Climbers will be aware of the DMM Revolver karabiners, innovative little connectors which feature a small pulley wheel, designed to reduce the friction drag of a rope when it was pulled through the karabiner. A nifty design!
Next year (2016), there will see the launch of a big brother from DMM Professional called a Revolver Rig and also some competitor products from Petzl.
Abaris International have been lucky enough to have our hands on both products to do an initial review. So here it is:
The DMM offering, the Revolver Rig is a beautiful and well made connector-cum-pulley, which will be available with a variety of gate options, screwgate, Locksafe / triple action (lift, twist and pull to open) or Durolock (a four action opening). The karabiner design is similar to the DMM Rhino which has a horn feature at the top of the spine which significantly reduces the risk of the karabiner cross loading during rigging or when used with devices and pulleys. It also has a becket which can take an 8mm cord, allowing the karabiner to be used as part of hauling system with mechanical advantage.
The DMM Revolver Rig is due out in summer 2016 with a choice of either bushings or roller balls, the latter for greater efficiency.
Petzl have developed the very nicely made Rollclip karabiner which will be able available from mid January 2016 with either a snapgate or a triact / triple action gate. The snapgate fits through the karabiner attachment hole at the bottom of the Petzl Ascension Hand Ascender and is likely to prove a hit with rope access techs who want to do a short ascent by using a combination of descender and hand ascender to move up the rope rather than transfer into full ‘ascent mode’. The one thing that may seem a little strange to regular karabiner users, is that the gates open in the normal way when the Rollclip is orientated with the pulley wheel at the top (the same as the standard DMM Revolver but opposite to the new DMM Revolver Rig), it just feels a little strange, but maybe that’s just us! Also worth noting is that the triact version does not fit through the Petzl Ascension Hand Ascender karabiner hole )+: Finally, unlike the DMM Revolver Rig, there is no becket, but we still believe it has multiple uses.
All products should be on the wishlist of rescue teams, particularly those who deal in confined spaces where height loss due to daisy-chaining or interconnecting karabiners and devices and pulleys may be an issue. The integrated pulley also avoid another metal on metal connection.
Our verdict: All types are worth the money!
For full spec and pre-orders please click through to the relevant product page:
