Harbor Freight compressed air plumbing system $60

[JSUPreston]

I went by HF in Montgomery, AL after a visit to the HD (HF just moved next door). Within 1/2 is the Lowe's, HD and HF!!!!

Anyway, I walked out with the only one in Montgomery for $60 plus tax. I forgot my "coopin." I wonder if I go back tomorrow with the receipt and coupon if they will credit me the difference.

[dewi1219]

If they don't, just return it and then re-buy it with your "coopin".

[JSUPreston]

Went back on Saturday afternoon. Manager claimed that HF isn't allowing them to do 20% coupons on prior purchases, but processed it anyway. Didn't bother to tell her to read the fine print on the coupon. It said I had 30 days from date of purchase to use the coupon.

Not going to install this yet. I may be redoing the current shop soon to park an '86 Trans Am for a resto/mod project with my son. I'm still looking at building a new shop...just gotta find the scratch.

[dewi1219]

One thing I will say for HF (at least the store here in Birmingham) - their customer service has always been great. I know some people complain about their changing coupon policies, but as far as the people in the store, they have always gone out of their way to be helpful.

[GSnyder]

I picked up one of these HF kits when this discussion first came around, but I've just gotten around to installing it in my garage this week. It does seem like a nice kit, and you get quite a few pieces for the money.

However, my experience so far has been that the connectors (tees, elbows, 1/2" thread adapter plugs) all leak air. And these aren't subtle leaks - they're audible, feel-able streams of air, any one of which can drain the compressor tank in under a minute.

This seems to go beyond "bad quality" into the realm of "I must be doing something wrong." But just looking at the connectors' construction (a ring of little teeth that hold the nylon hose; no cuff, thread, O-ring, or sealing surface of any kind), it's hard to even imagine how these connectors could possibly work.

For those that had success with this system, is there more you need to do other than pushing the trimmed pressure hose into the connector? The instructions suggest pulling back on the hose to be sure it has been grabbed by the teeth; that part always seems to work fine. But even when the hose is firmly lodged, the joint still leaks air.

The joints also seem exquisitely sensitive to the angle of the incoming hose. If the hose curves off to one side or the other as it leaves the fitting, the leakage is even worse. However, even holding the hose straight and holding it into the connector doesn't stop the leaks completely.

I'd appreciate any pointers from those with working setups using this kit.

(I should add that I've been reluctant to goop up the fittings, but I did try smearing a layer of pipe joint compound around the outside of the nylon hose before inserting it into two of the fittings. One joint was marginally improved but still leaky; the other joint was not affected. YES, I trimmed both hose ends before coating and reinserting.)

[GSnyder]

Just to follow up on this for posterity, I tried swapping out some of the Harbor Freight connectors for the equivalent RapidAir parts. (The two systems are practically identical in design.) Lo and behold, the RapidAir versions seem to work perfectly.

So, I guess there may be some truth to RapidAir's "Harbor Freight cloned our system, but their version is crap" complaint after all. I'm not sure why other Harbor Freight buyers didn't experience the same 100% rate of out-of-the-box connector failure that I did. Perhaps the parts are sensitive to age, temperature, or humidity.