Harbor Freight Lift S.O.S- El Cheapo

I recently bought a HF lift, haven't even had it for a month yet and I'm experiencing operator err-I mean technical difficulties.
The lift will go up all the way but immediately starts to creep down. According to the manual, if it can go up all the way, fluid is sufficient. (No oil spills were found either to indicate a leak)
I've bleed it by pressing the release pedal and pumping the lift pedal. I did several rounds of this, there's no change.
What causes this? I can use it for now so long as I scurry to slide the lock bar in as soon as it's up but I'd like to not one day realize my bike is stranded on my lift.

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Could be cheaply made/poorly fitting fluid seals inside the lift arms. You may not have a leak but that doesn't mean that all that fluid is staying where it should. Sorry this is happening to ya man, even from HF those things aren't just a drop in the bucket as far as price goes.

isn't the lift cylinder on these just a standard bottle jack? I can't remember but you may be able to swap a jack you know is good in place of the cylinder. Also a call to the store may net you a free replacement too.

Maritime said:

isn't the lift cylinder on these just a standard bottle jack? I can't remember but you may be able to swap a jack you know is good in place of the cylinder. Also a call to the store may net you a free replacement too.

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this. How recently did you buy it? you should be able to swap it out if its faulty. They are pretty good about that!

I bought it 9/14 so it's basically been no time.

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I'll call them tomorrow and see if they'll swap it. I was hoping there was a "break fluid to swell seals/just add fluid/blow a foghorn and pump the lift pedal during an Irish dance" fix. If they won't take it, it's within the 30 days to buy the warrenty for it, so it would swap then, but that's an extra $75 I really don't want to take from bike stuff. Plus this thing is HEAVY to sherpa back and forth.

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did you ever get this sorted?