UKC

Surprised this hasn't come up yet, but DMM have put out a warning on some of their screw-gates, so check your gear ladies and gents.

http://dmmclimbing.com/documents/dmm-product-safety-warning-11-09-2015.pdf

In reply to JoshOvki:

Bump...

Saw this on social media, surprised there's not an official post from DMM on here yet.

In reply to waiting for snow:

Perhaps they know something UKC don't about viewing numbers on different sites?

In reply to JoshOvki:

Second this - I had this issue arise with a BelayMaster crab yesterday (ironically on the exact day of the product warning) - most inconvenient on a multi-pitch route with abseil descent. I'm sure DMM will be swiftly on this next week.

In reply to JoshOvki:

Cheers for the heads up. It's not explicitly listed as a recall so what are they expecting us to do when withdrawing them from service? If i have a full rack of affected quickdraws am I to stop climbing? I'd expect we could challenge the retailers for a replacement under the sale of goods act either as not fit for purpose and/or unsatisfactory quality but this should really be a recall and smacks a little of unwillingness to admit liability.

In reply to JoshOvki:

That's all 4 of my HMS and my boa.

In reply to radddogg:

my interpretation of this was that they're giving us a quick heads up now, before they get the logistics of the recall sorted out.

"As of today, 11th Sept 2015, it is our belief that we will be commencing a recall of the affected batches
next week."

In reply to radddogg:

If you click your mouse arrow on the link on the DMM website, there's further information, amongst which they say they shall be commencing a recall next week

In reply to Timmd:

Cool, I only read the PDF

In reply to JoshOvki:

If it's as widespread as it seems will it affect their ability to quote 3 sigma on their merchandising?

In reply to radddogg:


If all the krabs on your quickdraws have locking gates maybe you should. I am given to understand that knitting is a low risk hobby, as long as you file off the points on the needles.

In reply to EddInaBox:

I thought it was snapgates too as the fault was the spring not springing the gate closed

In reply to radddogg:

Turns out the 3 sigma rating is purely for the lab strength test

http://dmmclimbing.com/about/quality/

In reply to radddogg:

It's not like they have hidden that information, or indeed used a different definition of 3 sigma to every other industry so I'm not sure why you seem surprised. 3 sigma, or equally 6 sigma, is a statistical quality assurance process which exploits the fact that a continuous variable, such as strength, will have a normal distribution about a mean. Going off the description of this failure it is not something which is likely to show up at the point of manufacture so it can't really be tested for as part of 3 sigma.

In reply to spenser:
I think you've read too much into that. I was simply clarifying. I didn't know what spec they applied sigma to so I checked, found out it was strength in the lab test and posted the clarification. Obviously they wouldn't be running the test with one of these spring faults with the gate open.

In reply to JoshOvki:

Well it's taken them a while! I remember sending them a Sentinel screwgate carabiner with this exact problem 3 years ago, saying essentially that I thought it was dangerous and they should look into it. They replied saying they couldn't see how it had happened and suggested that it was perhaps because a bit of grit had got inside the biner.... Interestingly though it looks like no Sentinels are listed on the recall.

In reply to EddInaBox:

If I read the recall correctly the serial numbers are nearly all from this year?

In reply to SiGregory:


That's how I read it, and none from before 2014.