There are basically two types of jack: The small $29 variety, and the larger ones, usually $100 and up. For serious work stay away from the small ones. Build quality is often suspect, and they don't have enough lift to be useful.
I'm using a "level" brand large jack, which I payed about $150 for, but which I'm seeing these days for around $100. You probably can't get it in the US, seems to be a dutch or euro rebadge company of cheapish chinese tools. Think slightly upmarket of harbor freight, which we don't seem to have a direct equivalent of. First one I got was bad, wouldn't hold up. Exchanged it, second one has stood up to several years of abuse, lugging it around (it's only about 45 kilo (100 lbs) so still quite easy to chuck in the back of your car when going to help a friend), rolling cars around on it, etc, already and seems to be holding up fine. Even came with a spare seal kit should I want to rebuild the cylinder. Now I am fully aware it probably won't last as long as a Lincoln, Snap-on, Gedore or similar jack would, yet being but a fraction of the price I can afford to replace it should the need arise. I've even seen these as spares around main dealer workshops.
In short, get something that looks like it was at least reasonably put together, test it (jack a spare car up, measure height, come back a few days later and see if it's sunk, work it some cycles, etc), if it holds up it's probably fine. Hydraulic jacks aren't exactly rocket science, and over the last couple of years the chinese seem to have found a way to cheaply produce quite a few hydraulic jack type tools (floor jacks, presses, transmission jacks, spreaders) at bargain prices with at least a passable build quality.
Of course you should never trust any jack (not even the expensive brand-name ones) as the sole means of holding up a car while you're under it. Of course we all occasionally do just that, "just nip under there and tighten that one nut from behind"... So far I've survived. Past performance does not guarantuee future results.
Bram
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