Harbor Freight Blue Painter's Tape - Discussion

Discussion on my use of Harbor Freight's Blue Painters Tape. I would be careful buying this for use on masking. I suggested using 3M but found that the Scotch Blue works equally as well for painting and was on sale so I ended up more but of Scotch Blue.

[davidwalle]

Good video. I had the same problem with the hf tape.

[dwightwilson]

Just like any store, HF has good and bad stuff. I bought an angle grinder many years ago, it was my very first purchase there in Bakersfield. I still have it, and I’ve used it and abused it a lot. I appreciate your review on the tape.

[Lewis.Alcindor]

I've only tried two brands before. One was from 3M, and the other was Home Depot's "house brand" HDX. The HDX was so bad, that Home Depot doesn't even really sell it anymore. It basically didn't stick to anything. It sounds like the Harbor Freight at least stuck a bit.

3M is the standard for me.

Speaking of HDX, some of their other products are pretty bad. The spray nozzles on their 99 cent spray bottles constantly snap off. I needed a basin wrench for a faucet replacement project, and the only one physically available at Home Depot was the HDX brand. The teeth were slick, smooth, and rounded. I ended up buying a Tekton basin wrench (which was about double the price) from Home Depot's online store sight unseen because I did not trust the HDX basin wrench to do the job. Tekton's teeth were sharp and angular, and the gripped on to the faucet nut perfectly to loosen it.

[GalaxyStranger]

I find that the blue tape - regardless of brand - has gummy glue that acts weird if you have to leave the tape on for an extended period of time. I've had MUCH better results with green and yellow tape, especially for fine masking.

[BostonBorn]

I have a roll of the Scotch from Walmart that doesn’t want to stick to anything that has even the slightest gloss (including pages of a book). I think it’s a bootleg of the real thing.