I have two of their moisture meters, a distance meter, RH10 data logger and probably a few more things. Everything is of very low quality. For example, when I pressed in the plastic tab on the RH10 meter case to slide off the housing, the tab snapped.
After a few weeks of logging, the RH10 would no longer download data because the software was convinced the meter was still logging. Software bugs or firmware bugs? Who knows. I then went to exetech.com to see if I could download a software update, but found their website was down (for the last two days).
The distance meter was a joke. It is clunky and grossly inaccurate, as in off by several feet. A friend had a tiny Fluke laser distance meter that actually agreed with a measuring tape and we used them side by side.
It is a shame that ExTech isn't willing to insist on better engineered products to resell. There are some pretty good Chinese products out there -- my Rigol scope is giving me good service for example. All of the antique equipment I have that was made long ago (HP signal generators, power supplies and frequency standards, SOAR multimeter (Japanese and defunct), Keithley, Racal-Dana etc) still works. Almost every consumer grade electronic item I have is less than 10 years old because most only last two or three years. VOIP phones, Kill-A-att meter, computer motherboards, Extech stuff, ipods, stereos -- all disposable crap.
I am curious to know what is missing from modern consumer products that ensures they die young. Do they skip all the static discharge protection, use capacitors that disintegrate, are there problems with surface mount technologies and no-lead solders, are they allergic to fuses ...?
// end rant //