Would you retire any of these biners

Not sure if I'm being reasonable or paranoid. Although they are old, I suspect they are fine. I am primarily concerned with the wear on #4, but compared to some of the pictures I found on here, I suspect it's fine.

imgur.com/a/Z6Ers

Thanks.

If they are not worn to a sharp edge or been dropped they are fine probably.

They all look good! Just surface scratches, not a big deal. Just as long as your locking biner still works well and there are no sharp edges on the biners. If you're not comfortable using them, consider donating them to a developing crag for new routes.

Your gear looks like a lot of my gear. Lot's of surface scratches. But, I know that none of my gear has taken any big hits. No cat5 falls and no bing bing bing down a mountain.

That being said. Whenever I have a single doubt about gear I replace it. The cost of being wrong is extreme.

If it were me, I'd retire #4.

Mail them to me. I'll ensure they are "retired" properly.

Though I would actually retire #4

I would climb on #4 without much concern if there was a reason to, but I wouldn't keep it on my rack.

In other words, it's almost assuredly fine, but, it's nice to not have to think about it. It could last you for years in about the same state of wear, and every time you used it all those years, you'd need to ask yourself, is it finally time to retire it?

I'd put #4 on permanent bail biner status (from the picture it looks like it's developed a bit of an edge)I'd round it over with some high grit sand paper as well. It might be fine but for a $5 piece of gear I'd rather just reload.

3 is about 20% worn through I would retire it. How old are the last two? Were they fixies for awhile???

SmithVentures wrote:They all look good! Just surface scratches, not a big deal. Just as long as your locking biner still works well and there are no sharp edges on the biners. If you're not comfortable using them, consider donating them to a developing crag for new routes.

i would be fine on all of em as long as theres no sharp edges

#4 is getting there, but it would not be an issue for me personally

now if it was an ibeam that easily gets sharp edges id retire it

;)

scienceguy288 wrote:Not sure if I'm being reasonable or paranoid. Although they are old, I suspect they are fine. I am primarily concerned with the wear on #4, but compared to some of the pictures I found on here, I suspect it's fine. imgur.com/a/Z6Ers Thanks.

I agree with the emerging consensus:

(1) Most of the biners appear to be fine for continued regular use, with only surface scratches and paint worn off. These issues are basically cosmetic. It doesn't matter if they've been dropped - catastrophic microfractures are a myth. (Dropping only matters if there are obvious signs of the impact upon visual inspection, e.g., contorted biner.)

(2) The groove in #4 provides cause for additional concern. This biner probably has lots of reasonably safe miles left in it, but you should watch for developing sharp edges and continued deepening of the groove. Some studies have (somewhat counterintuitively) suggested that small grooves actually strengthen a carabiner, by better aligning the loaded force along the carabiner's spine (Black Diamond's QC lab - as long as the groove isn't sharp!). That being said, I'd totally retire a biner if it got much past about 1/4 or 1/3 grooved (i.e., 1/4 or 1/3 worn out). So, you can get some more use out of #4, but if #4 makes you think about it while you're climbing above, you should just switch it out (perhaps making it a regular-carry occasional-use bail biner, as others have suggested, or selling it to one of the interested parties).

Gear retirement decisions are more art than science sometimes, but the bottom line should always be to recognize the generally small cost (couple dollars in this case) compared with the generally high consequences (up to and including your life). I applaud your approach to crowd-sourcing this decision, as it provides a learning opportunity and discussion point for us all. Happy climbing!

Thanks all!

The surface pitting makes me curious... where have these been used, primarily?

I'd replace them with lighter gear, but that's another issue entirely.

No