Harbor Freight Reviews

Link: http://HarborFreightReviews.com/HFRreviews.html

Item: 8" Black Cable Ties, Pack of 100
Item number: 34635
Retail price: $3.99
Frequent sale price: $1.99
Low price: $0.99
Target price: $1.99
Item Link

We bought several packages of these cable ties over a two-year period and for us they've been a mixed bag (pun intended ). The first lot seemed to work pretty well, but the next several bags seemed to have an increasing number of defective cable ties. In some cases they broke easily, but very often they wouldn't even tie because the small 'tooth' in the retainer was broken or missing. The price is really cheap, so you can afford to sort through the batch using only the good cable ties, but this does get rather annoying at times. And at some point, it just isn't cost (or aggravation) effective. (More than once we had precariously held together a bundle of wires only to have several cable ties fail in succession when trying to tie the bundle. )

We've tested several batches of these cable ties and the first ones seemed to work well, even passing our Buffalo Winter Test for several years without failure. Subsequent batches seem to have an increasing number of 'bad' ties, and the last batch seemingly had more bad ties than good ones. Is this a quality control problem or cost cutting at Harbor Freight?

This item just misses our list of The Junk. We'll probably even buy more when they hit their best price of 99 cents again. Had we paid the full retail price of this item, it would have definitely made our list of The Junk. The next batch of cable ties will be the deciding factor in whether they ultimately make the list. Meanwhile if you try to use them, be sure to buy more than what you think you'll need for the project and sample a few from each package (Remember, Harbor Freight has a 30-day satisfaction guarantee; you may need it.). If they're all good, you got a great bargain.

Bottom line: Not one of the better items at Harbor Freight. In fact, this is the type of item that gives Harbor Freight a bad reputation. Still, at the very low target price we keep buying more, occasionally.