SE 30-inch Telescoping Magnetic Pick-Up Tool, Extendable Magnetic Wand Pickup Tool for Mechanics, Household, Office & Industry, Stainless Steel, Black Handle

I think every tool box, tool bag, and maybe on your person should have a tape measure, a telescoping magnet. a Sharpie, and a flashlight; but that's just me. I'm not as young as I used to be, and you get the picture. I hate wallowing around like a beached Orca, just to get up to get something that easily could have been close by.I got this as an add-on item, and am pleased with it. The more I use it, the more I appreciate it. I thought it would be comparable to the ones within the price range at the parts house or hardware store; but it is better. I look at those when I'm at the store and now I think they are crap. This has a better feel in the hand, and is much sturdier than those that I have seen and touched. The telescoping is a bit stiff and I expected that stiffness to loosen up with use. It hasn't so far, and now that stiffness is one of the things I appreciate about it. You extend it X inches, and for the most part it stays extended X inches.Do notice in the item description it has a 15 lb. PULL capacity, not lift capacity. I haven't done any Myth Busters testing, but it will pull that brake caliper from over there to right here. It is good for passing parts or nuts and bolts when my son is working in a wheel well, and I'm supervising from over here. As far as lifting capacity, I don't know what it would be rated at. I have picked up some heavier things and lifted in the horizontal and it stressed my wrist more than it stressed the telescoping tubing.My son's went missing, and I thought I'd get a couple more before mine went missing too. He needs one for his work truck and also for his garage. I almost went with the 2-fer offer (notice the "Size" radio button in the listing), but then among the recommendations was also a slim Tekton one, and there is also a bundle offer of one of this SE, and one of the slim Tekton. One of each equals more versatility. So that is the current order preference for me.SIZE:This is about an 1-1/3" in diameter. It's not in the item description, but is in the specs tab. You will notice many round items from China or Taiwan listing by circumference instead of diameter. I do not think I have met a single person who wouldn't use diameter. It is bizarre to me, but might just be a cultural thing. (Excel spreadsheets will offer to plot a "radar chart" and the Japanese love them and think they are intuitive. I look at a radar chart and see an incomprehensible spider web.)This is about 7" in length when collapsed. Fits well in corner of front or hip pocket of jeans.MATERIAL:Like I said earlier, the grip feels good in the hand. some texture for traction, and a Goldilocks amount of cushion. The shafting is stainless, but I do not know the alloy. It has not flash rusted, so it is not 400-series. (400 has good strength, but it has enough free ferric in it that it rusts and it is still called stainless. Go figure.) The magnet is set in the knurled sheath, and it has gotten some good whacks and is still seated fine.- - -SE and TEKTON brands:For the most part, I have been satisfied with these brands. If you are of a certain age, the phrases "Made in China" or "Made in Taiwan" causes some hesitation due to quality issues from the past, or if you want to buy American. Good reasons. However, you'll be hard pressed to find this at anything near this price point that is wholly sourced from the US; and also anything short of Critical Service, like an oil refinery or gas cracking plant, or a rotary tool's SOLOOP branded saw blade mandrel*, should be okay with Chinese or Taiwanese metals. [* see my other review about that unfortunate little purchase. It could have gone very bad. I should have read through all the reviews.]I do have an unrelated ding against Tekton. their deep well 1/4" drive sockets do not have a recess in the receiver end to accept the detent ball that most socket extensions have, including their own extensions. Odd omission on their part; but hey, if you use those you'll want a telescoping magnetic retrieval tool to go find that socket!

They work very well great deal for too. I use them all the time when I am working on my cars. I’m always dropping something under the car so it makes it very easy for me to retrieve anything I dropped under the car.

I have one at work. Been using that one for a few years now. These are great for when hardware falls off my bench. Saved so much time and effort having to bend down and pick things up. 30” in length makes it easy to pick things up. The grip is tight and firm and doesn’t come loose. I have another one in my shop at home. Good for metal shavings when drilling metal too

I am a geocacher, and as such, there comes a time when I'm out searching for a geocache that a magnetic retrieval tool is the only way to get the cache container. Under ideal conditions, this would be perfect. The 15lb limit is more than sufficient for even the heaviest of cache containers that this would ideally be used for. However, there in lies the rub. While this looks sleek and small, the magnet head itself is at least an inch in diameter, meaning that for the hides this type of tool would be needed for (read: a small hole that nothing wider than a #2 pencil could fit through), it fails. Now, having said that, I came across a situation where an ammo can had fallen to a point that was just out of reach and I had no way to retrieve it. Remember the weight limit of this tool, I was able to successfully grab the can and hoist it to a point where I could reach it. The can weighed probably around 10 pounds and the traditional tool I thought I was purchasing would never have been able to assist in this situation, so it worked flawlessly and has joined my complement of Geocaching tools.

This is a terrible tool. The head is big enough and magnetically strong. It’s good anywhere, even picking up spent shells from pheasant hunting

First I would ignore the negative reviews where the telescoping bits came apart as I'm convinced that they abused this tool. If you pull it out firmly but gently as far as it wants to go, and not as fast and as strong as you can I think the telescoping bits will last a good while. I opened and closed it up a lot and had no problems.I like the textured handle as it gives a good grip which is handy when lifting heavier objects. The knurled sides of the magnet do make it less likely to grip on any metal it passes on the way to what you're aiming at. I think the magnet is strong enough for retrieving normal small objects and hand tools.Now will it lift 15 lbs as advertised? If the object was pure iron or steel (not stainless), perfectly flat, and balanced maybe. But as we all know the things we need to pick up are usually irregularly shaped and sometimes made of mixed metals. I was able to lift a hand barbell with 7 lbs of plates plus about 2 lbs of bar and knobs by putting the magnet on the end of the bar which is chromed. I consider that adequate for a magnet of this size. And lets face it most of the things we want to retrieve with this are going to be much lighter.I would recommend this tool to anyone.