Will a steel carabiner damage an aluminum belay device?

I have an Edelrid HMS Bruce steel carabiner for use with my Mega Jul. Since it has a keeper loop to prevent cross-loading, I'd like to use it with my DMM Pivot as well. I'm just worried that it might groove the Pivot. Has anybody here used a steel carabiner with an aluminum tuber? Any problems?

eventually it will start to wear at your pivot, it will take ages but it will happen eventually, just get the aluminium version.

The camp I work at commonly uses steel biners with aluminum tubes and has no issues. Extremely minimal wear, if any.

You can use a steel biner with an aluminum belay device if you want. Technically steel is harder than aluminum, but that really has no practical application here. You'll never wear down the belay device solely by using a steel biner.

I'm getting a Mega Jul to go with my Metolius stainless locker. It's primarily to reduce the extreme wear the sandy local crags are causing on my aluminum lockers. This is then coating my ropes each time out and it's ending up all over my hands and clothing. You might consider pairing your steel belay devices with steel lockers just to cut down on wear as well. I never had this problem in primarily limestone or granite areas, but soft sandstone is horrible.

I was under the impression that steel was avoided (unless necessary) due to the microfragments that end up in your rope.

Having steel abrasive dust running over your other aluminum gear is going to wear it far faster than aluminum dust.

Not sure where I picked that up..

windexxx wrote:I was under the impression that steel was avoided (unless necessary) due to the microfragments that end up in your rope. Having steel abrasive dust running over your other aluminum gear is going to wear it far faster than aluminum dust. Not sure where I picked that up..

windexxx wrote:I was under the impression that steel was avoided (unless necessary) due to the microfragments that end up in your rope. Having steel abrasive dust running over your other aluminum gear is going to wear it far faster than aluminum dust. Not sure where I picked that up..

Somebody better tell the military that it's not good to mix nylon and steel.

I've been using a steel biner with my ATC for four years. No wear noticeable on the ATC where it hits the biner when it catches a fall, all the wear is from the rope running against the tube or from getting scratched when I bang it against things as I climb with it clipped to a gear loop.

That doesn't mean your pivot won't get damaged, but at least for an ATC there is no issue.

windexxx wrote:I was under the impression that steel was avoided (unless necessary) due to the microfragments that end up in your rope. Having steel abrasive dust running over your other aluminum gear is going to wear it far faster than aluminum dust. Not sure where I picked that up..

Ray Pinpillage wrote: Aluminum oxide is more abrasive than iron oxide.