UKC

I have a couple of questions about auto belays, I wonder if anyone can answer them.

With each decent from an auto belay, you'll fall a foot or two (ish, I'm guessing) before the device catches you and slowly drops you down. I've been doing a lot of auto-belay climbing for various reasons so I wonder if I'm damaging my harness with each drop? It's certainly not as harsh as a big lead fall but its very frequent and certainly worse than a controlled decent off a top rope with a belayer.

I've also wondered how much weight an auto belay pulls. I wonder if it essentially takes a few KG off you? Do gyms adjust the grade of the wall to allow for it or is it so negligible that it doesn't even count?

I?? do a little route Setting and certainly won't be adjusting the grade for the upward pull of the autobelays....love the idea though! 

Ha I thought as much, I asked someone about it in a gym once and they said the grade is sometimes adjusted? I thought it was a bit weird

Indoor grades are just vague grades anyway. A kg from an autobelay isn't going to make any difference. And nope, your harness will be fine

i'm more worried about how the pull effects times in speed climbing!

Must be like a tailwind in the 100m sprint and worth a couple of tenths.

Ours can lift a plastic school chair, not sure how much it weighs but if you can find out, that will give you the advantage of "X" grams advantage. : )

Any concerns that a few KGs of upward pull will compromise the grading are easily alleviated by eating more pies

With an adult not so much, but with a small light child.....