Self-adjusting or manual wire strippers — which should I buy?

Across specialist-community discussion on r/Tools and r/electricians, the consensus splits by use case. Self-adjusting (squeeze-style) strippers are faster on repetitive work and forgiving for beginners, but reviewers repeatedly flag that they struggle with thick double-insulated jackets like THHN and have more moving parts that wear over time. Manual gauge-hole strippers (Klein-Kurve style) are slower per cut but produce cleaner results on a wider range of insulation types and tend to last longer. Many pros carry both.