In and out of extending for the last 7 years. I use an X4 in bare noose configuration with talcum powder for comfort, and do 2 hours per session. The noose is Carr McMaster red cord, not clear silicone. (Dig up my older posts for the part no. If you want to order some.) I have always kept a careful excel log of my PE, and extending plus vacuum pumping is all I have ever done. It shows 1800 + hours now.
I gained .75 inch length in the first year but never gained much after that, although my routine got spotty after the second year. I was at about 1100 hours when it reached .75 in added penis length. Girth I never cared much about. I do not measure or track that. I am all about length gains.
Since I noticed that head swell was so crucial to barebacking, I made a mushroom head-maker style glans vacuum pump for my dick out of 1.5 pvc pipe, that covers or contains all of my penis except the glans, so only the glans is exposed to vacuum pressure. A vacutech testicle/scrotum cylinder is attached in a removable arrangement to the pipe. This thing is big and clunky, kind of hard to keep clean, and an enormous amount of time had to go into shaping the end of the pipe around the base of my glans with epoxy resin. It has to be disassembled for cleaning once a week, but man does it provide awesome head swell. With my glans all puffed up I can bareback longer and more comfortably and reliably. I have a small glans so I really need head swell more than men with large helmets. Boy do I envy men with large helmets, they can really do PE.
Yes, extenders do work. I have permanent gains in length. They probably get most of their length gains from stretching out the suspensory ligament. How much dick can be pulled out varies by the individual. What I am still wondering is, how much time does it take to actually grow the shaft of the penis, not just stretch the suspensory lig, and can it be done. People say it can but it takes many thousands of hours. Apparently the tissues of the penis are some of the toughest in the human body, they are not easily changed.
I currently do 2-4 hours a day as time permits. I have heard it claimed that 1 inch per thousand hours is normal, but I would disagree, else I would have added 1.75 inches to my dick by now and that has not happened. Not even close. But I persevere, it means a lot to me to give it a serious try and there are a lot of anecdotal success stories around, which I tend to believe are genuine. People will exaggerate but most will not make outright lies.
Started Oct. 2010 7.0" BPEL
Currently May 2021 7 3/4" BPEL
stopped counting after 1,700 extending hours