UKC

This is not a dating site for climbers. It is supposedly a Chinese climbing brand. Has anyone heared of them? I can find helmets made by them and some other strange machined parts but no more than that. I bought one on Amazon that looks very nice and is blue on the basis that it looked very nice, colour codes my rack, had 24 kN CE1019 on it and "if it's sold by Amazon it must be safe." Since it has arived I have questioned the wisdom of this. Is this destined to be a key ring forever after?

In reply to Roobag: it's your life isn't it. You can do what you want... Would I trust them to ensure they use the right alloy, heat treat it correctly, design it correctly and then root out the bass ones all for a bargain basement price? No.

In reply to Roobag:

* googles 'Xinda carabiner'
* Clicks on Amazone links
* See's "CE CERTIFITED", If they can spell that correctly, how much faith should you have if them?

If you are cheap, there are plenty of well know and CE and UIAA certified brands out there. Just hit the Decatlon and you can have a cheap, cheerfull and properly certified carabiner from a well known european brand.

In reply to tjin:

But if he can't spell Decatlon correctly, how much faith should you have in him???????

In reply to Roobag:

CE certified mean much on goods coming from China. http://www.icomuk.co.uk/News_Article/3794/17103/

In reply to willworkforfoodjnr:
Yeah yeah, Decathlon. Not enough coffee in the morning...

Doesn't have to be Decathlon, most climbing shops have inexpensive certified western brand carabiners.

In reply to Roobag:

The reality is CE marks mean nothing and Amazon will sell just about anything.

Your call. It could be well engineered, appropriately certified and manufactured by a reputable company with exhaustive QA procedures. It could be shiny die-cast junk in the shape of a picture of a karabiner made by the lowest bidder.

jk

In reply to J_Trottet:


I agree that seeing CE on goods coming from China often means very little, but there is no such thing as a "China Export" mark, it is an urban myth. This has been addressed by the European Commission:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=WQ&reference=P-2007-...
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=P-2007-5938&...

In reply to EddInaBox:

Personally I'd be more scared of someone just stamping the CE marking on without proper approval.

http://www.petzl.com/security/sport/recalls/procedure-contrefacons?language...

In reply to EddInaBox:
I stand corrected.... Thanks for the info.

In reply to tjin:

Sorry dude, it was too much to resist!

In reply to Roobag:

It is the responsibility of the importer, not the foreign manufacturer, to ensure goods imported into the EU comply with the relevant standards (and if appropriate are marked with the CE mark). From the Chinese manufacturers point of view they just make stuff. They are breaking no rules or laws sticking CE on products, regardless of whether they comply with EU regulations or not; they only have to comply with Chinese law after all. So really it comes down to this: how much do you trust the importer to ensure that the product complies with CE regulations? Even bigger more trusted companies can end up in trouble if they don't check that the products they are getting are up to scratch... but there are probably plenty of dodgy dealers who are happy to import goods from China either asking for or being offered products with the CE mark and who don't care if the product complies with EU regulations or not.

In reply to Roobag:
If your looking for cheap Chinese carabiners get GM ones as they are at least uiaa certified.