CAMP USA is currently recalling Photon carabiners as well as Photon and Mach Express quickdraws with Photon carabiners because the gate may open under a heavy load, such as a fall, and cause serious injury or death to a climber.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission asked importer CAMP USA in Broomfield, Colorado, to voluntarily recall 15,500 Photon carabiners in the United States. The agency advises climbers to stop using the carabiners immediately. Contact CAMP USA through their website or by calling toll-fee at (877) 421--2267 to return Photon carabiners for a refund.
The carabiners were imported from China and sold in the United States from February 2011 through March 2011. The Photon carabiners are a variety of colors, including brown, green, yellow, and silver. The recalled quickdraws are composed of white or black webbing with yellow, green, or gray stitching and Photon carabiners attached to each end of the quickdraw sling.
While no accidents or injuries have been reported that directly relate to the use of Photon carabiners, the Consumer Product Safety Commission asks that anyone involved in a possible incident should contact them at www.saferproducts.gov.
CAMP USA reports at rockclimbing.com that they "sold less than 300 units of the Photon in the time between when released it to market and discovered the anomaly." The 15,500 is the number of Photons manufactured, but most of those ordered by retailers hadn't made it to the floor before the recall.
CAMP USA calls it "a really strange and frustrating problem." They report that a small number of Photons under high load do a "weird creep that then puts the biner in the open gate configuration." CAMP also says that it is unlikely one will break but customer safety is a "top priority."
They are unable to devise a test to easily identify defective carabiners so they are recalling all of them. CAMP has also tweaked the Photon mold and is making production samples and will "be testing the snot out of these" before producing and re-releasing the Photon. They expect Photon carabiners to be back in retail shops within 60 days and apologize for the inconvenience.
I look forward to the new and improved Photon carabiners. The ones I use are super lightweight--the Photon Wire weighs only 1.02 ounces--but are larger than similar carabiners. They also have a large gate making it easy to the clip it to a rope or other carabiners.
Read more about carabiners:
All About Climbing Carabiners
Locking Carabiners: Essential Climbing Equipment
Worn Carabiner Cuts Climbing Rope at Red River Gorge
How to Clean Carabiners
Comments
This is why you don’t contract out production of safety equipment to the lowest bidder in CHINA! Keep the manufacturing of climbing gear in countries where top quality control standards exist.