*rant* My love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with Harbor Freight

Bought my Crossfire a few months ago and haven’t had a single day of use where something didn’t go wrong. It has nothing to do with the table or the torch, it’s entirely the fact that living in Georgia is like trying to fabricate in a swamp!

Started out with an inline air filter but that was quickly overcome with humidity.

Ordered an inline desiccant setup and within a single 8 hour day (I usually work at my shop on Sundays) I managed to soak 2 different batches of the desiccant material and the torch quit firing and ruined quite a few pieces of metal.

Bit the bullet and ordered the Harbor Freight refrigerated air dryer ($440 shipped) and managed to get an absolutely flawless day of cutting and painting with it! I was elated that I could now fulfill all of the orders that people wanted.

Fast forward to today - get to the shop, turn on the air compressor and I hear a hissing noise coming from the air dryer. Kill the air to it, drain the pressure from the line and IT’S STILL HISSING! The damned thing, now on it’s second use, popped a hole in the cooling line and leaked all of the freon in about 2 minutes (nice big chunk of ice formed). Dead in the water. Managed to get 2 pieces cut before the compressor built up it’s normal amount of water but that was it.

Fortunately it’s only been 25 days since I initially purchased said air dryer so I can take it back and get a refund but now I think I’m going to have to pony up more money for a better air dryer.

Ugh, sounds miserable!
I’m in an opposite climate in Colorado…the air is so dry it comes in powder form and you have to add water! LOL.

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I have used the same Harbor freight 40211 dryer for years, but not without problems. The first problem I had was freezing up. I had to adjust the hot gas bypass valve to bring the suction pressure up to about 40psi, raising the suction pressure raises the suction temp to prevent freezing. I think the adjustment instruction are on HF website somewhere, or maybe they emailed it to me, I dont remember.
Several years ago it quit working and I had to add a clamp-on service port on the suction line (the insulated one) to add 134 refrigerant and it has been working fine since. Like a lot of HF stuff the end user has to make changes to make their products work properly.
Not defending HF, just letting you in on my experience with it

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Yep there are some diamonds in the rough at HF, but you absolutely have to be prepared to work on everything you buy there. I live them, but I never go into it expecting a very long service life. And thankfully their return policy is fantastic.