New Petzl Pantin common fault

[ian.p]

On this years Ario Caves project expedition at least 5 people have had the webbing fail on their Petzl Pantin in the same place on the jammer brackets. Most of these jammers were bought new for the expedition. The new style of Pantin has much thinner webbing then the old style and does not seem to be up to the job furthermore because the webbing is so thin it is very hard to repair effectively. I would strongly advise against purchasing a new pantin you will get approximately 1500 - 2000m of ascent before failure.

 

[Les W]

Have you/are you reporting this to Petzl?
I'm pretty sure they will be quite interested in acquiring information on what appears to be a systematic fault on one of their products...

 

[ian.p]

yes the problem is being reported to petzl

 

[Amy]

Same happened to my pantin. I replaced webbing myself though. Mine was a right foot. So its not just "that cave" or something if they ask.

 

[ChrisJC]

The webbing on mine failed, but on the part that gets trodden on. I replaced the webbing which I seem to recall was cheap enough.

The learning for me was not to keep it on my foot whilst walking around for extended periods.

Chris.

 

[paul]

I'm on my third replacement strap/harness for my original version Pantin. The previous two broke where the strap wraps around part of the body behind the cam.
The third replacement seems to be stiffer than the previous two and keeps catching on the cam.
So, I bought a new style Pantin as these replacement straps are not cheap. And now it seems these new style straps break as well. Rats.

 

[jarvist]

And now it seems these new style straps break as well. Rats.

Just to chime in with ian.p; we are observing the same thing in Slovenia - though estimate 2-3km of prussicing (with fastidious removal for horizontal passage). Where it breaks and the length of the strap makes it impossible to improvise an in-cave repair (too little excess length to tie a water knot).

This is a pathetic design failure on Petzl's part. The strap is failing due to internal wear within the bracket, not the cave environment, and should have been picked up at the level of a repetitive loading test.

My old style pantin is on >10km in identical conditions and still not failed. (Though it's pretty worn, and I have a spare strap in my expo kit bag!)

 

[Alex]

Yes I think I have the old style one as I must have done at least 5k on the thing over the years I have had it.