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Topic Date User

DMM Phantoms (review) 28-Oct-2010 At 9:59:12 AM voodoo

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Thanks for sharing your experience.

On 28/10/2010 rightarmbad wrote:
>The gate is only as wide as my thumb, simply too awkward for me to use.

Just to throw some numbers at this - the gate clearance of the DMM Phantom is listed as 21mm, a BD Neutrino 22mm, the WC Oxygen 25mm. Rather interestingly the much lauded Petzl Spirit is listed as only 20mm. So it would seem that the gate clearance on the Phantom is at the tighter end, and certainly something for people to take into consideration, but not unusually so.

>The gate has no shielding whatsoever, so is vulnerable to being opened
>by scraping on rock etc.

Yes, very true. The BD Neutrino, for example has a ridge running down its length that holds the rock away from where the wire meets the nose-hook. Clearly DMM decided to ditch the handful of grams by losing the ridge in favour of the recessing of an I-beam. Incidentally, the BD Oz solves this by having a 'bump' right in front of the nose-hook - but perhaps this design is protected by patent?

I thought about this issue for a while, wondering if it would be a deal-breaker. In the end I figured that in use a biner does have something holding it out from the rock when it's sitting flat against a wall - the thickness of the rope running up through it. Also it's interesting that the obsession with protecting the very end where the wire meets the nose, yet if any rock were to press anywhere else on the gate (of any biner) the result would be the same - open gate. Lastly, most non-wiregates have no shielding - and you'd think this issue would be particularly bad with non-keynose designs where they have rivets sticking out the sides? So in the end, I felt okay with the design - but again its a decision for the individual to make, and a good issue for you to have highlighted.

>The rope radius is only 8mm and the metal wears incredibly fast.

In my situation I only have these attached to my cam rack. I can't think of too many situations (other than the odd failed route attempt) where I'd be lowering off them with any sort of regularity. In this regard, I imagine that wear will be light (but I'll be keeping an eye out to see how they hold up). Certainly it sounds like this could be a massive issue if people are thinking about kitting out all their quickdraws with them and using them to lower off sport routes - thanks for the heads up!

I think the issues you've raised are great in highlighting the need when it comes to these bare-bones, super lightweight designs to consider their appropriateness for task a lot more than, say, you might with a big fat general purpose biner.