Kobalt Tools at Lowes. Good or no?

[i386]

Re: Kobalt Tools at Lowes. Good or no?

I could use a set of metric combination wrenches. I'll probably go with the regular Craftsman wrenches to match my SAE set. The "Craftsman Professional" are polished and nice looking, but about $90 a set. I don't think I like them THAT much.

I can't justify buying tools off the truck for the amount of use I give them. They are pretty to look at and a joy to use I'm sure. I like the idea of being able to replace a single tool if I break or loose one. Craftsman has been the only consistent, non-truck brand available to me in my 20-something years of buying tools in that regard. I can buy a new wrench today that looks like my 20 year old wrenches. Wal-Mart's "Popular Mechanics" tools had the same guarantee as Sears, but where are they now? Gone. Kobalt had some beautiful tools and then sourced them to another manufacturer. You get the idea.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Kobalt Tools at Lowes. Good or no?

Back when it was still called Schucks or Checkers, they carried a heck of a good line of tools, that were also sold on the Mac trucks, it was called Blackhawk, I have a couple of those kits, one bought off the Mac truck and one bought at Checker's they have been good tools, my local Mac guy don't sell them any longer, but I stumbled upon them at Car Quest the other day and they said they will honor the lifetime warranty even if I didn't buy them from Car Quest.

I just looked them up and now I find out, that they were made by Proto tool company, which apparently is owned by Stanley now! I know I said, I would never buy Stanley brand but the blackhawks have been good hand tools. I bought some Stanley branded hand wrenches at Ace Hardware and broke all of them within a year!

That is what is so confusing about the tool companies, they seem to change owners more often than anyone can keep up with!!

 

[scipper77]

Re: Kobalt Tools at Lowes. Good or no?

We almost exclusively use proto tools at work. I have never had an issue with any of there tools. But then again I am not hard on tools. The only tool I think I have ever really had fail on me was a cheap ratchet. And I've bent an allen wrench or 2 in my day. Oh and flat head screwdrivers with hardened tips are just a bad idea (need to return a few of those bits to sears.)

By the way, It drives the "tool" guys at my job crazy but I love my Proto allen set. It's the set that folds up like a swiss army knife. Sure individual allen keys are better for a specific job, but I'm the only guy that never looses my 3/16'th wrench. And when you're not sure what size you need I have them all right there. (plus I have a regular set to boot)

 

[RogersJetboat454]

Re: Kobalt Tools at Lowes. Good or no?

Back when it was still called Schucks or Checkers, they carried a heck of a good line of tools, that were also sold on the Mac trucks, it was called Blackhawk, I have a couple of those kits, one bought off the Mac truck and one bought at Checker's they have been good tools, my local Mac guy don't sell them any longer, but I stumbled upon them at Car Quest the other day and they said they will honor the lifetime warranty even if I didn't buy them from Car Quest.

I just looked them up and now I find out, that they were made by Proto tool company, which apparently is owned by Stanley now! I know I said, I would never buy Stanley brand but the blackhawks have been good hand tools. I bought some Stanley branded hand wrenches at Ace Hardware and broke all of them within a year!

That is what is so confusing about the tool companies, they seem to change owners more often than anyone can keep up with!!

I had a set of blackhawk ratcheting combination wrenches I bough from MAC. They stopped carrying the blackhawks, but I could exchange them for the MAC brand wrenches. If you buy any MAC tools now, you are essentially buying Stanley. Stanley has owned MAC for several years now. When Stanley bought MAC, they turned a 1-2 week exchange for some hand tools into a 1-2 month affair!

I don't know if you ever have been to one of those MAC-Stravaganzas, but those turned into a joke too. I would write down a list of the stuff I saw at the event that I wanted, and after Stanley took over you were lucky if you ever saw them!

Allot of stuff I own is Craftsman. I have nothing bad to say about Craftsman tools, other than from what I hear ever since K-mart bought out Sears. Sears now limited their tool exchange policy to 5 exchanges per visit. I'm sure the silly bean counters from K-mart corporate probably getting sick of the flea market/swap meet/garage sale cruisers coming in with a box of 100 rusty mismatched tools for exchange

To the OP's original question. I have owned some Kobalt branded tools. I bought a ratchet from them when J.H. Williams (the maker of snap-on tools) was making tools for them. It broke, and I was able to exchange my ratchet for a better one (flex head) since they didn't carry my design of ratchet any more (post J.H. Williams). I don't have any reservations about buying Kobalt stuff again. I don't think Lowe's is going anywhere. Worst case scenario if you need to exchange something they don't carry any more, it's their tool brands name on the handle with the promise of a lifetime warranty. I am sure you would probably get a refund or upgrade like I did if the don't have it.