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Lifespan of a carabiner

The Gymp

10/12/2010
8:34:10 AM

What's the lifespan of a carabiner? I mean I've got some biners kicking around from the mid '80's (alloy Kong & Cassin) that have been treated well, but I was wondering if there were any experts out there who can tell me what happens to these things over time? Do I need to retire them?

Sorry if the topics been done to death, but I couldn't find it on a search.

mikllaw

10/12/2010
8:47:55 AM

when the gate doesn't work reliably, turf it

Older fat biners are pretty good, some of the early lightweights were not very strong ( I tested some Camp biners that broke at half their rated strength).

Most Al alloys actually get stronger with age as precipitation hardening occurs- it has silicon which is very insoluable at room temps, but more so at higher temperatures. It's cooled quickly and is supersaturated, then heated gently and it comes out as fine perticles which strengthen it a lot by pinning dislocations. This continues for a long time. overheating it (I don't know how much, maybe 100C for an hour, or 50C for a month) might overage it and start to reduce the strength

The Gymp

10/12/2010
9:57:31 AM

Thanks Mikllaw.

Winston Smith

10/12/2010
10:02:17 AM

Carabiners live longer in captivity than in the wild. In fact you rarely see them in the wild nowadays.

skink

10/12/2010
11:08:59 AM

Something to lookout for with old biners:

http://www.chockstone.org/Forum/Forum.asp?Action=DisplayTopic&ForumID=6&MessageID=9001&Replies=1

mikllaw

10/12/2010
12:00:30 PM

On 10/12/2010 davidn wrote:
>Don't most gates last for something like 1-2 million clicks?

yes,

Sticking gates are a real issue, damage / wear / corrosion may mean they don't fully close, and then their strength is down to about 6-7 kN.

Edward Oslabofvic

10/12/2010
12:18:14 PM

Through your destructive testing, have you noticed anything with keyway gates?

mikllaw

10/12/2010
1:23:10 PM

no, but I have unintensionally (nyuk, nyuk) broken about 6 biners when the gates have pushed open

widewetandslippery

10/12/2010
2:11:30 PM

I've only seen one biner brake whilst belaying a FA attempt of a new route. The leader mentond the draw sat shitty on such and such a bolt and that was where the hard bit was blah blah blah. Anyway the draw sat over a rib. He fell. crab snaped. In such a circumstance would of a lock gate decreased the likelyhood of said biner going bang?

davepalethorpe

10/12/2010
2:55:45 PM

On 10/12/2010 widewetandslippery

> In such a circumstance would of a lock gate decreased
>the likelyhood of said biner going bang?

I would presume that it would depend on whether said biner failed due to the gate being forced open (then yes), or due to the spine being cross loaded (then no).

dave h.

10/12/2010
3:38:24 PM

On 10/12/2010 davepalethorpe wrote:
>On 10/12/2010 widewetandslippery
>
>> In such a circumstance would of a lock gate decreased
>>the likelyhood of said biner going bang?
>
>I would presume that it would depend on whether said biner failed due
>to the gate being forced open (then yes), or due to the spine being cross
>loaded (then no).

I remember hearing about an incident where a (novice) kid abseiling with a fig 8 died - the fig 8 & carabiner became oriented such that the fig 8 applied force to the locking sleeve, which was done up. The force was sufficient to push the screwgate's nose through the locking sleeve, which allowed the gate to open and the fig8 to become disconnected from the biner.

Could a similar locking sleeve failure happen here?

Samuel

10/12/2010
10:50:47 PM

I will offer a 6 pack and biner to any one that wants to confirm this.

(Clicking must be done by hand, for the sake of realism. Any use of machinery voids the offer).

IdratherbeclimbingM9

10/12/2010
10:57:07 PM

On 10/12/2010 mikllaw wrote:
>Older fat biners are pretty good, some of the early lightweights were
>not very strong ( I tested some Camp biners that broke at half their rated
>strength).
>
>Most Al alloys actually get stronger with age as precipitation hardening
>occurs-(snip)

~> then my gear is good for a few years yet!
Heh, heh, heh.

Hey mikl, have you tested any old Camp fat-krabs, ie aside from the 'lightweights'?
... If so, how did they go?

There are 13 messages in this topic.