If you're new to this sub, you might be confused by how often people mention "hacking". I wrote this up to try to explain what it is, why people do it, and how to do it yourself. Hacking a deal should be something that everyone is at least aware of, because it can potentially save you a lot of money.
For the record, I don't live in the US, where "hacking" is most prominent, so I don't actually get to hack deals at all. I've just seen it explained and dissected so often that I thought I'd compile the info here, hopefully making it easier for others to reference.
Edit to add (06/11/2025): Apparently you can hack deals in Canada, specifically the "buy that, get this free" promotions that they often run. It just doesn't work for online orders. So, if you want to hack a deal in Canada, you have to do it in-store, which means that you'd have to return the item you don't want in-person, at the Customer Service desk. This also means that you won't see the discounted price on the receipt until both items are scanned at the till.
Edited again to add (05/26/2026): If you're suddenly unable to make online purchases on the website or the app, your account may have been flagged by their system. I think HD uses some software or algorithm to identify specific buying behaviours that may flag user accounts exhibiting such behaviour. It's probably meant to catch return abusers and resellers, but also to curb identity theft/credit card fraud. If this happens to you, you can call in to Home Depot Corporate to explain what's happening so they can look into it and restore your account. You may also be able to just use the Live Chat option to escalate your issue.
What is hacking?
HD will often run sales and promotions on items that, when purchased together, are discounted to a lower price. A deal is hackable when the discounted prices are applied in a way that allows you to return one or more line items back to the store at the discounted price. Note that the refund is not limited to a gift card or in-store credit, it is refunded directly to your original payment method (cash, credit or debit).
How do you hack a deal?
A hackable deal will show the price breakdown in your cart, with discounts on each line item to reach the promotional price for that "package". Returning one or more of these line items at the discounted price allows you keep the other items at the discounted price. This is pretty common in the US. Some other countries, on the other hand, don't usually apply the discounts this way, so most of the time, they're unable to "hack". In Canada, you normally cannot hack an online purchase, but it is possible to hack an in-store deal. Typically these hackable deals are "Buy More, Save More" or "Buy this tool, get this for free" promotions.
An example of a hackable deal is shown below. This is a Canadian Buy More, Save More deal, where if you buy 2 items, you get 15% off each item, and if you buy 3 or more items, you get 25% off each item. In the screenshot below, you can see the line item prices for the vacuum and the organizers have been discounted from their original prices. In this case, you can return both organizers for $89.98 CDN and keep the vacuum, effectively paying $209.25 CDN for it instead of the regular $279.99. Alternatively, you can return the vacuum for $209.25 and keep the organizers for the discounted price of $89.98.
Hackable Deal
A non-hackable deal, like the one shown below, shows that the line item for the planer is actually "Free", meaning that all of the discount in the deal is applied to that item. Returning the "Free" item makes no sense, and Home Depot will not allow you to return the miter saw to keep the planer for free.
The hack works on more than just Milwaukee stuff. Any promotion that reduces the cost of each line item in the promotion is hackable. This means that you can potentially hack Makita, DeWalt, Bosch, etc. in the same way.
One more thing to add..
People have asked about how often you can "get away" with hacking a deal before they ban you. At least with regard to Home Depot, there isn't anything to "get away" with as you're not doing anything wrong by returning a product that you bought and no longer want. What you want to avoid is abusing returns in general.
To clarify with an example, lets say over the course of a month, you "hack" 3 different deals, and end up returning 3 items. It's very, very unlikely that you'd run into any issues. On the other hand, if you were to make 15+ purchases over the course of the month, and then return all or part of 10 of those purchases over 2 or 3 days, their system might flag your account for suspicious activity. Again, this has nothing to do with returning discounted items. If your account is flagged or banned, it's more or less due to your return history, and it's done to help curb or prevent return fraud. You'd be able to sort any issues out by contacting Home Depot customer service, if you were to ever encounter this.
Finally, keep in mind that returning a discounted item is not unique to Home Depot, which means that theoretically, you can "hack" any deal from any retailer, as long as they don't have policies preventing it.
.. and one more note, added today (Aug 12, 2026). Over the last year or so, it seems that HD has implemented or adjusted their algorithm that tracks online purchases and flags certain instances of "suspicious behaviour" automatically (like cancelling items immediately after placing the order). This can potentially result in an online purchasing ban on your account. This is completely speculation on my part, so take that for what it is, but I would highly recommend just sticking to refunding whatever you don't want in the store, or at least waiting for the item to be ready for pickup before trying to cancel it. In light of this, I've removed the "hacking the hack" portion of the original post.
Hope that answers your questions! Anything else that you feel should be included, just comment below. Thanks!
05/29/2025: Edited to update image links.
06/11/2025: Edited to add info regarding Canadian in-store hacks.
05/26/2026: Edited to add info regarding flagged/banned user accounts.
08/12/2026: Edited to add info regarding "hacking the hack".
I'm still kind of in shock. I thought it was a European version at first but it says "custom" on the advertisement. It looks like the boilerplate-sticker thing on the right side was dug underneath on the top left corner. I was expecting something hand-painted but this looks like completely solid black housing all the way through. I definitely wasn't expecting the pink logos, but I kinda like it. I placed the order and then an hour later I got cold feet and tried to cancel it. They said it was too late and was already shipped. I think 5 days later here it is. I think I'll keep it. It even came with the 2.0 battery. At 1 am I kinda doubt that. I have the M12 surge and I really like it, it changed my inexperienced opinion of the M12 platform. I've never used the M12 hex before, but the few M12s that I have bought in the past however many months have made me a believer. What do y'all think?
Oh yeah, freakin Temu. Temu! Don't get me wrong, I love Temu, but I also love finding things in dumpsters. This does not feel like it came from a dumpster This feels surprisingly legit.
I needed to cut some channels into my driveway. I had an angle grinder. I designed and 3d printed a track saw sled for it with adjustable depth. Worked a treat!
I purchased this fan at full price off the Home Depot shelf in July 2026. I estimate I used it for 20 hours total, when in late September, I noticed that the motor was intermittently shimmying, and it couldn't reach full speed anymore.
I filled out a warranty claim on the Milwaukee website. I fortunately still had the box it came in (hard to find a box that fits something this big), so I packaged it up, included the original HD receipt, and the printed paper that Milwaukee told me to include in the package. I attached the shipping label that Milwaukee provided, and dropped it off at a FedEx store.
11 days later, the fan reappeared on my front porch. The package included a paper detailing what repairs they did (replaced the motor assembly). The fan works well.
Overall, I paid $0 for the whole experience. It's a bummer that the fan did fail at all, but I was very satisfied with how Milwaukee stood behind their product.
The fan only has a 1-year warranty. I'll be sure to use it a bit this fall and next spring, even if it's not strictly needed, just to make sure that I'm past any new-part failure risk before the warranty runs out.
I'm looking at getting this circular saw. I could utilize the bigger batteries as well. I only have two 6amp high output batteries. I'm switching from dewalt and I about threw my dewalt today. But granted it is old... old old... and the batteries are old.
Which Milwaukee circular saw to get? I'm not a contractor this is home use but when I need it I need it. I do some large projects time to time.
Is this a deal at 449 or Wait?
Also the blade is on the opposite of my Dewalt, any comments on that?
I have one of these radios that has a blown speaker. Everything else works great.
Anyone done any cool stuff with the internals (aka homemade pack out speaker) I’m not an electrician but pretty competent in basic circuit boards and electrical projects.
I have found attachment for the earth auger heads for an SDS, a regular drill and a super hawg. Which would work best? I’d be using it to drill post holes. I already have the fuel drill and SDS but if the hawg is better I’ve been wanting one
The spring fell out while I was servicing a shop saw. I found a cavity (1) and a notch (2) that look like they might be attachment points, but they are too large to hold the spring in. There is a plate that fits over the cavity, but it's not tight enough to hold the spring (unless I'm doing it wrong).
I've googled around but can't find anything specific to this saw. Any help in getting the guide spring reattached would be appreciated, thank you!
edit: I figure it out. the outer part of the fixed saw guard that's held by 3 screws is what secures the spring in that channel (2). I must have removed that at some point to get the guard off and the spring came with it.
My vacuum just conveniently died 3 weeks past the warranty period. Does Milwaukee have a little bit of flexibility with the warranty date or do they stand pretty firm?
amigos no encuentro donde más preguntar estás cosas, así que lo suelto
Tengo el atornillador de impacto m12 de 3ra gen, pero quiero hacer el swap y cambiarle el encastre de 1/4 exagonal a 1/4 square, ya que en mi trabajo utilizo dados mecánicos el 95% del tiempo, he visto un video en tiktok de otra persona cambiando el encastre por el de la stubby 1/4 y queda original, pero quisiera tener más referencias ya que esa persona no menciona como lo hizo o si encontró problemas al hacerlo.
Les agradezco mucho por leer y si tienen información de dónde comprar las piezas en México sería genial amigos.
I bought the Milwaukee air tip 49-90-2035 on sale to try it and have ended up loving it. It handles like 90% of my car vacuuming and is great at handling pet hair and general debris.
The cross brush in it is definitely replaceable but I haven't found anywhere selling them. I'm not opposed to getting a new head but it seems silly to replace the whole thing when I just need new bristles. Anybody seen anything about these coming or have any other similar vac heads that DO sell replacement bristles?
Hey guys, my radio doesn’t work on 240V (AUS) anymore found the netual burnt so I’m just looking where I can buy a new board and plug kit. I probably could solder a new plug on but just to be sure as there was a power surge when it stoped working on 240. Still works great on battery
Tried to fix the trigger on my M18 Fuel 1/4" Hex impact driver by opening it up and cleaning out all the dust. Ironically the triggered sheered the trigger wire when I tested it after putting it back together. Just dumb.
So, trying to buy a new driver; I don't trust tools with spliced wires. Home Depot doesn't have the driver in stock after they canceled my purchase. A reddit post said the driver was discontinued but I see no information for a new model and Milwakee doesn't show anything besides the one I am trying to replace.
I have an old rigid impact for now but what is up with Milwakee impacts? The Compact version is not strong enough and I am doubting the Surge version is either.
Is there a new model I'm not seeing for 1/4" hex impact? Sheet Metal / HVAC.
I doubt it’s within manufacturer warranty, and I know it’s not within the repair warranty. I probably don’t have the repair receipt. Repair was done by an authorized Milwaukee distributer.
This saw was obtained in a large bundle I purchased. It NEVER actually worked. It would just not spin sometimes, but if I manually spun the blade and pressed the trigger it would go (extremely dangerous, I’m aware).
But the tool had no balls. It would fail ripping standard 3/4” plywood. I’d make it a portion of the way through the sheet and it would just stop. Sometimes I could get it to complete the cut if I backed out, let it get up to RPM and then went terribly slow.
It’s been sitting on the shelf for a couple years collecting dust. I use my very old corded ryobi instead, which fills me with white hot rage.
EDIT: found the repair invoice.
23-58-7116 STATOR / Electronics assembly
It was repaired under warranty back in 2023.
I punched my serial number into Milwaukee site and it says “warranty coverage cannot be determined”
I can continue with the repair but looks like I might pay up to $195. Which isn’t worth it to me.
I had to use multiple high strength attempts over the span of almost a year to get the drill chuck out, now to put the hex-bit holder one in just to test fits…
and it’s still so so freaking tight.
I used a small amount of oil lube to finally release (with a freak hammer and pry tool just trying not to bend the shaft)
I’m wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue and how you fixed it? I purchased this tool off of eBay. Was in newish condition before I beat on it a ton.
So after my second Milwaukee 9 amp hour battery went crazy I decided to call them to see if there was anything they could do. I explained to them that these batteries were designed to be used in high draw items like my snowblower my weed wacker my sliding compound miter saw. but when I use mine it feels like the battery runs but then starts to stutter almost like the voltage is dropping and jumping like three times a second. it basically becomes unusable. two batteries doing the exact same thing while I still have one of my original 1AH Milwaukee battery from my very first drill I ever bought at least 15 to 18 years ag still working. actually in fact every single one of my Milwaukee batteries are still running with no issues.. when I talked to them they said that there was a recall on the 9.0's but not because of the reason that I stated but because there was a possible water ingress issue in certain situations. if I had a contact to them beforehand they could have replaced these. and very disappointed because they refuse to replace these but at the same time I do understand that they are out of warranty by a long shot but it also ticks me off that two of my most expensive batteries are dead and useless. I would expect Milwaukee to stand behind their products even after warranty with two having the exact same issue is a pattern. and no it's not my Chargers because I have seven other Milwaukee batteries with absolutely no issues at all that are quite old.. I don't know why it just really ticks me off when a company hands these things I like candy with free deals and $150 off here or there but can't support a person who has entire walls of red who has shown that these batteries has some sort of issue which I know they don't make anymore but stand behind your products Milwaukee. you bost your tools are the best in the world but then hide behind your warranties when it's time to prove it. like I get you can't warranty a product forever but when someone can show you a pattern in one of your products which probably is caused by a manufacturing defect.. again I understand it but just I am disappointed.
I'll still buy Milwaukee I still really like the company I'm just very disappointed in this situation! I had the opportunity to buy a Milwaukee lawn mower with no batteries and I thought because I had the two 9 amp hour batteries this will work fine for my smaller lawn and now I can't use them and I have to go spend another 700-800 dollars on batteries to replace them.
Update. Please don't reply if you just want to argue or are so brand loyal you can't see when a company did something wrong and needs to be held accountable for it. I am a loyal Milwaukee tool user but just disappointed how they handled this. just because you like a brand doesn't mean they can't make mistakes!
I was using the edging tool with my Milwaukee weed eater today through some lighter grass along the side of my sidewalk. The next thing I know the powerhead came disconnected and the gray quick lock had come separated not from the attachment but from the powerhead. Has anybody else had this issue? I tried to reattach it and it's not going back in place fully.
I need a new M18 Fuel drill and found this locally on FB marketplace for $110. I’m no expert, but it appears to be authentic & new (refurb??). At this price, it’s better deal than any other local options. Is this a legit good deal or should I avoid?
