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Author

breaking ALDI climbing gear

mikl law

3-Aug-2009
1:53:53 PM

Orange Dave donated these 2 shiny bits of gear, a tube type stitch plate and a big screwgate.
I took the belay device to 32kN, and stopped testing then (worried about breaking my nice 40kN steel biners). I tested it diagonally across the device to try and encourage cracking, but it just deformed, it's probably still usable on a thin rope.
The biner was rated to 24 kN and broke at 26.7 kN.

They both seem pretty good.


evanbb

3-Aug-2009
1:59:25 PM

Wow, that's excellent.

Just to clarify you put a biner through each loop on the belay device? So it would pull the corners apart? Makes sense from the deformation. I suspect the belay device is way over engineered.

widewetandslippery

3-Aug-2009
2:00:29 PM

mikl good work and thank you. Are they still on at aldi?


ado_m

3-Aug-2009
2:03:11 PM

still got receipt? perhaps you can return for some night vision goggles, i think they retail at about $60. ahh...aldi.

olbert

3-Aug-2009
4:27:03 PM

That belay device looks awesome-should patent that shape mikl! I would def buy one of them for the coolness of it

mikl law

3-Aug-2009
5:15:30 PM

On 3/08/2009 evanbb wrote:
>Just to clarify you put a biner through each loop on the belay device?
yes, and pulled in roughly this direction

mikl law

3-Aug-2009
5:17:40 PM

On 3/08/2009 widewetandslippery wrote:
>mikl good work and thank you. Are they still on at aldi?
I don't know, they weren't at ours


Phil Box

3-Aug-2009
5:24:58 PM

If that doesn't prove how malleable alloy gear is then nothing will. Good jorb Mikl.


GravityHound

3-Aug-2009
5:33:37 PM

Apparently belay devices are down to $4.50 at our local aldi. chalk bags are nix as well.

crm114

3-Aug-2009
6:39:09 PM

That is gold.

Thanks for the testing services.

Might have to acquire a few if they do another batch.

mikl law

4-Aug-2009
12:18:53 PM

some pictures of the deformation. The gate seems to behave a bit oddly, but was securely latched during testing.

mikl law

5-Aug-2009
8:34:18 AM

They also had motorcycle helmets for $89, usually $300 to $900. Drills, drills

yosemite05

5-Aug-2009
9:03:45 AM

There are still a dozen or so available at St Mary's Aldi.


Eduardo Slabofvic

5-Aug-2009
4:26:34 PM

What happens when you stuff the belay plate full of cornflakes?


evanbb

6-Aug-2009
9:40:53 AM

Have you ever tested a belay device with a rope through it? So, thread it normally, then tie each end of the rope into the test biners. Been trying to think about when a belay device might experience maximum load, and best I can come up with is a jerky fall on a big abseil.

yankinoz

6-Aug-2009
12:10:16 PM

If a leader falls on the first piece of pro I would think the forces on the belay device would be the same as that on the leader.


evanbb

6-Aug-2009
12:30:03 PM

On 6/08/2009 yankinoz wrote:
>If a leader falls on the first piece of pro I would think the forces on
>the belay device would be the same as that on the leader.

I don't think so. There's friction through the piece and probably some slippage through the device. Maybe a fall straight onto the belay device would be about the same.

gfdonc

6-Aug-2009
12:30:20 PM

YankinOz wrote:
>If a leader falls on the first piece of pro I would think the forces on the belay device would be the same as that on the leader.

I'm no engineer, but I wager that's not the case.

Firstly the force on the belay isn't the same as that on the leader, because of friction through the runner system which reduces the force, as well as the dynamic nature of the rope.

Secondly the force on the belay is mostly on the carabiner that the rope is passing around. The belay device is being subjected to enough force to introduce friction into the rope, not directly being pulled by the fall - assuming of course an ATC-style plate, rather than a figure-8 where the device is directly being loaded.

The force on the exit side of the plate is going to be somewhat limited by how hard you are holding the rope. Reckon you can pull 10kN one-handed?

Now time for the real engineers to join the debate ..

One Day Hero

6-Aug-2009
12:49:18 PM

If you're spending a lot of time worrying about your belay device blowing up, you will probably miss one of the things which can actually happen to cause you harm in climbing.


evanbb

6-Aug-2009
12:53:21 PM

On 6/08/2009 One Day Hero wrote:
>If you're spending a lot of time worrying about your belay device blowing
>up, you will probably miss one of the things which can actually happen
>to cause you harm in climbing.

Oh, I'm not actually worried about it blowing up. Mikl's test pretty accurately showed that they can cope with a butt load of force. I was mostly wondering how much they are over engineered by.

There are 44 messages in this topic.