My first belay device...what a dissapointment! I had such high hopes but it just always jams when belaying a climber down. I am now going to have to buy a new 1 and spend extra maoney. dont wast yours and buy a dif 1 first time.

i love this belay. ive used a few diffirent belays, bd xp was nice but this bites much harder. althogh for belaing smaller climbers, its a little over kil. my girlfriend weighs under 100lbs and i have to feed rope, on the other hand i weigh 225 and for raping the bd xp was way to fast, this was just right, besides for under $14 how can you go wrong?

It is actually not a bad top-rope device. Just don't try to belay anybody that weighs under a buck twenty because it doesn't come with a handle to rotate it towards you and unjam it at that point-especially on 11mm. Takes some getting used to because the Lock off and Feed are so defined, especially on softer ropes. Don't use it for lead cause you won't be able to pay out that slack unless you hold it off of the carabiner with your brake hand (but don't do that). It's just a tad too short/low-profile, but it's almost perfect for rappelling if you weigh enough.

Disclosure: I received a free device for testing this product to replace a recently lost ATC.

This device is a bit more on the 'catch' side of belay devices, and less on the 'feed' side. I have used this device for top rope and sport lead belaying and although I was at first frustrated by its eagerness to grip the rope, I admit that it has grown on me. Ropes smaller than 10.5mm will allow a more trouble free feeding.

As for the comment by dr_monkey (below) about it going from lock-off to Feeeeeed! very abrubtly, I would also agree. Although I have worked around this for lowering by lifting the device with my non-brake hand. I suspect this might pose a larger problem on rappel, and adding another biner might help with that (I haven't tested rappel yet).

Edited: I ended up buying an ATC to replace this POS. Finally got too fed up with feeding rope with it. That should tell you all you need to know about whether to buy this, or the original ATC.

I use this belay device and love it. It is symilar to the ATC XP, but feeds rope smoother in my oppinion! It also has better braking power which makes it easier to catch bigger falls or bigger people. It you find it has too much friction, you can just switch the way you feed the rope. I have used it on skinny ropes (8.0) and ropes up to 10.5.