Petal Attache screw gate locked

I was forced to leave a stuck orange Petzl Attaché at an anchor today. My partner and I spent half an hour trying to unstick it, weighting and unweighting it, girth hitching the screwgate, banging on it, etc, to no avail. It was not weighted when I tightened it. There is a perfectly good sling still attached to it. 

I’ve never had this issue with any other brand of locking biners I own, weighted or not.

Demetri Vwrote:

Am I a Gumby because all of my HMS biners are attache’s and I’ve never had one get welded shut before?

What am I doing wrong?

Don’t worry dude. Locking carabiner keychains on backpacks are cool too   

Chris Cwrote:

Don’t worry dude. Locking carabiner keychains on backpacks are cool too   

Oh yeah?!?!?! Well... you’re stupid!!!

*goes to tell mom*

Just had a new style Attaché lock up in the midst of a belay demonstration before any weight was applied. I was pretty skeptical seeing the stories on this thread, but we had to literally use vice grips to unscrew it and free it from the harness. This one was far from new, but it has never done this before 

I started this thread a year or so ago and since then had another attache and one spirit lock up. Once the spirit locked, I retired three attaches and 2 spirits. $80 in carabiners becoming Christmas tree ornaments. sucks.

Last weekend I also same across another attache fixed on the P1 anchor of Sixish in the gunks. 

In the last year I have had two attaches (or one twice) lock up. One was during crevasse rescue training, possibly was loaded when trying to unscrew. We thought it froze but were unable to release it in the field, and it required a wrench at home, and was not frozen. 

A second was during the summer sport climbing, deconstructing an anchor at the top of a climb. I tethered in using an attache, and after deconstructing it was locked up when I went to rappel. Pretty sure it was not weighted, as I transfer my weight onto the rappel device prior to removing the tether. After about 15 minutes I managed to get it unscrewed trying everything I could think of. 

These are probably 2-3 years old.

I had an attaché lock on me once, well actually on my “newish” climbing partner, but it was my carabiner. After my partner tried and tried to get the carabiner unstuck, I ended up having to jug my way back up the rappel line to get to him at the rap station he was now stuck on. The solution I came up with to unlock the carabiner was to wrap some climbing tape around the screw gate to provide more leverage/torque, and voila, I was able to open the screw gate. I use Attaché as my primary lockers, but use phantom hms and some other DMMs as well. Still the one and only time I’ve had a biner lock.

I clean and lubricate my gear, so it always works as intended. I have had many Petzl Attaché biners, and none of them ever froze up. Not saying it can't happen, just has never happened to me.

Buck Riowrote:

I clean and lubricate my gear, so it always works as intended. I have had many Petzl Attaché biners, and none of them ever froze up. Not saying it can't happen, just has never happened to me.

^^this

Fair enough about cleaning and lubricating, the one I had lock up hadn’t had that treatment in a few seasons. That said, there has to be something said for the fact that I have not experienced it with other crabs from other brands, nor does it seem that others in this thread have. I like Petzl, and I think they make great, quality gear; but I’m a bit nervous about having the attaché lock up on me again 

Emilio Sosawrote:

Fair enough about cleaning and lubricating, the one I had lock up hadn’t had that treatment in a few seasons. That said, there has to be something said for the fact that I have not experienced it with other crabs from other brands, nor does it seem that others in this thread have. I like Petzl, and I think they make great, quality gear; but I’m a bit nervous about having the attaché lock up on me again 

Try the DMM Shadow or Shadow HMS, or any DMM screw gate. The screw is extremely smooth, and I have never had any problems with any of them. The Aero is nice for a belay/rap biner, but is on the heavy side.  The Rhino is a grigri specialty biner. 

Buck Riowrote:

I clean and lubricate my gear, so it always works as intended. I have had many Petzl Attaché biners, and none of them ever froze up. Not saying it can't happen, just has never happened to me.

ive had three lock up that I own, two were being used by different partners at the time and one actually locked on me (two attache and one spirit) all three were less than a year out of the store. do you clean/lube your gear when its brand new?

I've never heard of anyone lubing their screwgates. I think I'd rather buy correctly manufactured carabiners and spend my time climbing. And the one we had lock up was pretty much brand new.

Ben Kraftwrote:

I've never heard of anyone lubing their screwgates. I think I'd rather buy correctly manufactured carabiners and spend my time climbing. And the one we had lock up was pretty much brand new.

So you don't maintain any of your gear? I have had a BD Mini Pearabiner lock up on me, but I wouldn't make a wholesale condemnation of BD biners. 

Buck Riowrote:

So you don't maintain any of your gear? I have had a BD Mini Pearabiner lock up on me, but I wouldn't make a wholesale condemnation of BD biners. 

there's also not pages upon pages of reports where people had BD biners lock up.  out of curiosity, was the BD pearabiner also cleaned and lubed before it locked on you?

JRZanewrote:

there's also not pages upon pages of reports where people had BD biners lock up.  out of curiosity, was the BD pearabiner also cleaned and lubed before it locked on you?

I am pretty OCD when it comes to my gear. Not just climbing gear, all of my guns, skis, fishing gear etc... It is exhausting to my wife that after I get back from a trip I have to clean and stow my gear before I can relax.

EDIT: I think that the Attaché was so widely used as a belay biner for so long, there are a lot more of them in use than just about any one locker out there. The BD locker had such a big tolerance, loosening was a problem. I have a habit of checking the gate, and it would sometimes be loose, so I would habitually crank it down, until one day it stuck.

JRZanewrote:

there's also not pages upon pages of reports where people had BD biners lock up.  out of curiosity, was the BD pearabiner also cleaned and lubed before it locked on you?

Yep, this. The attaches were some of my newest carabiners, never had another lock up, including BD ones that get significantly more use. 

Is Petzl doing anything about it? Or just ignoring it until the possible costs of lawsuits outweighs the legal ownership of acknowledging the issue.  See car recalls for examples of this. /s

Brian Hwrote:

Is Petzl doing anything about it? Or just ignoring it until the possible costs of lawsuits outweighs the legal ownership of acknowledging the issue.  See car recalls for examples of this.

Lol