Unless I misunderstand how the test was set up, I think there's a meaningful problem with it: each link interface is different because you connected the carabiners directly together, and those differences will affect test results. Because of differences in size, cross-sections, materials, etc. this changes precisely where and how the stresses are applied to each carabiner. That introduces variables that determine and can significantly alter how each link will perform under load. There should have been a common linkage device connected at both ends of each carabiner to normalize how all the forces are applied on all the ends throughout the chain of carabiners. In the test of different carabiners for example, if a high-strength material carabiner#1 has an hexagonal/square/rectangular/etc cross-section instead of a round one at the point it contacts carabiner#2, that relatively sharp edge (lower surface area) can put much higher stress at a specific location on the carabiner#2, and how it deforms as the loading increases would likely also vary considerably. So instead of say...10,000 psi it might have seen, that particular area of contact sees 50,000 psi. That would likely cause carabiner#2 to fail earlier than it would have failed. (note: numbers are just for example...not intended to be accurate in any way). A similar issue would come into play even if all contact points were circular cross-sections but with differing diameters and alloy strengths, especially as the carabiners began to deform around each other at the contact points.
I came here to say something similar, putting a biner in the middle of the chain is the same as attaching a biner to stiff springs on both ends. the springs end up absorbing a mot of force/energy so the biner in the middle sees less stress compared to the ones on the end. tldr: in mechanical engineering, everything is a spring.
@@moshet842 but what if they re-ran the test and got wildly different results? Perhaps they should do a bunch of tests to see, but it’s expensive and time consuming. Still, just one or two more tests with different arrangements of carabiners would be cool. Maybe one with the same arrangement too. You have manufacturing differences between batches too I’m afraid.
The fact that the black diamond stayed operational (sort of) after being taken past 20kN that many times was the most impressive to me. Whatever they're doing in terms of maybe a heat treatment or cross section design is really impressive.
I actually thought this had to do with the force absorption of the subtly flexing caribiners (ie force gets lower toward the middle and is maximal to the outside) am I wrong?
@@Ma12cus1 The force is the same everywhere. When you're hanging on a rope, the rope is tight everywhere, not just next to you and a belayer. There's no slack halfway up. Same with the biners, if the middle biner had no force on it, it would be loose, and you could safely remove it and continue the pull test. Obviously, that doesn't work, the chain has to be connected precisely BECAUSE it's transfering the forces. How much easier would it be to design gear if the force got lowered after 5 biners. I'd just clip 5 biners to my harness to lower the force and then use toothpicks as pro.
I noticed this too, and I was curious if the orientation of the biner on the quick link affected the break as well. Seems like the site of breakage is usually above the nose. So if the biner is deforming around the quick link in that side, it might be more likely to break.
I think you should repeat the test with the same exact biners and with static ropes to see if they have the same break strength. I’m wondering if the biner on biner may have abnormally loaded them causing them to break sooner than normal.
I fined It interesting that 6 of the 12 broke at the end of the chain not including the last two. I wonder if being in contact with the end locking carabiners influenced the results. thanks for the test it was fun to watch.
Hey man. I found your channel a few days ago and I honestly love what you do. I'm in the arborist section but I'd really like to get into more climbing and maybe one day high lining. Bought some carabiners to try and support the channel. Keep doin what you do!
I'm really glad to see cypher make it all the way to the end. My local shop carries them exclusively, but I had never heard of them before, so this makes me feel worlds better about running them.
Id like to see you break some side loaded aluminum and steel triple locking carabiners to mimick the way tree guys and tower climbers will choke a round object and sideload a carabiner
Wire gate: camp photon; narrow nose, extremely light and the throw action is phenomenal. It's like it opens at an exponential rate making clipping easy. Edit: ohhhh noooo.
Rock Exotica makes the best locking biners, the Pirate and RockO are exquisite. You think a carabiner is just a carabiner until you feel the action on these
Kind of interesting, doing the test this way actually tests even more than just ultimate strength, it tests strength over repeated near-maximal loading (along with some intense smacking around, microfracture myth be damned lol), which might even be a more useful measure of a carabiner's strength and overall durability. Given the results, I'm digging the Black Diamond Litewire, it stayed pretty functional after being heavily loaded 8 or so times, pretty impressive!
Absolutely agree. It would be interested to know if the neighbors to the one that failed suffer more stress vs one right at the rope. Also, it's entirely possible there's variation between batches of the same companies product based on variation in raw material etc, so if you were to repeat this experiment again, you might get a slightly different ranking.
@@fgbhrl4907 I wouldn't think so on first thought, because I'm pretty sure the failure results in an abrupt deloading, not a spike in force, but I wouldn't say it's impossible. I think you're probably right, probably depends on the degree of variance in strength, I'd still bet on that Austrian made locker lol We're kinda getting into the minutia there though haha I just can't believe that the Austrian-made locker still functioned after all that abuse
A neat observation about how these fail. The most important feature of a carabiner is that it stays closed when loaded so it holds max strength. Some design thought that has to go into the geometry and how if flexes as it gets loaded. Ideally you want the nose of the gate to get pushed into the latch as it flexes. You can see the red biner doing that here. 6:03 Then you have a good example of one not doing that here. 9:07 The load causes the nose to move the other way and pops the gait open.
I knew the team that had one of the earliest failures from this phenomenon, in the mid-1980's, when an oval biner broke during a moderately long sport fall. As most biners fail first at the gate notch or pin, theirs had the spine break and the gate junction was not broken. One thesis was that the biner did not just get knocked against the rock, because think about it - that would only open it at the moment of first impact of the slack taken up, not the subsequent full loading a split second later, at which point the biner gate might have swung closed. They ruled out the gate being held open against the rock, and theorized the rope stretching under increasing tension thru the biner caused oscillating vibration, which "fluttered" the gate open and closed rapidly. I haven't seen a thorough study of the concept; one flaw in it is that most biners flex enough to lock closed under fall loads via the notch or keyed gate design, and so aren't supposed to end up opening in a free-hanging fall situation.
Would you ever test arborist gear? Ex Notch rope runner pro or Singing Rock akimbo or unicender? Would love to know the KN a Rope runner slips at. Great vid love the content
I second this. I'm a line clearance arborist and myself and many coworkers watch these videos. I suspect you have more arborist viewers than you think.
Ryan you are an inspiration and provide not only answers but proof to the questions no one asks and for that we love you brother! Don't tell anyone but I climb trees, mountains and buildings and it's difficult to comply with all the regulations across these disciplines since many are mutually exclusive. I am a human and have been known to make errors yet I'm still alive because the equipment is "Super good enough"! To all my fellow climbers from all disciplines it is my considerable experience that "CONFIDENCE" is the most important bit of equipment you need! Followed by "CHALK" Love and peace you to all.
Most of the Karabiners that were connected to the quick link broke mainly because the quick link doesn't stretch and therefore doesn't give any force absorption, where as the Karabiners attached to another Karabiner are both equally stretching and helping each other to absorb the force. The ones attached to the quick link don't have that extra help from the next link in the chain absorbing some of the force through its stretch. Having worked in a lifting & rigging sales and manufacturing company for over 20+ years. if we were to break test a failed crane rope or other product, we would usually cut out 3-5 good sections of rope and make up 3-5 slings of the same length and break test all 3-5 to get an ABF (average Breaking Force). and use this on the report back to the customer. (keep in mind MBF (minimum Breaking force) is the lowest recorded breaking force result that the manufacturer got during their testing results and their product is more than likely going to exceed this almost every time unless there was a fault with the manufacturing process. Also most of the karabiners broke at the top (notched) end because, when a chain link stretches and breaks it goes from being an oval shape to a figure 8 shape (it pinches inwards in the middle). with these Karabiners the wire gate wont bend inwards and instead pulls the notched part of the Karabiner body inwards which puts excessive stress at the nearest bend. you can see this very well when the Black diamond broke @ 16:05.
You should be able to compare the breakage sites to get an idea of how they're made. In theory, forged biners should be stronger than cast and tempered and cast with tempering should be stronger than just cast ones.
100% NOT true, but generally done as you described for economic reasons due to QC. "Casting" gets a bad rap because mass manufacturing generally speaking uses MUCH easier to cast alloys which flow better and are also CHEAPER with lower tensile strength etc. No reason one could not use the 7075 alloy as a cast process. Now there are several problems with doing so and it is more than likely forging is the cheaper option regarding QC(quality control). The problem are voids, surface roughness(initial crack propagation sites), but that can be taken care of in other ways as well, but requires machining and even a forging after the fact. And if you have to final forge it anyways... All, will have to be heat treated to desired spec for toughness vrs tensile strength.
@@mountainmandoug Yup, easier/cheaper to get a consistent smooth finish with few voids --> AKA stress risers using a forging process than a cast/molded one. Even if the total processing time is increased compared to cast.
Hey: a suggestion. Break-test Amazon carabiners. Usually, these carabiners are "not for climbing" although the merchant often forgets to put that in the listing. Now I'm seeing cheap chinese carabiners on Amazon that are "UIAA certified" and they even show a certificate claiming to prove it. In addition, these carabiners have thousands of reviews and a 5-star rating, so most people seem to think they are ok. Now these biners are 'certified' to perform up to spec, but do they actually? Manufacturing requires a consistency in materials and process, and if it's sub-par, you might find that some biners stand up, but others might break below the MBS. These biners are not super-cheap. Lockers run $7 vs. a name-brand locker about $10. So we might assume they use good materials, and the only difference is the slightly cheaper chinese labor. Maybe. I probably wouldn't buy them, even if you broke some and showed that they can stand up. But I'd really like to see some detailed break-testing of these UIAA-certified carabiners now on Amazon
All my rack carabiniers are cypher. Got em on pro deal from liberty mountain a while ago. They were pretty cheap. I've noticed they look exactly like the trango wire gate.
Little secret the industry won’t tell you, many of those carabiners look similar because different companies, especially the smaller ones, order from the same factory. Cypher and trango biners come from the same manufacturer in Taiwan.
Loved, loved, loved this test!!! As a newbie, I've been hesitant to buy wire gated carabiners. This video gives me that knowledge and slays that gear fear!! THANK YOU!!!!
So this is a fast edit. It was super good enough. And well done on the entertainment part. Nice to have more people in it when it is less serious. I gives a vibe of goofing around in a garage with friends.
Hearing Ryan said "Camp Photon.. My favorite" made my day :D .. my whole set of multipurpose quickdraw is made of theses bad boyz .. it conforted even more my choice
Me too... my go to drawers cause they are light and nice to handle, although I run solid gates on the pro side cause in Australia we still have some old school routes that use removable bolt plates, the plate can come off if a wire gate is used😬
At my age a step ladder is scary, but I subscribed because you guys look like you're having fun and obviously insane to do what you do and not get paid to do it. Totally incidentally, I think I learned something.
I've been using Fusion Climb triple lock carabiners for rigging heavy wood(obviously I do tree work), and I've shock loaded them well past their WLL and still haven't broken any.
Yo dude, could you please drop test a girth X circa BlissClimbing's Feb 26, 2021 video. I could be wrong but I think the slip from a girth X could potentially avoid catastrophic peak force, and I feel a good use would be in a lead solo anchor where I personally would be all kinds of nervous about peak force in a whipper. If you decide to run this test please try both a single girth x and a double girth X to see the how they behave. Will the slip of the girth X decelerate enough so that a fall that would normally snap a static sling would instead slow and stop with a
Singing Rock is relatively well known (at least in Europe) gear brand from Czech republic... A lot of their gear - crampons, ice axes - are more or less clones of Petzl designs, but they're very well made and great value.
@@HowNOT2 Yeah. I use their gear mostly because the company manufactures their soft goods in the same valley my family comes from. Ocún is another Czech brand that makes awesome stuff.
I call this the M&M test. Open a bag of m&m and press 2 together in between your fingers. Winner mover on to next round, loser gets eaten. See how many rounds one particular m&m can make it.
I lowkey got into climbing *because* is of this channel. Randomly found the GGBY space net videos and was absolutely captivated. I understood next to nothing; all I knew was "oo pretty colours, I want one!"
my best guess is that these would be drop forged while hot they are sequentially shaped using wighted dies that are dropped onto the metal which makes the outer form without compromising the internal structure of the part
I love litewires because they are simple, lots of colours and easy to get your hands on for a good price since they are on sale often. I know the heliums, contrary to their name, are pretty heavy but they have a fantastic shape and action and I love having a few draws with them. Especially if you are working with gloves on!
I'd like to see you guys do some testing on some fall protection OSHA, MSHA type safety gear you'll find on a industrial job site. Mite be a neat comparison to more sport and arborist kind of gear. Thanks for all your hard work.
I know nothing about carabiners, climbing gear or hell I've never ever gone climbing in my life, but somehow this got in my recommended and it was very enjoyable to see things break.
I'd really like to see static and dynamic loads on Home Depot rope. I bought some rope there recently. While gathering it in a butterfly coil, someone thought I was actually going to use it to climb.
I think a more scientific test would be 3 of each brand and put them one by one in the machine. It probably isn't as fun but it would be actually very useful.
This test is stupid. I like stupid things. I like this test! None of these results are really useful, but I would enjoy see other types of gears! Thanks for the video!
All of my cams are racked on the cyphers, so this pleases me. They really are a great balance of qualities, especially when you're buying a ton of them. I believe they're pretty much the same as the Trango, but branded differently.
Hardening is a magical beast. I'm sure you could make all these carabiners with the same aluminium but they are hardened differently and break with different stats
I've once had a wire gate open when I fell on it, since it slid along the rock, and the wire gates stick out further than the body of the caribena. Due to this shape it was then pinned open by the rock, and I had to reach up and push it shut whilst hanging on the rope beneath it. Due to this experience, I tend to go for solid gates, as I don't think their shape would be as susceptible to this
Great video!! My favorite has more to do with safety, I like the black diamond with the red paint under the screw gate so you can visually see it’s closed and yes I also physically check as well
You guys should do a quick break test of the core of a rope vs the sheath. Not that I’m ever climbing on only one or the other, but it’s frickin fun to watch stuff break.
TRANGO VINDICATION!!! Alone among my friends do I stand by Trango wiregates in the strength/weight/dollar ratio. I did not expect it to win, but I love that it made it into the top three. What a beast.
Just when i thought i couldn't love BD litewires much more than I already do. I have a few petzl bent gates to try in my draws, but I just don't love the feel of them when clipping, so they tend to just hang my shoes on my gear wall now.
Getting lower numbers means they’re getting weaker, but it’s also a good test showing what they can handle not just once when brand new but after repeated stress when used
Great video! As Ryan says clearly in this video about the carabiners "they all break (at) three times higher than you need them to be." As long long as you avoid really stupid situations (factor 2 falls, climbing above anchors on static rope/cord, etc. etc.) - "real world" forces never approach anything near the forces required to break most gear. And I'm sure you also know this, but it's worth quoting THE best book on climbing anchors by Bob Gaines & John Long: "Chris Harmston, Black Diamond's quality assurance manager reviewed field failures of climbing gear for eight years... never saw a stopper rated at over 10kN fail... this is telling because a BD stopper is among the most commonly used protection device in all trad climbing... it's a sure bet that forces of over 10kN have never been logged on any rock climb... and that actual forces of factor 2 falls are likely to be less than even (Craig) Connally's high-end figure of 8.5kN". Connally's book "The Mountaineering Handbook" is another must-have, with plenty of high-end mathematical & physical force data. Only point I'm adding (and Ryan acknowledges) is the reminder that all certified gear is stronger than you'll ever be able to put excessive forces upon (note: I'm not talking about bad gear placements that pull out, cross loading 'biners on rock edges, cutting your ropes or slings on sharp edges, or other "improper" usage of gear...)
For me its about the feel of the carabiner, it it easy to use? Fit your hands well? The metallurgical side of this experiment is that you are work hardening everything and that subsequent Carabieners break at higher loads. It would be interesting to see how a new carabieners would compare in an individual break test from the same companies.
Super interesting to see the results of the test after taking them to such high forces repeatedly. Would be very interested to hear if fusion is actually certified. Thanks for all the edutainment.
16:50 fun fact, Many historians actually think that thumbs down actually means to spare the fighters life, thumbs up meant to end their life. The director knew this but thought that doing this historically correct would confuse to many people since everyone thinks it's works the other way around. A theory is that the thumbs down may have actually meant to lower your sword thus to spare their life and a thumbs up mimicked a sword stab or thrust of some kind.
Very nice funstration test. Great comments you all made about the MBS is not the final decision maker. That said it seems the Cypher ceres II sure is the better buy for a sailor. Jim Rodgers
My fat hands love smooth large gate openings. When the hook-less gate design was invented, the world of clipping just felt so much easier to manage. The Petzl Spirit is my biner of choice for standard function. I now have the Petzl Angle L for sport draws and prefer the larger of the two sizes. BD wires are another favorite. Wire gates are certainly awesome but they are more consumable than standard biners. It's also worth noting is how rope wear affects the shape and diameter of the (light) carbiner stock. Back in the 90's when the first super light Helium biners were introduced, the rope would very quickly would carve grooves in the "T" stock and create sharp knife edges for the rope to glide over. Many of these were later recalled for that reason. I've seen many ropes sliced on the sharp edges of a warn biner. Most of the light biners these days are much more round in the center, but wear patterns are still something to keep an eye out for.
Awesome, just yesterday I was looking if you had done a break test on the petzl Ange. And now it lands right here in my lap! What’s more is it’s even the first to break so I don’t have to sit through all the other ones, how considerate of you.
I'm a big fan of DMM gear in general. I like the DMM Chimera for sport climbing. I use a DMM Shadow solid gate on the bolt and the Chimera for the rope end. Basically I organize my stuff that solid gates get attached to hard goods and wire gates attached to soft goods.
Cypher have been my go to carabiners for a while. It helps I have a hook up for Liberty Mountain wholesale pricing. It’s funny to hear you’ve never heard of Singing Rock, since they make my favourite harness, and are also used by several friends.
See our epic Iceland video at ua-cam.com/video/ygf9tn53aqM/v-deo.html
Check out our new store! hownot2.store/
Unless I misunderstand how the test was set up, I think there's a meaningful problem with it: each link interface is different because you connected the carabiners directly together, and those differences will affect test results.
Because of differences in size, cross-sections, materials, etc. this changes precisely where and how the stresses are applied to each carabiner. That introduces variables that determine and can significantly alter how each link will perform under load.
There should have been a common linkage device connected at both ends of each carabiner to normalize how all the forces are applied on all the ends throughout the chain of carabiners.
In the test of different carabiners for example, if a high-strength material carabiner#1 has an hexagonal/square/rectangular/etc cross-section instead of a round one at the point it contacts carabiner#2, that relatively sharp edge (lower surface area) can put much higher stress at a specific location on the carabiner#2, and how it deforms as the loading increases would likely also vary considerably. So instead of say...10,000 psi it might have seen, that particular area of contact sees 50,000 psi. That would likely cause carabiner#2 to fail earlier than it would have failed. (note: numbers are just for example...not intended to be accurate in any way). A similar issue would come into play even if all contact points were circular cross-sections but with differing diameters and alloy strengths, especially as the carabiners began to deform around each other at the contact points.
This was my thought
I came here to say something similar, putting a biner in the middle of the chain is the same as attaching a biner to stiff springs on both ends. the springs end up absorbing a mot of force/energy so the biner in the middle sees less stress compared to the ones on the end.
tldr: in mechanical engineering, everything is a spring.
@@andrewortlieb3994 wrong. All links of the chain experience equal force under static load.
Doesn't matter. You can't determine where the force will be applied in real life application, so it should be designed with that in mind.
@@moshet842 but what if they re-ran the test and got wildly different results? Perhaps they should do a bunch of tests to see, but it’s expensive and time consuming. Still, just one or two more tests with different arrangements of carabiners would be cool. Maybe one with the same arrangement too. You have manufacturing differences between batches too I’m afraid.
The fact that the black diamond stayed operational (sort of) after being taken past 20kN that many times was the most impressive to me. Whatever they're doing in terms of maybe a heat treatment or cross section design is really impressive.
Heat treat, alloy selection, and geometry were probably all factors.
No joke
They said it was the heaviest as well...
@@lambandrew125 looking at the chart there were 6 that were heavier...
I work for black diamond and make cams daily and watch carabiner being stress tested and it is pretty crazy what we can do
"It'll help disperse the comments of how we did this wrong" almost flew by me and still almost made me do a spit take. Hilarious
Towards the end, most of the biners that broke were right next to the quicklink. Almost as if the larger diameter was compromising it.
I noticed that as well.
high diameter assault carabiner
I actually thought this had to do with the force absorption of the subtly flexing caribiners (ie force gets lower toward the middle and is maximal to the outside) am I wrong?
@@Ma12cus1 The force is the same everywhere. When you're hanging on a rope, the rope is tight everywhere, not just next to you and a belayer. There's no slack halfway up. Same with the biners, if the middle biner had no force on it, it would be loose, and you could safely remove it and continue the pull test. Obviously, that doesn't work, the chain has to be connected precisely BECAUSE it's transfering the forces.
How much easier would it be to design gear if the force got lowered after 5 biners. I'd just clip 5 biners to my harness to lower the force and then use toothpicks as pro.
I noticed this too, and I was curious if the orientation of the biner on the quick link affected the break as well. Seems like the site of breakage is usually above the nose. So if the biner is deforming around the quick link in that side, it might be more likely to break.
It would be dope to see slow mo guys do this with their Red cameras running at 100,000 fps to see the structural failure in more detail.
Better use some plexiglas in between to not screw up the red cams
I smell a collab a-brewing
If you're nice, you can actually rent a V2511 (I think) from Destin (Smarter Every Day), he's in Alabama, SloMo Guys are in Texas
Red cameras do not do 100,000fps, they use phantom cameras for high speed
Bit of aluminium flying into phantom camera at bullet speed = one dead phantom.........
I think you should repeat the test with the same exact biners and with static ropes to see if they have the same break strength. I’m wondering if the biner on biner may have abnormally loaded them causing them to break sooner than normal.
Agreed
I fined It interesting that 6 of the 12 broke at the end of the chain not including the last two. I wonder if being in contact with the end locking carabiners influenced the results. thanks for the test it was fun to watch.
connect them all with slings between them.
That's not interesting. That's designing a bad test.
Thanks!
HMS: Halbmastwurf: Munter hitch. They are the carabiners literally designed to have a munter hitch in them.
Hey man. I found your channel a few days ago and I honestly love what you do. I'm in the arborist section but I'd really like to get into more climbing and maybe one day high lining. Bought some carabiners to try and support the channel. Keep doin what you do!
I'm really glad to see cypher make it all the way to the end. My local shop carries them exclusively, but I had never heard of them before, so this makes me feel worlds better about running them.
is that gear trader in moab? they carry mostly cypher
@@ratherbyexploring4898 No, the place is called vertical escape. It's a climbing gym in southern indiana with a small store front of gear.
Cypher's gear is great. Been using it since it came out.
Id like to see you break some side loaded aluminum and steel triple locking carabiners to mimick the way tree guys and tower climbers will choke a round object and sideload a carabiner
I believe he already did an episode with levered biners
I second the tree sideload.
@@Taintedgod771 yeah but he was using non lockers in a vertical configuration and stacking them on top of each other.
@@jackberdine ua-cam.com/video/buNotkWWLHg/v-deo.html
Aluminum wire gates over what was essentially a 90degree aluminum edge.
@Joshua R always have climbing carabiners and rigging carabiners. No reason you should need to use that as a climbing carabiner.
I worked for DMM the dies on the machines are so cool
What's your favorite carabiner and why???
Wire gate: camp photon; narrow nose, extremely light and the throw action is phenomenal. It's like it opens at an exponential rate making clipping easy.
Edit: ohhhh noooo.
Rock Exotica makes the best locking biners, the Pirate and RockO are exquisite. You think a carabiner is just a carabiner until you feel the action on these
Black Diamond Hot Forge because they are black
The one keeping me from dying
@@brainycheddar So all of them?
Kind of interesting, doing the test this way actually tests even more than just ultimate strength, it tests strength over repeated near-maximal loading (along with some intense smacking around, microfracture myth be damned lol), which might even be a more useful measure of a carabiner's strength and overall durability.
Given the results, I'm digging the Black Diamond Litewire, it stayed pretty functional after being heavily loaded 8 or so times, pretty impressive!
Absolutely agree. It would be interested to know if the neighbors to the one that failed suffer more stress vs one right at the rope.
Also, it's entirely possible there's variation between batches of the same companies product based on variation in raw material etc, so if you were to repeat this experiment again, you might get a slightly different ranking.
@@fgbhrl4907 I wouldn't think so on first thought, because I'm pretty sure the failure results in an abrupt deloading, not a spike in force, but I wouldn't say it's impossible.
I think you're probably right, probably depends on the degree of variance in strength, I'd still bet on that Austrian made locker lol
We're kinda getting into the minutia there though haha I just can't believe that the Austrian-made locker still functioned after all that abuse
won't all of the stress go into the middle of the chain? making it an unequal and unfair test
A neat observation about how these fail. The most important feature of a carabiner is that it stays closed when loaded so it holds max strength. Some design thought that has to go into the geometry and how if flexes as it gets loaded. Ideally you want the nose of the gate to get pushed into the latch as it flexes. You can see the red biner doing that here. 6:03 Then you have a good example of one not doing that here. 9:07 The load causes the nose to move the other way and pops the gait open.
Used quite a bit of cypher gear over the years and have been surprised at how satisfied I have been with them. Definitely a bit of a slept on brand.
I knew the team that had one of the earliest failures from this phenomenon, in the mid-1980's, when an oval biner broke during a moderately long sport fall. As most biners fail first at the gate notch or pin, theirs had the spine break and the gate junction was not broken. One thesis was that the biner did not just get knocked against the rock, because think about it - that would only open it at the moment of first impact of the slack taken up, not the subsequent full loading a split second later, at which point the biner gate might have swung closed. They ruled out the gate being held open against the rock, and theorized the rope stretching under increasing tension thru the biner caused oscillating vibration, which "fluttered" the gate open and closed rapidly. I haven't seen a thorough study of the concept; one flaw in it is that most biners flex enough to lock closed under fall loads via the notch or keyed gate design, and so aren't supposed to end up opening in a free-hanging fall situation.
Would you ever test arborist gear? Ex Notch rope runner pro or Singing Rock akimbo or unicender? Would love to know the KN a Rope runner slips at. Great vid love the content
I second this. I'm a line clearance arborist and myself and many coworkers watch these videos. I suspect you have more arborist viewers than you think.
If you check out the Nugreen Store UA-cam page they’ve done those exact tests. Idk about the Uni but the runner for sure
@@ryanrevoir137 I couldn’t find any test. Do you mind linking the video/stats?
MJB he would do it if you sent him the gear to be tested. He did it before. Just ask nicely.
I’ve retired carabiners from dropping them up high. Is that necessary?
Been using Black diamond carabiners for years and love them.
Ryan you are an inspiration and provide not only answers but proof to the questions no one asks and for that we love you brother!
Don't tell anyone but I climb trees, mountains and buildings and it's difficult to comply with all the regulations across these disciplines since many are mutually exclusive. I am a human and have been known to make errors yet I'm still alive because the equipment is "Super good enough"!
To all my fellow climbers from all disciplines it is my considerable experience that "CONFIDENCE" is the most important bit of equipment you need! Followed by "CHALK"
Love and peace you to all.
Most of the Karabiners that were connected to the quick link broke mainly because the quick link doesn't stretch and therefore doesn't give any force absorption, where as the Karabiners attached to another Karabiner are both equally stretching and helping each other to absorb the force. The ones attached to the quick link don't have that extra help from the next link in the chain absorbing some of the force through its stretch.
Having worked in a lifting & rigging sales and manufacturing company for over 20+ years. if we were to break test a failed crane rope or other product, we would usually cut out 3-5 good sections of rope and make up 3-5 slings of the same length and break test all 3-5 to get an ABF (average Breaking Force). and use this on the report back to the customer. (keep in mind MBF (minimum Breaking force) is the lowest recorded breaking force result that the manufacturer got during their testing results and their product is more than likely going to exceed this almost every time unless there was a fault with the manufacturing process.
Also most of the karabiners broke at the top (notched) end because, when a chain link stretches and breaks it goes from being an oval shape to a figure 8 shape (it pinches inwards in the middle). with these Karabiners the wire gate wont bend inwards and instead pulls the notched part of the Karabiner body inwards which puts excessive stress at the nearest bend. you can see this very well when the Black diamond broke @ 16:05.
Comment, liked, subscribed, trolled.
This was way more entertaining then I thought looking at the thumbnail.
You should be able to compare the breakage sites to get an idea of how they're made. In theory, forged biners should be stronger than cast and tempered and cast with tempering should be stronger than just cast ones.
100% NOT true, but generally done as you described for economic reasons due to QC. "Casting" gets a bad rap because mass manufacturing generally speaking uses MUCH easier to cast alloys which flow better and are also CHEAPER with lower tensile strength etc. No reason one could not use the 7075 alloy as a cast process. Now there are several problems with doing so and it is more than likely forging is the cheaper option regarding QC(quality control). The problem are voids, surface roughness(initial crack propagation sites), but that can be taken care of in other ways as well, but requires machining and even a forging after the fact. And if you have to final forge it anyways... All, will have to be heat treated to desired spec for toughness vrs tensile strength.
All of these carabiners are hot-forged.
@@mountainmandoug Yup, easier/cheaper to get a consistent smooth finish with few voids --> AKA stress risers using a forging process than a cast/molded one. Even if the total processing time is increased compared to cast.
What?
Hey: a suggestion. Break-test Amazon carabiners. Usually, these carabiners are "not for climbing" although the merchant often forgets to put that in the listing. Now I'm seeing cheap chinese carabiners on Amazon that are "UIAA certified" and they even show a certificate claiming to prove it. In addition, these carabiners have thousands of reviews and a 5-star rating, so most people seem to think they are ok.
Now these biners are 'certified' to perform up to spec, but do they actually? Manufacturing requires a consistency in materials and process, and if it's sub-par, you might find that some biners stand up, but others might break below the MBS.
These biners are not super-cheap. Lockers run $7 vs. a name-brand locker about $10. So we might assume they use good materials, and the only difference is the slightly cheaper chinese labor. Maybe.
I probably wouldn't buy them, even if you broke some and showed that they can stand up. But I'd really like to see some detailed break-testing of these UIAA-certified carabiners now on Amazon
Do a search. we have done several videos on Amazon carabiners.
All my rack carabiniers are cypher. Got em on pro deal from liberty mountain a while ago. They were pretty cheap. I've noticed they look exactly like the trango wire gate.
Little secret the industry won’t tell you, many of those carabiners look similar because different companies, especially the smaller ones, order from the same factory. Cypher and trango biners come from the same manufacturer in Taiwan.
Loved, loved, loved this test!!! As a newbie, I've been hesitant to buy wire gated carabiners. This video gives me that knowledge and slays that gear fear!! THANK YOU!!!!
So this is a fast edit. It was super good enough.
And well done on the entertainment part. Nice to have more people in it when it is less serious. I gives a vibe of goofing around in a garage with friends.
I see a big trend of them breaking at the quicklink
Yes! That is was I observed as well. Redo the same test with a steel carabiner instead of a quicklink
I made the same observation. perhaps run the test with quicklinks between each carabiner to have a consistent contact surface.
Hearing Ryan said "Camp Photon.. My favorite" made my day :D .. my whole set of multipurpose quickdraw is made of theses bad boyz .. it conforted even more my choice
Me too... my go to drawers cause they are light and nice to handle, although I run solid gates on the pro side cause in Australia we still have some old school routes that use removable bolt plates, the plate can come off if a wire gate is used😬
Now do this with the locking (screw, auto, etc.) carabiners. I wonder how well the auto locking ones hold up.
I'd definitely like to see autos
Including twin gates would be cool here although Grivel does give them a higher mbs
I def want to see different types of locks, also some belay specific ones would be cool to see
I'd like to know how long the gates function well. What if one got stuck locked, that could be a big problem.
At my age a step ladder is scary, but I subscribed because you guys look like you're having fun and obviously insane to do what you do and not get paid to do it. Totally incidentally, I think I learned something.
I have a carabiner in the shape of CALIFORNIA which I hang my KEYS on my purse😋
I'd have a hard time finding them a y other way
Epic mad professor expression/flinch at 12:48 from behind the computer shielding.
Quality Jenks content 👍
I've been using Fusion Climb triple lock carabiners for rigging heavy wood(obviously I do tree work), and I've shock loaded them well past their WLL and still haven't broken any.
Love the vids dude, keep "climbing" these UA-cam rungs pal, you're on a mission!
Yo dude, could you please drop test a girth X circa BlissClimbing's Feb 26, 2021 video.
I could be wrong but I think the slip from a girth X could potentially avoid catastrophic peak force, and I feel a good use would be in a lead solo anchor where I personally would be all kinds of nervous about peak force in a whipper.
If you decide to run this test please try both a single girth x and a double girth X to see the how they behave.
Will the slip of the girth X decelerate enough so that a fall that would normally snap a static sling would instead slow and stop with a
actually working on this with a few people. nice to see a request for it
That was fun. Thanks for the bonus content at the end. (BD ftw)
Singing Rock is relatively well known (at least in Europe) gear brand from Czech republic... A lot of their gear - crampons, ice axes - are more or less clones of Petzl designs, but they're very well made and great value.
Good to know!
@@HowNOT2 Yeah. I use their gear mostly because the company manufactures their soft goods in the same valley my family comes from. Ocún is another Czech brand that makes awesome stuff.
I call this the M&M test.
Open a bag of m&m and press 2 together in between your fingers.
Winner mover on to next round, loser gets eaten.
See how many rounds one particular m&m can make it.
You definitely need to make more tournaments and send the last item standing back to the manufacturer for breeding purposes. ;-)
Everyone missing the fact that the silver carabiners left and right of the testing rig are the absolute top tier :D
You guys crack me up!🤣 I would enjoy this even if I wasn’t into climbing.
I lowkey got into climbing *because* is of this channel. Randomly found the GGBY space net videos and was absolutely captivated. I understood next to nothing; all I knew was "oo pretty colours, I want one!"
Fine, ill subscribe. I been watching these videos for a while now😂
Maybe a funky carabiner to test are the double wiregate carabiners from grivel.
This is the content the internet was made for
my best guess is that these would be drop forged while hot they are sequentially shaped using wighted dies that are dropped onto the metal which makes the outer form without compromising the internal structure of the part
For sale: 12 Camp Photon wiregates
Will accept trades for cypher, bd or grivel wiregates
It would be really cool if you guys went climbing and only racked one brand per person then did a face off at the end to see usefulness vs strength.
I love litewires because they are simple, lots of colours and easy to get your hands on for a good price since they are on sale often.
I know the heliums, contrary to their name, are pretty heavy but they have a fantastic shape and action and I love having a few draws with them. Especially if you are working with gloves on!
I'd like to see you guys do some testing on some fall protection OSHA, MSHA type safety gear you'll find on a industrial job site. Mite be a neat comparison to more sport and arborist kind of gear. Thanks for all your hard work.
I know nothing about carabiners, climbing gear or hell I've never ever gone climbing in my life, but somehow this got in my recommended and it was very enjoyable to see things break.
I'd really like to see static and dynamic loads on Home Depot rope. I bought some rope there recently. While gathering it in a butterfly coil, someone thought I was actually going to use it to climb.
I felt bad for you, so I subscribed
I think a more scientific test would be 3 of each brand and put them one by one in the machine. It probably isn't as fun but it would be actually very useful.
Check out the channel bunch of other break videos, great channel and I’m not even a climber
They've likely already tested them in isolation, they've literally tested hundreds of carabiners over the years, this video is more for fun
Found the DMM fan hehe.
@@rninness what is DMM, I only get devices to measure current?
Makes me feel real good about my Cypher quickdraws.
This test is stupid.
I like stupid things.
I like this test!
None of these results are really useful, but I would enjoy see other types of gears! Thanks for the video!
Idc what you say, that cyhper making it to 31.5 after being pulled past 20 6 or 7 times was insane. That thing could lift an entire truck
This was a fun test!! Hahah Thanks for the “sciencetainment”
The last one was so hard to watch. He earned another day in my eyes. RIP. 🙏
14:16 shots fired!😆👍🏽💪🏽🤙🏽
Thank you guys)
Loving the carabiner death match... such a epic idea...
All of my cams are racked on the cyphers, so this pleases me. They really are a great balance of qualities, especially when you're buying a ton of them. I believe they're pretty much the same as the Trango, but branded differently.
Love this. Definitely one of your most entertaining tests to date. I loved everyone rooting for “their” biner.
This is excellent. As anyone done this before and if not why not .
I'm a boulderer and I love this channel.
Greatly appreciate the humorous and concise informative videos you spend the time to make for us all.
Here I was just clicking on a gear testing video when to my surprise, there's Brent Roth! That guy's great.
Hardening is a magical beast. I'm sure you could make all these carabiners with the same aluminium but they are hardened differently and break with different stats
thank you!!!
Honestly surprised this wasn't a video topic years ago!
Best episode of 2022!
I've once had a wire gate open when I fell on it, since it slid along the rock, and the wire gates stick out further than the body of the caribena. Due to this shape it was then pinned open by the rock, and I had to reach up and push it shut whilst hanging on the rope beneath it. Due to this experience, I tend to go for solid gates, as I don't think their shape would be as susceptible to this
Who cares if it right or wrong it’s fun to watch. 😂
You rock! Thanks
Great video!! My favorite has more to do with safety, I like the black diamond with the red paint under the screw gate so you can visually see it’s closed and yes I also physically check as well
You guys should do a quick break test of the core of a rope vs the sheath. Not that I’m ever climbing on only one or the other, but it’s frickin fun to watch stuff break.
notice the ones closest to the rope are breaking first in sucsetion
ayy I Like the trango ones too
The ones at the end of test are extra impressive after being stressed that many times and still performing up to the standard.
TRANGO VINDICATION!!! Alone among my friends do I stand by Trango wiregates in the strength/weight/dollar ratio. I did not expect it to win, but I love that it made it into the top three. What a beast.
Just when i thought i couldn't love BD litewires much more than I already do. I have a few petzl bent gates to try in my draws, but I just don't love the feel of them when clipping, so they tend to just hang my shoes on my gear wall now.
Getting lower numbers means they’re getting weaker, but it’s also a good test showing what they can handle not just once when brand new but after repeated stress when used
Great video! As Ryan says clearly in this video about the carabiners "they all break (at) three times higher than you need them to be." As long long as you avoid really stupid situations (factor 2 falls, climbing above anchors on static rope/cord, etc. etc.) - "real world" forces never approach anything near the forces required to break most gear. And I'm sure you also know this, but it's worth quoting THE best book on climbing anchors by Bob Gaines & John Long: "Chris Harmston, Black Diamond's quality assurance manager reviewed field failures of climbing gear for eight years... never saw a stopper rated at over 10kN fail... this is telling because a BD stopper is among the most commonly used protection device in all trad climbing... it's a sure bet that forces of over 10kN have never been logged on any rock climb... and that actual forces of factor 2 falls are likely to be less than even (Craig) Connally's high-end figure of 8.5kN". Connally's book "The Mountaineering Handbook" is another must-have, with plenty of high-end mathematical & physical force data. Only point I'm adding (and Ryan acknowledges) is the reminder that all certified gear is stronger than you'll ever be able to put excessive forces upon (note: I'm not talking about bad gear placements that pull out, cross loading 'biners on rock edges, cutting your ropes or slings on sharp edges, or other "improper" usage of gear...)
Wanted to watch something on Netflix this evening, ended up watching the carabiner showdown instead! 🙂
Awesome!
For me its about the feel of the carabiner, it it easy to use? Fit your hands well? The metallurgical side of this experiment is that you are work hardening everything and that subsequent Carabieners break at higher loads. It would be interesting to see how a new carabieners would compare in an individual break test from the same companies.
Super interesting to see the results of the test after taking them to such high forces repeatedly. Would be very interested to hear if fusion is actually certified. Thanks for all the edutainment.
As an encore, you guys should break a new version of the winner again by itself to see what the results look like
I'm a stagehand rigger. I love black diamonds. Thanks for this video. Do twist locking gates next please
16:50 fun fact, Many historians actually think that thumbs down actually means to spare the fighters life, thumbs up meant to end their life. The director knew this but thought that doing this historically correct would confuse to many people since everyone thinks it's works the other way around. A theory is that the thumbs down may have actually meant to lower your sword thus to spare their life and a thumbs up mimicked a sword stab or thrust of some kind.
I would love to see the SlowMo Guys and/or Destin from Smarter Everyday take some high-speed footage of carabiners/slings pulled to failure.
Very nice funstration test. Great comments you all made about the MBS is not the final decision maker. That said it seems the Cypher ceres II sure is the better buy for a sailor. Jim Rodgers
My fat hands love smooth large gate openings. When the hook-less gate design was invented, the world of clipping just felt so much easier to manage. The Petzl Spirit is my biner of choice for standard function. I now have the Petzl Angle L for sport draws and prefer the larger of the two sizes. BD wires are another favorite.
Wire gates are certainly awesome but they are more consumable than standard biners. It's also worth noting is how rope wear affects the shape and diameter of the (light) carbiner stock. Back in the 90's when the first super light Helium biners were introduced, the rope would very quickly would carve grooves in the "T" stock and create sharp knife edges for the rope to glide over. Many of these were later recalled for that reason. I've seen many ropes sliced on the sharp edges of a warn biner. Most of the light biners these days are much more round in the center, but wear patterns are still something to keep an eye out for.
Edutainment … love it.
Awesome, just yesterday I was looking if you had done a break test on the petzl Ange.
And now it lands right here in my lap!
What’s more is it’s even the first to break so I don’t have to sit through all the other ones, how considerate of you.
World's first carabiner Battle Royale lmao
Fun stuff. Thanks.
I'm a big fan of DMM gear in general. I like the DMM Chimera for sport climbing. I use a DMM Shadow solid gate on the bolt and the Chimera for the rope end. Basically I organize my stuff that solid gates get attached to hard goods and wire gates attached to soft goods.
Cypher have been my go to carabiners for a while. It helps I have a hook up for Liberty Mountain wholesale pricing.
It’s funny to hear you’ve never heard of Singing Rock, since they make my favourite harness, and are also used by several friends.