When do you retire carabiners?

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I did a search of the forums regarding this question to no avail.  How much wear do you put on your quickdraw carabiners before you retire them?  I've heard 1mm of wear can be enough to damage a rope, but it's a bit tricky for me to measure on the curve of the spine.  Or is it less a function of the amount of wear so much as the sharpness of the edge it creates?

Run your fingernail along the basket. If you can feel it catch, that's a good approximation for 1mm of material loss. You can also compare to a new carabiner using a caliber.

When no one climbs with you…. A friend was climbing on old omega draws 1/2 worn through until we did a gear intervention. 

I think that the depth of the edge the wear creates is probably the most important consideration because to me it seems that cutting the rope is a more likely failure mode than actually breaking a compromised carabiner.

Nice job climbing so much!!! Retire all those and use steel when u can on the cruxes, Edelrid Bulletproof, your rope will be so much cleaner. 

Retire when things get sharp. 2 of those look like they could be there, but might still be fine. If I retired all my draws when things started looking worn, or when a groove formed, I'd be replacing my draws every year. Get some bullet proof beaners if you want thing to last longer, but even those can wear in a couple years. Watch some of Hownot2s videos on worn beaners, they're still plenty strong, you may damage a rope though if sharp.

That caribeaner did not break where ropes where them out. not relevant

Nick Lockewrote:

That caribeaner did not break where ropes where them out. not relevant

I still think it’s probably time to retire it

All of your carabiners look completely fine to me from here. I’d have no concern at all using them. This is all normal wear and they appear to have plenty of life left. 

In my book, biners usually don't get retired, they just get downgraded to "leaver" or racking status. That said, I would say biners are due for serious downgrade when the gate action becomes funky and/ or doesn't work at all.

It's not a precise measurement in mm, because it depends on the carabiner itself. For example, the carabiners with the I-beam cross-section, that is common on the lightweight biners, are more likely to get a sharp edge faster than the carabiners with an O cross-section, like your locker. Couple mm is a good rule of thumb for those i-beam cross-section biners.

Run a finger across the edge, and retire the ones that start to feel sharp-ish. 

But really, retire them when you start questioning in your mind. It is a small price to pay. It doesn't take a very sharp edge to damage the rope sheath, and replacing a rope is more expensive than replacing the biner. 

Think about it as cost spread over lifetime. Let's say that at your frequency of climbing trips you SHOULD retire the rope-side biners every 5 years. But instead, you are playing it extra-safe, and replacing them every 4 years. In 20 year's time you had to buy just ONE set of extra biners... Even if you have a rack of 20 draws and using expensive biners, that is what, $200 over 20 years? so $10/year?

Another option is to strategically use steel biners or steel-insert biners on the 1st bolt and anchors, where you are most likely to see the wear happening quickly.

As others have mentioned, strength is not so much the issue with the wear but the sharp edges that can form are a concern. The aluminum that the carabiner is made from is quite soft to taking some sandpaper to the edges to smooth and round them off isn't harmful. Just make sure to smooth the surface well if doing this procedure.
As the biner gets down to 1/3 way through you'll probably want to use them for bailing and key chains. Otherwise off to the local metal recycler with them.

Cheers

I would be more sketched out by some ancient-ass-sun-faded dogbones and slings than really scuffed up but functional carabiners.  

that being said the top blue one might need to be sent to the retirement home of just holding key rings or something

Those definitely needs retiring

El Duderinowrote:

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I did a search of the forums regarding this question to no avail.  How much wear do you put on your quickdraw carabiners before you retire them?  I've heard 1mm of wear can be enough to damage a rope, but it's a bit tricky for me to measure on the curve of the spine.  Or is it less a function of the amount of wear so much as the sharpness of the edge it creates?

I think you should retire carabiners when you are thinking about retiring them, if u don't trust your gear, it sucks allot, replacing the carabiners is a small price to pay, for feeling safe, but a carabineer should be retired if: A) any severe visible damage (from falling for example) B) any sharp edges where the rope or sling makes contact C) more then 10% of the material is worn out, check by comparing to the same biner but new, D) the carabineer doesn't close or open properly(after applying lube)

https://youtu.be/7qEvvobz5YQ?si=UB3QdxJLySL4wUc1

Hard is easy is doing the lord's work. SCIENCE!!!

Jeremy Lwrote:

https://youtu.be/7qEvvobz5YQ?si=UB3QdxJLySL4wUc1

Hard is easy is doing the lord's work. SCIENCE!!!

two of the archangels of climbing "hard is easy" and "Hownot2". hallow be their names

If there's any doubt, there is no doubt

Based on the HiE + Mammut collab video, none of OP's carabiners are close to being dangerous.  Even a F2 fall wouldn't generate enough force to break them.