Black diamond ultralights, thoughts after many years?

What is the general verdict for the early adoptors of the BD ultralight C4s. It must be over 7 years now so quite curious how they have worn. Have they turned into a sketchy mess or are they as good as ever? BD said what, 3-5 years and 10 years if not touched. 

Yes, so I carried mine on my rack for two seasons and I already noticed that the slings were getting a little tatty. I have relegated my set to the back burner. I rarely need trips where I mostly climb so I only bring them out for long approach stuff. Same old story for any of your gear. If you don’t use it,it doesn’t wear out.

I updated my rack in 2019 from a double rack of previous gen C4s to a rack of current C4s and a rack of ultralight C4s.  I like the new gen of C4s better than the last gen but the only thing I like better about the ultralights is the weight.  They go in the pack for alpine climbs but I actually take the older C4s out for cragging.  I don't like how stiff the stem is on the ultralights.  I was also a bit annoyed with the fact that BD shipped me cams with a build date from 2017 in 2019.  

I bought a #4 ultralight right when they came out. Had to repair the trigger wires last year while my 10 year old #4 old school C4's trigger is fine.

If you don't mind dealing with fragile trigger wires, they seem fine unless other people report issues.

The trigger wires are a weak point, as mentioned. I don’t think the infinitesimal weight savings justified moving to the thinner wire they used on the ULs.

I think the best use of these is a second set which stays in the closet except for long approaches or when you’re exceptionally hungover and are feeling lazy. 

I wouldn’t use them as my daily drivers, especially since the updated c4s have closed a lot of the weight gap.

I have used mine regularly, less than weekly more than monthly, since they came out with no issues.

like others have mentioned i have relegated my 2 sets of ultralights for alpine routes or other climbing where i want to reduce weight as much as possible.  i have replaced over half the trigger wires with beefier wires.  I have (2) #4's - one of them a trigger wire broke the first time i placed it on the first day i took it out. i was pretty pissed.  the second one a trigger wire broke maybe the 3rd or 4th day out.  my 1's, 2's, and 3's all had pretty quick trigger failures also.  the triggers are also kind of a pain to replace.  i think the action on them is kind of crappy also, they just feel gritty or something.

overall i give them maybe 3 stars out of 5.  the regular C4's are much, much better.

I don’t see any rave reviews here. Would any of you buy them again or just stick with regular C4s?

Climb On wrote:

I don’t see any rave reviews here. Would any of you buy them again or just stick with regular C4s?

Wouldn't buy them again.  Stick with the regular C4s and fill in gaps with Totems.

They were great compared to the previous generation C4. Now that the newer gen shaved off so much weight, and the #4 and larger have that cool trigger holder, I don't think I'd buy them again. 

Sold my BD’s for the new Friends, haven’t looked back.  Light and durable. 

Climb On wrote:

I don’t see any rave reviews here. Would any of you buy them again or just stick with regular C4s?

FWIW, I bought my set (singles 0.5-3) in 2017 and they are all still doing great, no broken trigger wires yet and the slings don't look unreasonably fuzzy.  They are my primary set for alpine routes and my doubles for cragging, so they have seen a good bit of use.  Hard to say exactly how much but definitely hundreds of pitches and a whole bunch of getting stuffed into small packs.

I think with things like this, happy customers don't give feedback, or aren't as likely to, so you hear more of the bad stories.

As folks above pointed out, the weight advantage isn't as big as it once was, so it would be a different tradeoff buying them now vs. what it was 5 years ago.

I bought all my ULs used, because cheap. I had to replace one trigger wire. I save those for only long approaches. The 0.5 is the smallest I have, and it’s a lot heavier than a red Fixe Alien, which is of similar size. The same may be true of .75 when compared to similarly sized Aliens or Zeros. I don’t want a .4 UL because I remember a thread about the lobe collapsing during the impact of a fall, leading to failure of the placement. That may, however, be a weakness of all small C4s. 

We bought our #2, 3 and 4 UL because we typically carry a double rack and saving weight is nice.  At size bigger than Totems, My wife grabs the ULs first and I grab our generation 1 Dragons first.  

I know 3 people with #4 UL trigger wire failures after not much use, and since they don't have the awesome trigger keepers like the regular C4 #4 another friend sold her UL and bought a new #4. So the piece with the most compelling weight savings is hard to recommend.

In sizes 0.75 and smaller, the Z4 are essentially the same weight as the UL C4, cheaper and perhaps more durable. I've beat the heck out of my Z4s and they're going strong. Plus, narrow head bendy stem cams are more versatile in 0.75 and under IMO, so I wouldn't choose C4s there anyway unless you only climb desert splitters. 

I can still see some value in the hand sizes (#1-3) if you are made of money and absolutely bleeding edge alpine gram counting, but a broken trigger wire in the field would leave you carrying that piece as dead weight. I'd rather take the extra 15g each and bring something more trustworthy, plus, I prefer WC new Friends in hand sizes better anyway. 

And yes all C4s and even Z4s to an extent have more risk of dented lobes from a fall on doubles axle cams in size <0.5. There's just not much metal near the cutout when they're tightly cammed.