Ever had a new carabiner fail?

[Robert P]

Just added to my small collection with a Rock Exotica Rock O from Treestuff, and was pondering the reliability of biners. My impression is that anything name-brand that's rated for climbing use - i.e. not something from the boxmart hardware warehouses - are very high quality. Ever had one break being used as it was intended and not loaded beyond the rated capacity?

 

[Raj]

Nope, not even biners used in rigging. Youtube has some biner destruction videos.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Nope.

 

[woodworkingboy]

As a rule, some people like to climb on steel biners, reserve aluminum biners for non life support applications.

 

[Levi]

no

 

[Hunnicutt]

It's always a good idea to keep an eye out for manufacturer recalls. Even reputable companies can make mistakes. That being said, the only biners I've compromised were definitely being used way beyond what they were intended to do.

 

[Tim_B.]

No, nor have I ever had one fail, period. But I haven't been doing this stuff for very long, or very consistantly.

Tim

 

[MasterBlaster]

Just like my biceps, I prefer steel.

 

[Grendel]

Never.

 

[treebilly]

I've had a couple fail but I was well beyond their specs. Both were zip lining and very large pieces. Most likely they twisted funny and opened since they were single action.

 

[Chris E]

I heard if dropped on a hard surface even from moderate heights a stress fracture can occur

 

[greengreer]

Most, if not all of your quality manufacturers proof test hardware before it leaves the factory.

 

[flushcut]

Nope.

 

[Tim_B.]

It just occurred to me that maybe we need to ask the original poster, Robert P, to define just what he means when he uses the word "fail".

I was involved in a thread once about biners that had rolled themselves open during use. Nothing bad had happened, but I found it kind of shocking that is was possible. The situation was one of having the biner pressed hard against a big branch or the trunk, as I was attempting to move up, if I'm recalling the incident correctly. The pressure on the biner combined with the movement caused the biner to roll open. I think it only ever happened to me once. I don't know if Robert P would define that as a "failure", or not. I've never bent or broken a biner, and so far I don't have any that have stopped functioning normally.

I won't mention the name of the company whose biner rolled open on me, but I will say that after that incident I switched to buying their button-lock biners.

I'll still buy twist locks from Rock Exotica, just because I've never had a problem with them so far. Not that I need many more biners, at this point.

Tim

 

[Robert P]

It just occurred to me that maybe we need to ask the original poster, Robert P, to define just what he means when he uses the word "fail".

By fail I was thinking of structurally fail - as in bent or broken.

Is that roll open incident something you think you could deliberately repeat? I wonder if changing the orientation would prevent it from happening again.

 

[cory]

Just like my biceps, I prefer steel.

 

[Eric H-L]

This was removed from service in a swing in a daycare.

More frequent inspection would have caught it much earlier...but it never failed! Steel on aluminum and constant friction.


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[Marc-Antoine]

A big oak limb made a "J" shape on one of my steel carabiners, self rigging, but that's because I forgot to screw the gate.

Multiple slings + carabiners on the main link to the rigging rope leads to smashing the locking gates together. Some screw gates are too weak for that and could be put a little out of shape, so they become really locked in place, impossible to unscrew by hand. Steel biners, I should specify. It's the screw part that's sucks, the gate itself stays in a good state.

No worry with my aluminum climbing biners, aside the crud in the locking mecanism.

 

[SeanKroll]

I heard if dropped on a hard surface even from moderate heights a stress fracture can occur

I heard Black Diamond, iirc, scrounged up dropped rock climbing gear from the talus slope in Yosemite, and pulled to failure. IIRC, unless visibly damage, the gear remainder strong. Terminal velocity probably pretty high on metal gear.

 

[Levi]

Yeah, micro-fractions are a myth.

 

[Tim_B.]

How about 1/1,000,000 ?

 

[Levi]

?

 

[Altissimus]

This was removed from service in a swing in a daycare.

More frequent inspection would have caught it much earlier...but it never failed! Steel on aluminum and constant friction.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wasn't from loading in the strictest sense , wear from unintended application.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

I agree.

 

[Chris E]

I think people should expect that a triple action will find a way to unlock and open itself given the right combination of events