I have had two of these Medline reachers. At first they seem like they are heavy duty, but I have broken both of mine with seemingly ordinary use, that is not trying to pick up things too heavy or too large for it. I use it exclusively in the kitchen to retrieve things I can't get with my PicStik.First of all, the rubber tips came off the first one, reducing its usefulness. A short time later one of the grabber arms broke.Since I liked the style of the device I bought a second one. In less than a year the plastic bar that you pull on to close the grippers cracked and pulled out of the bar that attaches to the grabber arms. Maybe I can scavenge enough parts from each to make one complete one.I have had other grabbers far longer that have not broken. It is too bad these Chinese-made grabbers are so cheaply built, because the design is useful to me.