ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

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hand ascender

Postby reeffish1073 » Sep 20, 2007 7:16 pm

hey all i know its a bit off topic. but i bought my son the abc hand ascenders. after playing around with it myself i found thous to be smother than the petzl's hand ascenders with the plastic thumb piece. the abc's is similiar in design to the older petzl's too.... im pretty impressd with there product as i will eventually have to buy another set of ascenders and a croll down the road for my other son! im curious as well to see who thinks what about these too!

john
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Postby fuzzy-hair-man » Sep 20, 2007 7:27 pm

cavescom wrote:By the way, the one i have has a couple of serious flaws
that made me go back to a petzl (although i hate its plastic handle).
that's why i would like to hear about people that tried
the ABC ascender.


What happened? Are these design type flaws or is it just restricted to the one you have?
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Postby cavescom » Sep 20, 2007 8:57 pm

The post and pic from Marco is NOT the ABC ascender but instead it is one that looks very much like it.

Here is a bit more from Marco.

This is about my ascender, which is not a ABC chest ascender.
just looks very similar.
I had the same feeling as the posts:
it sits flat and the rope flows very smoothly.

These are the problems I found with my ascender.
IT IS A "Repetto" CHEST ASCENDER, NOT AN ABC ASCENDER.
THESE ARE NOT DEFECTS OF THE ABC CHEST ASCENDER.


[1] the spring is not strong enough,
climbing on rope in muddy conditions i had to force
the cam on the rope, otherwise it slipped.

ok, this is not too bad. but slipping is annoying.
and could be dangerous.

[2] I found the cam open by itself.
the first time I was at the top of the pit, climbing out;
I was surprised, but I thought that I might have inadvertently
pulled the cam open. when it happened a second time I got
suspicious that something was not right. It happened a third
time, and I decided to give the gear no more chances.

Then there was a post by Repetto on a mailing list
saying that the device had this problem. Later he told me
that "it was due to the shape/size of the handle that could
get cought in the overall ...". (he also admitted that the spring
is not strong enough, and said it is due to a manufacturing
mistake.) I do not really understand this explanation.
the fact is that i found it open three times,
and this is a *serious* defect, in my opinion.

by the way, Repetto posted on the list
that when there will be the new model, without that problem,
he will replace the flawed ascenders with new ones.

>From the posts, it seems that there is no such problem with the
ABC ascender. I was wondering what are the differences between
the two models. From the pictures they look very similar.

bye, marco



This is the ABC model(positive reviews)

Image

and this is the one that looks very similiar that Marco has(seems similiar but has issues as mentioned by Marco above)

Image


They look very similiar to me my guess is that the ABC is the version 2 of the Repetto....Mark Passerby, Cavediggers.com
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Postby fuzzy-hair-man » Sep 21, 2007 12:05 am

:oops: Sorry, I though you had a ABC that was acting up...not the case then.

I went and found a image of the Repetto in the closed position so I could compare it to the ABC Ascender. (Repetto on the left, ABC on the right)


Image

very similar.

The biggest difference I can see that might cause the repetto to open is near the catches (circled below) the Repetto seems to allow more room and a more horizontal slope on the ring which might make it easier for clothing etc to snag and open the catch.

Image
I guess the danger with such large rings is that they may make it easier for clothing etc to catch in them and open them.
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Re: ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

Postby Cheryl Jones » May 1, 2012 1:07 pm

Aaron, Doc K, Randy, and anyone else..... Now five years later, what is your impression of the ABC chest ascender? Still raving?

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Re: ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

Postby driggs » May 1, 2012 2:48 pm

Current-production ABC Chest Ascender has a much smaller "thumb ring", which I've found to be difficult to open with muddy gloved hands. The ABC's chest harness strap hole is also too small for the 1" webbing of a Petzl Serpentine, though it is fine for any other chest harness I've tried. I've switched back to the Petzl Croll for these two reasons, even with the modern Croll's black plastic lever. I found the newer ABC to perform equally to the Petzl otherwise, but prefer the ergonomics of the Croll after putting many miles of rope through each. For what it's worth, I still carry the ABC as my emergency third ascender.

John Harman has a great photo comparing the two different versions of the ABC alongside the Petzl; perhaps he'll post it here...
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Re: ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

Postby Chads93GT » May 1, 2012 4:21 pm

I honestly dont know what the big deal is about petzl's black lever. I have never had a problem getting my petzl ascenders off rope, even half way over the worst lips, i can reach down and blindly pop them off rope. The ABC's look nice through. I just dont see what the fuss is. People need to practice using their gear if they have problems using it. :D :D :D
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Re: ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

Postby Scott McCrea » May 1, 2012 4:33 pm

Chad, I suspect it is more an issue with mud affecting how the ascender opens. For instance, the ABC would perform exactly like the Petzl in this picture.

Image
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Re: ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

Postby Chads93GT » May 1, 2012 4:44 pm

Scott McCrea wrote:Chad, I suspect it is more an issue with mud affecting how the ascender opens. For instance, the ABC would perform exactly like the Petzl in this picture.

Image


Yeah, I would have to say so.
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Re: ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

Postby NZcaver » May 1, 2012 5:03 pm

I own both versions of the Croll, and ergonomically I prefer the black plastic catch over the metal one. I've seen and handled an ABC and it seems nice and smooth, but I've never tried one on rope. Random thought, but I wonder if Petzl changed the old style Croll because people tied string onto the safety catch or otherwise used it in some manner for which it was not designed?
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Re: ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

Postby Cody JW » May 1, 2012 6:34 pm

I agree with Chad and NZ. I also have both versions of The Croll and really had no problem with either one. I know most plastic parts go bad over time but I have one of the earlier of the "new " versions and it is still sound.
It only takes one person to surrender a dog to a kill shelter ,but it takes many to rescue it.
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Re: ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

Postby driggs » May 1, 2012 6:43 pm

driggs wrote:I've switched back to the Petzl Croll for these two reasons, even with the modern Croll's black plastic lever.


For the record, I wasn't knocking the black plastic lever on the modern Croll, simply pointing out that it is a completely different design than the "old style" Petzl Croll that Mark Passerby compared the ABC to at the beginning of this thread. I purchased my first frog system in 2005, so the black plastic Croll is the Croll to me.
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Re: ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

Postby chh » May 1, 2012 7:24 pm

Scott McCrea wrote:Chad, I suspect it is more an issue with mud affecting how the ascender opens. For instance, the ABC would perform exactly like the Petzl in this picture.

Image


Hey! I recognize that svelt pile of mud.... :big grin:
Your words of caution are no match for my disaster style!
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Re: ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

Postby gdstorrick » May 2, 2012 4:52 am

Post deleted.
Last edited by gdstorrick on Jul 7, 2012 8:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ABC Chest Ascender--Rave Reviews

Postby Stan Allison » May 3, 2012 1:21 pm

There have been a couple of times when I have found the metal loop on the old Petzl Croll to be quite handy. On one occasion a caver ascended up to a knot and quite solidly jammed the knot into their croll. We were one hundred feet below yelling up advice. At first we recommended that the caver insert a carabiner into the metal loop on the Croll to get more leverage to open the Croll. This didn't work, so we recommended that the caver attach their footloop which had been shortened with a knot to the carabiner in the croll. Stepping into the footloop provided enough force to open the Croll. I've also found that the most difficult part of doing a single-rope pick-off is removing the patient's Croll from the rope while unweighting them. I've found this maneuver to be easier with a carabiner placed in the patient's Croll metal loop to make it easier to open the Croll. Aside from these issues, I like the new Croll better. It is lighter and the spring seems to be a bit lighter and it seems to feed better when it isn't all gooped with mud like that picture that Scott showed!

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