New England Maxim Ropes - Poor Quality & Dangerous
August 20th, 2008 | by everyday.explorer |
New England Ropes just left a comment on a post about their rope recall because I was “misleading the general public”. A few weeks ago they announced that they had produced some faulty ropes that needed to be recalled because “The climbing lines can break, posing a serious fall hazard for climbers”. Judging from the comment “Dan” left, the recall was due to a “fiber issue”.
Apparently I was “misleading the public” because I associated my near fatal experience with my New England Maxim 10.2mm rope with the recall of the Maxim Apoge 9.1mm and the 9.5mm Pinnacle.
I have never said that the New England Maxim 10.2mm rope I was using that fateful was being recalled. What I have said in the past and what I am saying now is that New England Ropes (the company) obviously has a quality control problem judging from the recall and in my opinion the New England Maxim 10.2mm is a poorly constructed rope.
The reasons I know that this is a poorly constructed rope:
1) When I took it out of the protective plastic wrap I had to flake the rope 30 or 40 times before it would stop twisting itself into loops.
2) The workability of the rope was almost laughable even after repeated uses.
3) It took a coreshot on terrain that should have just fuzzied the sheath.
4) Terrible customer service and I mean terrible.
After my bad experience with my New England rope I tried to contact them three times and didn’t get any form of reply. No email, no phone call, no nothing. Now they want to make nice because I am telling people I will never climb with New England ropes again. Really guys… come on… how pathetic is that.
When I rope up I need to know that my rope is solid. Your rope is your lifeline and it is just crazy to even have a shadow of doubt about what keeps you alive when the shit hits the fan.
After my bad experience with the New England Maxim 10.2mm rope I switched to Mammut’s Genesis 8.5mm doubles and have been thrilled with them. Granted, they are more expensive but they are worth every penny.
