carabiners for ice screws

Like your opinion on DMM vault: https://dmmclimbing.com/Products/Winter/Vault-Wire-Gate
DAM vaults . Are they worth the price?
And it comes in 2 flavours a wiregate and a locking gate. What s your preference? Just seems like the locking one seems harder to put the ice screw in and out as the tightening knob will look like it'll get in the way.
Also, any other brands out there that sell non plastic types?
Finally, why can't I just use a plain ol biner?

Grivel makes a carabiner specifically for carrying ice screws, it's also a fully rated carabiner - 20$
Simond sells a double carabiner rack that works pretty well, though it's not rated as a biner - 25$
The DMM and Rock Exotica biners are nice, if a bit overkill+++$$
Ages ago Cold Thistle made a nice simple racking biner- good luck finding one of these.
Finally, yes, you can use a regular biner, you can fix them onto your harness with Black(!) tiewraps ,keylocks work the best, plus you always have an extra biner

Looks like it is specific to their harnesses. I do not like the need to use a screw to secure it to the harness. If the screw comes undone, the hinge being on the bottom means the biner could slide out whereas if the hinge was at the top it would at least continue rest on the patch. People used regular biners for years.

They're 100% great. Compatible with any harness with ice clipper slots. The thoughts about the screw coming undone are completely unfounded. The real hazard are the crap plastic screw holders: Poll how many people have ripped one off or dropped tools or screws.

The locking Vault seems more of a hassle. Probably more relevant to arborist or other rope access personnel, not climbers.

Edit. No doubt you could use a regular biner but the flat back of of the racking biners make them immensely easier to use. If you're just hanging your tools this is probably fine. If you're leading ice and racking screws this would be horrible.

I use both the locking and wiregate vault. The wiregate holds 6 screws easily and securely. The locking vault is too fiddly for my taste. I am replacing them with wiregates. I stopped using plastic screw holders after one broke on my partner's harness and sent 2 axes down near me. Also the gates on the plastic ones get bent. $41 Is a lot for a vault, but it's holding $300+ worth of screws or tools!

If strenght is the issue, The Grivel carryabiner is full strenght and far cheaper then the DMM. 

My wife climbs with 4 of the Grivel Carryabiners after having some trouble with the Petzl plastic one.  She's been happy with the switch.

I detest "single-use" items. If I can't use it for more than one purpose, I'm not likely to carry it.  My screw-carriers are plain old large-sized wire-gate carabiners (each will accommodate up to six BD or  Petzl screws).  they fit into ice-clipper slots on all my harnesses no differently than the ice-clippers do -- but when the shit hits the fan and I need another full-strength carabiner, presto!  in my opinion, the primary purpose of special-purpose ice-screw carriers is to separate unthinking ice-climbers from their money...

I really appreciate the feedback, I'm leaning toward the Grivel now as they are a full strength biner.

1.  Can someone tell me what the bolded text means in their description below?
2.  The part the that holds the carryabiner to the harness, anyone with experience with these, does it prevent it from rotating back and forth?  I always seem to have trouble taking out screws when the biner flops around... but then I only lead one pitch and that was the other day and only been out 4 days (newbie here :) )

The CARRYABINER is an ice screw holder, that fits all harnesses on the market in a stable and secure way. It carries up to 6 screws or the ice tool, it has a nose on its top to select the screw you need. But it is also a real carabiner, hot forged, CE approved, that you can use in case of need.

Briggs Lazalde wrote:

See the small horn on the very top of the carabiner? Say your screws are different sizes and you dont want the one closest to you, you move it up top and rest the screw up behind that horn to get to the screw you need. Otherwise you'd be taking each screw off completely to get to the one behind it.

Thanks! Makes sense

RWPT wrote: I really appreciate the feedback, I'm leaning toward the Grivel now as they are a full strength biner.

1.  Can someone tell me what the bolded text means in their description below?
2.  The part the that holds the carryabiner to the harness, anyone with experience with these, does it prevent it from rotating back and forth?  I always seem to have trouble taking out screws when the biner flops around... but then I only lead one pitch and that was the other day and only been out 4 days (newbie here :) )

The CARRYABINER is an ice screw holder, that fits all harnesses on the market in a stable and secure way. It carries up to 6 screws or the ice tool, it has a nose on its top to select the screw you need. But it is also a real carabiner, hot forged, CE approved, that you can use in case of need.

1, somebody else answered that
2. You slide the thing in you iceholder slot on your harness. The plastic but help with securing it in place. How well this works, kind of depends on the harness. 

The DMM's are flat on the back. Most secure. I want something that does the job best, without flopping around. Never used the Carrybiner. Might work great. Anything beats the plastic ones! When carrying $360 worth of gear, I want something reliable and easy to use on lead. I get the single use argument, usually don't  carry single use stuff myself. DMM Vaults are expensive. Worth the cost IMHO.

Curt Haire wrote: I detest "single-use" items. If I can't use it for more than one purpose, I'm not likely to carry it.  My screw-carriers are plain old large-sized wire-gate carabiners (each will accommodate up to six BD or  Petzl screws).  they fit into ice-clipper slots on all my harnesses no differently than the ice-clippers do -- but when the shit hits the fan and I need another full-strength carabiner, presto!  in my opinion, the primary purpose of special-purpose ice-screw carriers is to separate unthinking ice-climbers from their money...

I mean when shit hit the fan what do you do with all the screws that caribiner is holding? Put them in your pocket? In your pack? Toss them to the abyss? Seems like you'd want those screws accessible, like on a caribiner on your harness, in case shit keeps hitting the fan on your descent. Full strength seems irrelevant to me; I choose the most user friendly design. 

alpinejason wrote:

I mean when shit hit the fan what do you do with all the screws that caribiner is holding? Put them in your pocket? In your pack? Toss them to the abyss? Seems like you'd want those screws accessible, like on a caribiner on your harness, in case shit keeps hitting the fan on your descent. Full strength seems irrelevant to me; I choose the most user friendly design. 

To me full strength is a bit overkill, but the plastic ones are a bit too weak. So something in between would be nice. The Grivels do rack screws rather well, I like the slightly less stiff spring of the wire gate and the size of those things. 

This has been mentioned on other threads, but so far not here: the "nose" or "small horn" on the Vault won't accommodate BD Express screws without a bit of filing. Haven't yet thought of a reason to pay extra for the locking version.

Bought a Carryabiner just to check it out. It's larger than the DMM Vault, significantly larger. The gate is very user friendly. Overall, I like it! Would be most secure in a designated ice screw holding slot, otherwise it is held on only by a plastic band.
      The DMM Vault is a well constructed design and works well. I like many DMM products, solid gear, but seeing the Carryabiner has changed my mind. I'm switching to Grivel. 

I bought a Carryabiner this season and it is just OK. Due to the lack of a flat spine, it won't stay at 90 degrees to my harness but wants to shift side to side in the ice clipper slots on my Arc 395 harness. The plastic keeper loop thing that is included with it (for harnesses without ice clippers) may help secure it better but it is too small to fit around the tall belt on my Arc harness. Anyone else have this problem or have a solution to keep the Carryabiner from shifting?

Zombie thread but I have been through the same considerations and also disliked how the carryabiners wanted to rotate in place. Playing with vaults now.

I thought about taping or gluing a flat piece of plastic or similar rigid material (cut to fit through the width of clipper slots) to the spine of the carryabiners to stop them rotating but haven’t quite got around to it yet.

A fairly famous climber I know whipped on the crux of the Grand Central Couloir and broke one of the plastic screw holders to bits, losing half his rack of screws in the process. Mission was over and he never came back to try getting up the route again.

Food for thought. 

Adding to the dogpile here. I use 3 DMM vaults (non lockers) and one Carrybiner. The carrybiner can hold two ice tools without them sticking out to the side and catching stuff. The Vaults can each hold one tool easily. I get a huge peace of mind from having chonky metal probably-unbreakable screw holders that function perfectly every time. No faff of the carabiner spinning in the harness slot. Find them on sale for $25 or $30, or just buy them full price. They are worth every penny and you will have them for years to come. For me, they greatly enhance the entire experience of ice climbing.

I have been using large “paddle” type carabiners on my entire ice climbing rack, so much easier to handle while using gloves.