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To leave or not to leave an ascender on your rope, tis the question

Do you leave your ascender on the rope or remove it?

  • Total voters
    19
Exhumis

Exhumis

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Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
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Location
Northern Virginia
For those of you who use a mechanical ascender, do you leave it on the tether/lifeline, or do you take it off? I take mine off as I'm worried about premature failure of the spring mechanism due to prolonged load, the same reason I don't leave my mags loaded for extended periods. Let's hear some thoughts.
 
My understanding is with a quality spring it’s cycles that wear it out. That’s including mag springs. Now expansion and contraction from heating and cooling could cause premature spring weakening. The spring on an ascender doesn’t do much. I leave mine on year round.
 
I'm so new, my climbing gear never really had an off season yet. practice, practice, practice.
 
Interesting concept. Something I never thought about before. Makes sense, but would be nice to hear what the manufacturer would have to say. I'm curious enough that I may try to ask the manufacturer of the Ropeman 1's that I am using.
 
I just sent the question to Wild Country online customer service. I will post if and when I get an answer.
 
EricS said:
My understanding is with a quality spring it’s cycles that wear it out. That’s including mag springs. Now expansion and contraction from heating and cooling could cause premature spring weakening. The spring on an ascender doesn’t do much. I leave mine on year round.
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I beg to differ. The spring is what makes it work. If no spring, it would just be a flippy floppy decoration on your rope!
 
Exhumis said:
For those of you who use a mechanical ascender, do you leave it on the tether/lifeline, or do you take it off? I take mine off as I'm worried about premature failure of the spring mechanism due to prolonged load, the same reason I don't leave my mags loaded for extended periods. Let's hear some thoughts.
Click to expand...
Use as an ascender? Or as a positioner? I clean-up after SRT if doing that, and put my ascender away. Or if I was rappelling down after hanging on an ascender or something I'd put it away. I wouldn't plan to operate a relatively inexpensive device that my safety depends on long enough to worry about spring deterioration or fatigue.
 
WannaBMonkey said:
I beg to differ. The spring is what makes it work. If no spring, it would just be a flippy floppy decoration on your rope!
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I think he was just getting at spring wear over time, not it’s function in the device itself. I’d be more concerned with compressing to rope than any spring failure. Mine do hang on a peg in the shop off-season, probably not necessary, curious to hear of any official response.
 
Bigterp said:
I think he was just getting at spring wear over time, not it’s function in the device itself. I’d be more concerned with compressing to rope than any spring failure. Mine do hang on a peg in the shop off-season, probably not necessary, curious to hear of any official response.
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You're probably right. Like I mentioned, I will post it if I get that reply from Wild Country. Looks like a lot of us are curious about this subject. Also not sure how many different ascenders we are all talking about. For me it's the Ropeman 1.
 
Ok. I got a reply from Wild Country. He suggests removing the Ropeman from the rope "between uses to let the spring relax". That sounds to me like not just in the off season, but every time. He said it may not "affect it a whole lot but over time it could potentially cause that spring to weaken".
 
Swampfox said:
If it’s anything like my bow release, as soon as I take it off Ill lose it.


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Yeah, I can relate to that! If I was to start removing it every time, I would immediately clip the carabiner to a loop on the rope. Maybe just even a quick slip knot by where it came from.
 
I second the lose it as soon as I take it off
So I’ll definitely put it in my pack asap


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