Northern Tool

Full review
There are catalogs galore floating around my house. Most of them, I have now idea how they got there. One that caught my eye was from Northern Tool. Our project over the winter was finishing off the basement, and there were a few things in their catalog that were giving me ideas.

Northern Tool carries a wide variety of equipment, tools, appliances, and more. I’d say it’s everything a man has ever dreamed about, but I’m the one who has actually used the site the most so far.

I went to the online store for Northern Tool a few times before we placed our first order. Browsing the site is real easy. On the left of the main page their inventory is broken down by categories. The center of the page highlights any current specials. On the right are links to quick order from a catalog, obtain a free catalog, and links to their frequent buyer program and credit card. The site is quite simple to navigate.

The listings for various products are quite comprehensive. Our first purchase was a vent-free propane heater for the basement. It took two clicks to get to the page where they were listed. The product listing gave quite a bit of detail, including reviews. It made choosing a heater very easy for us.

The price was excellent as well. There wasn’t anything cheaper to be found locally, even taking shipping into account! With their frequent buyer program, you can save on the shipping costs for orders over $50, but I don’t see that in the long run we will be making an overwhelming number of purchases from Northern Tool - it’s a place that is handy for a lot of things but I only see us purchasing from it once or twice a year in the future.

I ordered the stove by putting it into my cart. There were suggestions for accessories, and this was a good thing since one of the suggestions was for a universal gas connection kit which we needed! They have warranties available as well, but do I really want to pay $78.99 for a warranty on a product that cost $299.00?

Shipping can be calculated either right on the product page or after the item has been added to the cart. In the case of our stove, it ended up being about an additional $95.00 and it was shipped via Yellow Freight. Once I made the purchase, I received a tracking code and followed the progress until it reached the Yellow Freight facility. We were then able to call the facility and make arrangements to meet the driver, since our dirt road isn’t conducive to their bringing a tractor trailer down it.

The item was just as described. The packing held up fine and was completely undamaged when we received it. The stove has worked since it was hooked up and I have had no complaints.

There are so many things available to purchase at Northern Tool, it would be impossible to cover all of it. There are home appliances, meat grinders, storage, gloves, storm supplies, shelters, truck boxes, wind turbines, solar panels, neon signs, and log splitters, just to name a few of the things we have looked at on the site.

For people who can do it themselves and just need a place to find what they need, Northern Tool is a great resource. I had my stove in about ten days from ordering it with standard shipping, so there was no need to worry about a very long wait, even when coming via freight. We were able to do what we had to in the basement without waiting an eternity for the stove to arrive. It also helped us by prompting me for another product we ended up needing.

I love looking through the catalog or browsing the site – there’s so much to see and think about that we can do to make our home more energy efficient and generally more comfortable. Northern Tool provides us with many of the resources we need in that regard, and I would not hesitate to order from them again.



© 2007 Patti Aliventi