My thermapen is about a year and a half old. My dad's thermapen is about 4 years old by now. It used to be mine but eventually I could no longer separate the two of them...
At the end of the day I believe I use my thermapen for every cook on the grill or smoker even if its just verification and it also gets used inside for non patio cooking. It is probably my most used cooking tool. There may be a cheaper substitute option that works well but I have no regrets over the cash I've dropped on both of them.
