Last weekend we went and visited a friend who is a wine maker (and a climber).

On the back of his forklift I found two 'busted' quickdraws. I asked about them and it wasn't exactly clear what they were using the draws for, but sure enough the lifting weight would have been in excess of 2500kg because one of the biners broke and the rest are stretched and busted.

I confiscated his quickdraws sighting a very nasty accident (he was still keen on using them ) and replaced them with a steel triangular Mailon (4500kg load limit).

What I find interesting is that the nylon material appears to be a lot stronger than the carabiners! The quickdraws are from 1993 and 1994 - that makes the material and biners 18 years old - the DMM biners take a load of 2500KN (more than most quickdraw biners)!

*Note: These quickdraws were abused in a non climbing environment

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Climb ZA - Administrator

and a damn good wime maker at that only 4 bottles left, and it's not going to last.

I wonder if manufacturers underrate the nylon to compensate for UV damage? Very interesting.
Could.
Be.

MICROFRACTURES!

Not the MICROFRACTURES
Pierre - Knowing our friend and the guys who work in the cellar I can say with conviction that they simply took the equipment beyond its specified capabilities.
Glad you're enjoying the wine - I need to tell you that some climbing equipment was hurt in the making of it

The UIAA says UV does not damage Nylon...
"UV radiation does NOT damage ropes. Nylon is UV stabilised and only the colour will be lost."

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Climb ZA - Administrator