What size dogbones do I want?

I currently have 12 quickdraws that I pretty much only use for sport climbing. They each have 12cm length dogbones, and I'm pretty happy with them. I've been climbing longer routes lately however, and often need more than 12 qd's on a route, so I bought an older set of 12 draws which will need their dogbones replaced. Now I need to decide if I want to match the length of my existing 12cm dogbones, or get some mixture of ~16cm or ~25cm.

Personally, the 12cm dogbones have always worked fine for me. They rack well, they don't cause too much drag on must straight-up-and-down sport routes, I can grab them easily when I chicken out, etc. But I've read several times on here that people prefer some longer draws for sport climbing.

So: Should I consider getting some longer dogbones than the 12cm ones I have now? If so, why?

Get a couple of 16s too, and make one or two into alpine draws as well . Good for roofs and drag on some routes.

Definitely get some longer ones if you already have a good amount of shorter ones. 

Some bolt placements leave the rope-end biner resting over an edge. It's nice to have slightly longer draws for these situations, in addition to what's been mentioned above.

I've also found 16 or 18cm draws to be nice for nut placements that don't need a lot of extension, as they typically have a few centimeters of webbing without bar tacks, making the draw much more flexible.

I use my partner's 12cm draws occasionally (all he has), and I hate it. The rope rubs the rock more than with 18cm draws, plus it adds unnecessary drag where there otherwise wouldnt be any when the bolts aren't perfectly in a line. I have 2 12cm draws, just in case the 18cm doesn't work for a bolt placement, but would never recommend having a bunch. 

25cm are quite long for carrying on your harness, so the 18cm are ideal for the bulk of your draws. Maybe skip the 25cm and just carry a couple of alpine draws with you. Then you have 2 extra 18cm (roughly), and can extend longer than a 25cm if needed.

Size cheap

I use 12 and when I need to extend, just remove one carabiner and combine 2 draws into 1. Nice and simple 

Charlie S wrote:

I use 12 and when I need to extend, just remove one carabiner and combine 2 draws into 1. Nice and simple 

I second this. It's unlikely to matter when onsighting, and you can still extend them later. Having a mixture of draws on your harness for sport climbing isn't practical.

Primarily use 16-18cm for less rope drag and they only weigh a few grams more than the shorties. Having 1-2x 25-30cm draws (they really don't dangle as low as people gripe about) is nice for weird bolt placements when you don't necessarily want a fully extended alpine draw. I barely use my 12cm draws unless I run out of the others, seems like they add a lot of drag at least at WA crags which aren't always super straight routes.