circular saw died halfway through the first day. Ran to the local hardware store, grabbed a cheap one for sixty bucks, finished the whole thing without missing a beat. Sometimes having a backup plan or a quick fix makes all the difference.

lucasschmidt7d ago

Noah's got a point about backup plans, but I've been that guy with the dead drill too. My rule now is buy the cheap one first and if it breaks on a real job, that's when I upgrade to the pro model. You might save money keeping a $30 special as a spare after you get a decent one.