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OmegaPacific biners - a word of warning


gordoste

9-Sep-2005
6:11:06 PM

Here's a story that a mate of mine sent through. Thought you all might appreciate the info.

----------------------------------------------------
Having ANOTHER close call (i'm almost starting to wonder if climbing really is for me) I must insist some use/regulation of the use of our club carabiners.
The biner i'm referring to is the large Omega Pacific screw gates, they have a green gate and when opened the deviate slightly from the line of the spine of the biner to allow a larger opening. When closed the biners have a sharp edge on either side of the gate cover which isn't fully covered.
Last night while taking a lead fall in an indoor gym the rope i was using was lying over this sharp edge, and as I weighted the rope the sheath of the rope cut straight through and I was left dangling 2m from the ground with a rope that had 5m of core showing. Essentially the reason i stopped was that the sheath bunched up sufficiently to stop my fall, not because the belay device caught the rope (the core of a rope has NO friction).
As a result of this (practical) discovery, I would request that people DO NOT use these Omega Pacific carabiners for belaying.
This also draws attention to the belay biners that you buy when making your purchase, and things to be aware of when climbing. Make sure there are no sharp edges either on the equipment you use or the route that you're taking, as stripping a rope to the core is a scary event.
------------------------------------------------------

I believe the biner in question is the one shown below from the Omega Pacific website:


Climboholic

9-Sep-2005
6:26:44 PM

Too many stories about ropes being stripped down to the core, first Neil's then yours. This is a possible cause of Neil's exploding rope. What type of biner were you using Neil?

I'd be careful bagging a company's product on second hand info. They mightn't be very happy.

Interesting that so much core (5m) could slip through the sheath and the belay device.


gordoste

9-Sep-2005
9:10:45 PM

Apparently some Queensland Uni of Technology guys did a test... you can see the results here. Scary!


ShinToe Warrior

9-Sep-2005
9:50:52 PM

On 9/09/2005 gordoste wrote:
>Apparently some Queensland Uni of Technology guys did a test... you can
>see the results here. Scary!
>
Looks as if it was some QUT climbing club people, not particularly any kind of study or research.

Quote from one of the QUT people(the one who posted the 'scary' photo):
"mind you who belays with the rope across the gate of their binar?
that is what worries me about the story. where the binar is loaded in the pic is the only place that it can
happen and it only happens when the force is applied at a tangent to the actual gate.
the binar isn't designed to be used that way
to be honest im not too concerned about it"

Sure, there is major rope eating potential when the 'biner is oriented to produce the cross-loading from hell,
which would be bad anyway. Yep, that's it folks, never cross-load your karabiners. If you don't happen to
like one particular screw-gate, just USE SOMETHING ELSE.

rightarmbad

9-Sep-2005
10:34:17 PM

For sale: 4 omega pacific jake screw gates.

bne

9-Sep-2005
11:55:04 PM

We had a similar experience...we were using those biners for a top rope set up when suddenly climber was faced with the view of 2 meters of core!!

seems beaner had rotated and sheath had got caught behind the gate.

patto

9-Sep-2005
11:55:53 PM

I own two of these biners, one of which is my belay biner.

Hmmm.. I have just thoroughly inspected both biners, it took me a while to work out what the problem is. The edges aren't exactly sharp but a loaded roap slipping across the edges could cause trouble.

I have inspected a few other biners and have concluded that the Omega biner is not alone in this issue. In fact the majority of my solid gate crabs (mammut, faders) have this issue. My kong screw gates do not. However what makes the Omega more unique is that due to the sharp angle made at the gate closure point t is possible for the rope to be wedged and loaded across these edges. Whereas most crabs rare likely to rotate and be loaded down the spine.

I do believe that this risk is real, but only could happen if the biner is cross loaded in an unlikely but possible way. I believe that the risk is small. However in climbing we generally don't want even 'small' risk if it can be avoided.

I am going to consider buying a new biner for my belay. Awww, I like this biner, it colour matched my reverso :(

EDIT:
I have just found an oldish DMM screw gate of mine. This screwgate also has simarly rough edges like the omega. So Omega is certainly not the only one with this issue. However the DMM is a D shape screwgate so crossloading is less likely that on the Omega Jake screwgate which is more pear shaped.

patto

10-Sep-2005
12:07:29 AM

A picture is worth a thousand words so here is 2000:

Due to the shape of the biner it is possible for the rope to crossload the biner like this:

Here is the unedited pic so you can see the wedge and the 'sharp' (rough) edges:


Climboholic

10-Sep-2005
12:06:47 PM

I'm convinced.

When I get home I'm going to check all my biners.

Has anyone contacted the manufacturer yet? If not, someone should, they mightn't know there is an issue.

10-Sep-2005
12:15:22 PM

buy a gri gri.


Rich

10-Sep-2005
12:18:28 PM

On 9/09/2005 rightarmbad wrote:
>For sale: 4 omega pacific jake screw gates.

I'll take one off your hands..

hotgemini

10-Sep-2005
1:11:00 PM

Upon receiving the original email I forwarded it to my club (QUT) as a few of our climbers use them as belay biners, two of them (adam and adam) did the 'test' shown in the photos on our forum and commented that "It took about 20 seconds of rubbing, not even using my bodyweight, it goes pretty quick once it starts to go and if it crossloads, that is where it sits"

Oh, the correct link for that thread is http://p084.ezboard.com/fqutcliffhangersfrm7.showMessage?topicID=24.topic

I also emailed Omega Pacific and have received a prompt initial reply looking for telephone contact, will post anything new as it comes to hand.

Regards
Adam (another one)

patto

10-Sep-2005
1:50:36 PM

On 10/09/2005 hotgemini wrote:
>Upon receiving the original email I forwarded it to my club (QUT) as a
>few of our climbers use them as belay biners, two of them (adam and adam)
>did the 'test' shown in the photos on our forum and commented that "It
>took about 20 seconds of rubbing, not even using my bodyweight, it goes
>pretty quick once it starts to go and if it crossloads, that is where it
>sits"
>
>I also emailed Omega Pacific and have received a prompt initial reply
>looking for telephone contact, will post anything new as it comes to hand.
>
>Regards
>Adam (another one)

Thanks for doing some hands on testing and thanks for taking the inititive to email Omega. I had a quick look at the QUT forum and grabbed the pic. It looks scary.

Somebody on the QUT forum questioned how much of a danger this is as the carabiner is unlikely to be loaded like that. Having used this biner I dispute this claim. I have found that this biner does have a habit of rotating while belaying (petzl reverso). I have never had the biner loaded while rotated but given that the biner has a stable crossloaded postion I now find it worrying.

After seeing that pic, I would expect Omega to take this issue seriously.


Rich

10-Sep-2005
1:57:35 PM

has this been tried using other biners?

armyiain

10-Sep-2005
5:14:45 PM

I use one of these as a belay biner too - with a Trango Jaws belay device. It quite often does rotate and become cross loaded - will now use another different biner for belay

citationx

10-Sep-2005
6:20:51 PM

'twas I who had the unfortunate experience, i was going to take photos of the rope and the way it crossloads, and take close photos of what appear to me to be fundamental flaws in the design of the biner.
and for an aside, working at an outdoor store, i checked out the sharp edges on the gates of other brands' biner, and found that they were well rounded, filed back.
Stay tuned for photos and demonstrations of bad design (if you can be arsed waiting - or even care)

-steven-


ShinToe Warrior

10-Sep-2005
6:40:06 PM

Hmmm Me thinks I'll use my OP jake screwgate exclusively for belaying at Hardrock, where the rope
never comes within cooee of the 'biner you clip to your harness. or for Gri Gri use, good point Kent.

Go the DMM belay master with the plastic gate cover!

hotgemini

11-Sep-2005
12:23:03 PM

Just to keep you folk posted, OP are aware of the issue (and the thread) and we should expect a reply once they've finished their preliminary investigation into the issue.

hammok_climber

11-Sep-2005
1:13:48 PM

I don’t mean to add this info in a negative way, but Omega carabiners are made in prison. Not relevant to the design, but any publicity is good publicity right?
Go omega! http://www.washingtonfreepress.org/29/Prison1.html

patto

11-Sep-2005
2:04:37 PM

On 11/09/2005 hammok_climber wrote:
>I don’t mean to add this info in a negative way, but Omega carabiners are
>made in prison. Not relevant to the design, but any publicity is good publicity
>right?
>Go omega! http://www.washingtonfreepress.org/29/Prison1.html
>

I don't think this should turn into an Omega trashing session. There seems to be a issue with one Omega carabiner design. I have faith that Omega will take this seriously and I am hoping for a voluntary recall.

This thread should has been brought to the attention of Omega concerning this issue and so I think it should stick to the issue of this carabiner. Omega like pretty much all equipment manufacturers make CE certified equipment which 99.9% of the time are safe and reliable.

There are 78 messages in this topic.