Fusion Climbing -- Carabiners

Bought two autolocking carabiners today at the local rental store that carries arborist stuff but then I get home and decide to search around and try to figure out who made them... and I find this...

http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=1898337;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

I have a couple of Aztec steel biners from this company. I liked the triangle shape and the fact that they came with pins to keep rope and other connections from side loading the gate.

Here's there site http://fusionclimb.com/aztec.html Not too impressive.

Thanks for posting the link to the rock ckimbing forum. There is some VERY interesting info on there. I have seen these products in a few arborist catalogs and stores that sell such products. I'm not sure I'll be usig the biners I have any more

Well, I went to the UIAA website (although I don't really know where they fit in with ANSI, etc) and downloaded the \"approved products\" list, and according to the list Fusion only has two approved products: Essence and Zoom. I believe the carabiners I have are the Essence aluminum autolockers, part number 9313-2, but the online Fusion catalog now says the Essence are rated 26kN while mine are marked 30kN. They are also marked ANSI Z359.1 but how do I find the ANSI approved products list to see if they really are approved?

Two factors figure in here:

1.You say you only believe that yours are the ones that are approved.

2. You paid very little for those \"approved\" biners.

There you go agin' Dave, tryin' ta save a buck 'er two. The above 2 factors alone would not allow me to climb on them 'biners. I know you might be quite the maverick, but if I were yoo, I'd cut 'em in half with a hacksaw (so no one else could use 'em ya know). Joe Six-pack would tass 'em, and git himself a coupla nice Petzl ones. OK?

(Sorry, I slipped into a little Sarah Palin there. Just saw her on TV - that accent makes me crazy.

There is no info on the Fusion web site about where the carabiners are made and there is no information about the company besides an address and a phone number. Either they're not paying attention to their public image or they're hiding something. The reported very low prices indicates they're probably outsourcing manufacture to the lowest bidder. Low bid is fine for some things but not for life support gear. If they're manufacturing and testing in a quality way they should be talking about that on their web site.

I like the designs of some of their 'biners, hopefully they'll get their act together and demonstrate the quality of their product (if it's there).

Dave, (since you have their biners in hand) it might be worth shooting them an email and asking them where they make their biners and ask them to send documentation/description of their safety testing methodology.
-moss

moss wrote:

The reported very low prices indicates they're probably outsourcing manufacture to the lowest bidder. Low bid is fine for some things but not for life support gear. If they're manufacturing and testing in a quality way they should be talking about that on their web site.

If I had seen them on Ebay I would have been much more suspicious. I saw them for $15.30 at a local store which sells Buckingham and Samson.

Davej wrote:

If I had seen them on Ebay I would have been much more suspicious. I saw them for $15.30 at a local store which sells Buckingham and Samson.

A few of the larger True Value Hardware stores sell gear from both of those companies as well as Weaver Leather, Kong, some CMI stuff and New England rope. The also sell Petzl biners right next to the cheaper Fusion ones. That's why I bought my Fusion \"Rescue\" steel biners. They were a lot cheaper than the petzl units. I've spoken to my local store owner about this subject. He said there is a package that stores in the \"group\" get. The stores don't actually order specific items unless a customer requests something. The items just \"come in\" with the regular order. It's not the individual store who has the power in this case. It's the True Value corporate office. Go figure. Big business often sells the cheapest made items to the unsuspecting public, even if they ARE for the purpose of protecting human life.

I read a bit about this company and they do not sound to me like a reputable company that I want to hand my body from 50 feet up in the air by one of their low price ( made in China)binners.
Their ratings are screwy, their web page is lousy. It does not even show where they are made and the fact they are have regular \"close out sales\" on line on E-bay. Uhmmm!

I rather pay a little bit more and be secure that I get a Petzl or CMI, ISC even one made for REI or one of the other reputable manufacturers that have been in business for a long time and Meet USA-ANSI and EC standards.
Just the fact they also make Key chains makes me wonder.

But every climber is responsible for his/her own safety as previously mentioned by Tom D. Be careful what gear you buy, 'cause your life is hanging from it!

I can get a good PETZL, DMM, Kong, or Omega Pacific binner from REI, New Tribe, Wesspur or Sherrill for around $15 to $25 bucks. I think my life is worth that much!
I do not want to show up in the \"Accidents and Close Calls\" section of TCI or TCC.

Hello,
Thanks to one of our customers that reached out to us, we were informed of a blog with false comments about our products. I Just wanted to clarify the information to dispel any rumors. We absolutely are CE & UIAA certified. Please check our website for the actual certificates from CE and UIAA: http://www.fusionclimb.com/Testing_ep_49-1.html. Here’s an example of the certificate from CE: http://www.fusionclimb.com/assets/images/CSN%20EN%20CERT%20FP-9301-ST_page1_image1.jpg
And another example from UIAA: https://www.fusionclimb.com/assets/images/SL2016_FP-3901-ST.pdf
Here’s the link direct from UIAA that shows our certificate holder status: http://www.theuiaa.org/safety-label-holders.html
We only sell products that we would use ourselves and most of our products comply with ANSI ratings and they always have, ever since we started in the construction industry for the last 17 years. We also have a 3rd party testing certificate on our products available upon request.
If you have any questions it is always better to contact us directly and we are more than willing to send you certificates for any carabiners, harnesses, hooks, buckles, grabs, rings, and swivels, etc. I just hope you all will try our products first and come straight to the source instead of relying on rumors from blogs that can be written by anyone. We are the little guys trying to make our way up and we have very competitive pricing for our great, quality products. Feel free to call us at (909)393-9450 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. at any time.
Thank you.
Fusion Climb Team