Paid for 70M only got 65, watch out!

Here the story. In the last year I have bought 3, 70M ropes that have all been measured out, by both me and the manufacturer, as being SHORT! Each was between 65-67M.
They are being replaced.

I know of 6 additional that have been measured in the 65M range and are currently being inspected by the manufacturer.

I am posting this up to let folks know that if you are going to be making rope stretching rappels make sure that your cord is the true length you think it is.

I am not going to discuss which maker it is as they are currently investigating the depth of the problem and making decisions on how to proceed.

It is a top tier company.

Good Luck out there.

Why not give the name of the company? I think this falls into the same line as if you had a cam fail and not giving the name of the company.

This is seriously useless unless you give the brand name.

From what I understand, the rope lengths are measured with a certain amount of weight on them (the amount of weight hung varies by manufacturer if I remember correctly). I can try to verify with my buddy who used to work for sterling but I'm pretty sure that is the case.

The information is not useless.
If you are going to the ends of your rope then I would suggest checking it first.
If you bought a 70 for your local 50 footer than it doesn't matter.

I was told the same thing about weights. Ropes are weighed, not measured as a day to day quality control it seems.

I don't want to start a MP flamefest and want to give the company time to address the issue as they see fit.

I am on the side of posting the name and their response ... after giving them a couple weeks. If they are a top tier company, it shouldn't take them long to decide what they are going to do if anything.

^^^^^
Agreed.

I had a similar thing happen this year, but not sure it was due to measure by weight. I purchased an 80m bipattern rope. the first weekend I had it out, I used it on a very long route. When i set the rope to rappel, on the middle mark, the change of pattern, it was 5m off on one side. after measuring against other 70m ropes I found that the short side was intact only 35m not 40m. I called the company and they were happy to replace it.

Like mentioned earlier, if you are not using the full length, it doesn't really matter but if you are a good practice to get into is measure the rope when you first uncoil it. this will also give you a reason to stretch it, which help keep it kink free.

Or you could just never assume your rope is long enough.

I don't get this holding the name of the manufacturer back thing. If this is purely a warrantee issue, then sure, we wait to see how it gets handled. But this is a potential safety issue, you would try to narrow down the defective products that's already out there ASAP.

Asking everyone to check the length of all their ropes is much more easily ignored than asking people to check the length of a particular brand of rope.

UIAA june 2014

;)

GregD,
Agreed. Personal responsibility is key. But it would seem that the length of a rope should be a non-issue in the gear world. Not unlike pull-tested biners or rated breaking strength of slings.

As for not outing the company.
I own a business and online reputation is a large part of how we gain customers and do business. Managing that, honestly, is a huge pain in the ass. Anyone with a key board and a few minutes can say anything. True or untrue, relevant or irrelevant it doesn't matter but it all needs to be addressed.

For now I am opting to deal with this the way I hope that our customers sometimes do, respectfully and with the owner or company.

Bottom line is that I do not wish to throw someone that provides us equipment under the bus. Airing out issues in cyberspace often isn't the best approach.

Lastly,
I measured my ropes with a tape, then pulled thorough two different rope measuring meters and finally the company confirmed that they were short.

reboot wrote:I don't get this holding the name of the manufacturer back thing. If this is purely a warrantee issue, then sure, we wait to see how it gets handled. But this is a potential safety issue, you would try to narrow down the defective products that's already out there ASAP. Asking everyone to check the length of all their ropes is much more easily ignored than asking people to check the length of a particular brand of rope.

Yup.

cdec wrote:The information is not useless. If you are going to the ends of your rope then I would suggest checking it first. If you bought a 70 for your local 50 footer than it doesn't matter. I was told the same thing about weights. Ropes are weighed, not measured as a day to day quality control it seems. I don't want to start a MP flamefest and want to give the company time to address the issue as they see fit.

Samples are weighed for QC but lengths are measured with the rope weighted. If the rope length changed but the weight stayed the same there is likely variation in the material or the weave.

Thanks for the info OP.

I wouldn't say this is useless information at all, simply because a manufacturer isn't named. It's a good heads up that you shouldn't count on a rope being its supposed length, something we should do anyway, but also something that could get lost in the mix of ways you could die out there. The example that comes to mind is when somebody tells you: oh yeah a 70m will reach. We've all heard that. And I think most of us assume it's true, for our 70m. Now that alone won't do you in, you've still gotta not tie end knots, not pay attention when you get near the end, actually trust whoever said that, but it's one weak link in the chain.

Now everybody can store this away on their little list of shit that could go wrong, or review it, if they were smart enough to already have it there.

I wouldn't be happy to get a rope shorter than advertised, but if you tie knots in your rope ends while rappelling (which you should always do) and have a way to ascend the rope (I almost always have a prusik on me...a spare sling will work), it shouldn't be dangerous.

Yeah, this happens. It's a good idea to measure your new rope right away and avoid a possible problem later.

In all seriousness, what method do you all use to measure your ropes?

cdec wrote:Anyone with a key board and a few minutes can say anything. True or untrue, relevant or irrelevant it doesn't matter but it all needs to be addressed.

Anyone can and you have. If this is 9 ropes total over a year timespan, it would be hard to argue it was a mistake on the part of the manufacture and not company practice, as ropes would have come from different batches etc. "Investigating the depth of the problem" sounds to be like they are wondering if they should change there practice or if there won't be enough blow back to do so. It really is a shame, but you're doing consumers, climbers and generally people who risk their lives with this companies gear zero service here at all. Consumer protection is about having the information to make an informed choice on where you spend your hard earned money, no company would change its practice without a reason to do so. Without making this "top tier" company public I don't see a reason for them to do so.

Cdec, a year from now will you buy one of their ropes again? And what would your response be then if it was again short?

RoughneckNine0 wrote:In all seriousness, what method do you all use to measure your ropes?

Take the two ends and fold them to the center, then measure

Eric Fernandez wrote:"Investigating the depth of the problem" sounds to be like they are wondering if they should change there practice or if there won't be enough blow back to do so. Cdec, a year from now will you buy one of their ropes again? And what would your response be then if it was again short?

No me thinks this means that they are "investigating the depth of the problem" plain and simple. Takes a bit of time. They are looking at the other ropes now and talking with the manufacturing facility. Selling short ropes is not something that any manufacturer wants to do. They do not need Internet pressure to do the right thing and sell quality gear. No one or company is infallible

This all cropped up last week when I came up short on a rope stretching 35M rappel. I didn't think much about it other than the comments on the route were off. I mentioned it to a buddy and he asked me what kind of rope it was. I told him and he let me know that he had a bunch of short ones too.
The next 4 days I had my ropes inspected, a confirmation that they were short and new ones on the way with a promise that the problem, if still an issue, would be corrected ASAP.
In short less than a week has gone by.

New ropes are on the way. I will measure them for sure. If these are short I will seriously rethink who's ropes I use in the future.

+1 for going to climbing store and pulling through a meter. If this isn't an option use a tape and measure out 30 feet/10M, lay the rope out (with the tightest bends you can make) and get 7 legs.