Hey everyone,I've been climbing on rental equipment for about six months now and I'm looking to invest in the sport rather than sink money.
Im curious to how much weight a warranty holds in climbing.. I have hobbies in other dangerous fields where a "lifetime warranty" doesn't mean anyhing if the product failed and you're dead.
I was debating a Black Diamond (1year) harness as well as Mammut (lifetime) and Petzl.. Which do you feel has the best quality control and which do you feel would live the life of their investment.
How is the customer service?
Potential buy list is currently: Mammut - Ophir 3 or 4 (leaning more on the 3 as I'm not in need of a one size fits most) Black Diamond - Momentum
Black Diamond - ATC guide
Recommendations on optimal carabiners to serve the belay role as well as top belay.
Shoes I'm going to have to shop around.. But what I know is that I have a regular to high arch and I tend to have my feet role a bit in the rental 5.10s which can be quite frustrating.. Anyone have recommendations to mitigate the issue? Size 11/11.5 climbing shoe.
They are all good, reputable companies and their products are anyway to the required CE standard. The warranty lengths are pretty well irrelevant in my opinion, more important is how well the company/distributor handles claims. Having a lifetime guarantee or 3 years or whatever is sort-of meaningless when the roduct life is measured in only a few years anyway. I´ve never looked to see if any of my gear has a warranty but then here in Europe we have other consumer rights which generally override the manufacturers.
one place where it does matter is technical clothing ...
especially in rain shells where delamination is a fairly common issue
certain companies have no questions asked warranties ... MEC, OR, EB ...
others not so much
theres been a quite a few cases here of things like the 1st generation dead bird WARP harness suffering premature wear, and the cam stops coming off the grey and purple metoliuses even from folks who never fell on em, and we now have wires and end caps coming off aliens ..., i can post up all the quotes from MPers whove had these issues if anyone wants to get into senseless arguments
as to "lifetime" ... most companies with "lifetime" warranty do so for the "expected life" of the product, which they can say is however long they want ...
a few exceptional warranties are those that are "lifetime" ... period
the problem with say a 1 year warranty is that you might buy a goretex bib for ice climbing, use it twice in 2 years and then on the 3rd use find its leaking like a sieve even though its been rarely used and well stored
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