Beal Birdie or GriGri

I lost my GriGri in a climbing gym across the country and now need to get a new one. But before picking up one from the local REI, I climbed with a guy last night who was using Beal Birdie device instead of GriGri. He loved it. He let me use it several times (on a TR, not leading) and I think its performance is superior to any GriGri I've used. Surprisingly, there is no real discussion about the Birdie here on MP. If you have experience with Birdie, can you please post about it below? Trying to make up my mind which one to buy. I know I'll be fine with either one of them at the end of the day :) but still. Thanks in advance, folks!

I have and use both. The Birdie works fine for TR belay, but the GriGri is superior for lead belay. The Birdie is cheaper and likely more durable in the long run, but I prefer the GriGri for lead belay.

ETA: if weight is a concern, the Birdie is a little heavier - owing to the use of steel in high wear areas (also why the Birdie is likely more durable).

I used to own the MadRock Lifeguard, which as far as I can tell is basically the same as the Birdie.  I found it to be great for lead belaying since it has a stronger cam spring -- it doesn't catch when feeding slack as much as a grigri, so you can use a standard atc belay method.

The stronger cam spring makes it not ideal for rope-access type tasks, though.  Like ascending a rope, using it for positioning, belaying from above off the anchor, etc.  On my ropes the lifeguard tended to have an annoying amount of slippage, whereas the grigri bites down reliably.  

I had one and it worked pretty well. I liked that the rope fed out the front instead of over the side. The belay was pretty smooth. That being said it confused my partners and they didn't like using 'a new thing' so I ended up using their grigri all the time and now I have my own grigri. Same same but different.

They work the same; the differences b/w the Birdie and Grigri are no different than the small variations in use (i.e feeding of different rope diameters) between the Grigri generations. The Beal Birdie was self admitted by Beal to be a grigri copy and to compete on price point to get any market share. 

I use a Birdie sometimes and mostly a Madrock Lifeguard (which I prefer for the stiffer spring compared to a grigri or Birdie). If you liked the Birdie I suggest you go with that since it's really just personal preference. 

There IS one functional difference between the Grigris and Birdie/Lifeguard which is the plastic vs metal handles. If you are a doing a lot of raps the plastic handle won't heat up like the metal handle, which can get impressively hot, easily too hot to touch (i.e rapping the east ledges of El Cap with your haul bag). It doesn't occur with just lowering a partner though, only long or repeated rappels. 

Linnaeus why are you using an assisted braking device to repel? Also I only use the birdie, personally if you learn how to use the device correctly it is better and stronger than the gri gri. Feeds slack lead belaying and doesn’t annoyingly lock up like the grigri, the gri gri is also almost double the price of the birdie. It’s a steal, I had to use a gri gri to TR someone the other day and wasn’t stoked on it. Would say the gri gri is only better for trad climbing because it slips a little before fully locking up. 

Justin Doss wrote:

Linnaeus why are you using an assisted braking device to repel? 

why wouldn’t you use it to rappel?   If I’m rapping on a single line it’s my preferred method. 

Here's what happens. 

"Alright dude, I'm tied in ready to climb!"

"Bruh, I forgot my Grigri can I borrow yours?!"

"You can borrow my birdie, tho bro"

"Wtf is that?"

Darren Mabe wrote:

Here's what happens. 

"Alright dude, I'm tied in ready to climb!"

"Bruh, I forgot my Grigri can I borrow yours?!"

"You can borrow my birdie, tho bro"

"Wtf is that?"

And even after you show them it's exactly the same as a grigri they still don't understand.