I bought this for belaying a second. At first I was concerned because it was very difficult to pull slack through, but then, I switched the carabiners up some and it pulls like a dream. Lowering a weighted climber is really easy. It takes about 20 seconds to set up.

Overall, I'm happy with the B-52 in most situations except when belaying a heavier climber on a smaller diameter rope on sports routes. I've found that the rope tends to want to run a little too smoothly and just the other day I let my climbing buddy down a little too quickly in the last 2-3 metres of his descent because the 9.8mm rope we were using just ran through my hands. Other than that, it's been great - it's my preferred belay device for smaller/lighter climbers. Feeding rope to a leader is extremely smooth. One little niggle - I have found that if the break rope slides around to the corner or around the corner of the belaying edge of the device, it introduces rope twist when letting a climber down. Otherwise, it's a pretty good device!

GREAT
This belay device is great, just got one and cant keep my hands off it!
Smooth feeding and easy blocking, what more could you ask for.
Even when im not climbing or using it,I just look at it

Sad but true

This is another device that I just had to buy and try, but not sure what I’ll do with it now. It seems to be a great backup device for guiding, as you can offer a leader a silky smooth belay and rappel beautifully with it. It even does a heck of a job belaying one follower, but doesn’t seem the best for working with 2 followers and I’ve never figured out how to release a loaded system with one of these. I understand it all in theory, but never truly worked it out on the rocks. You can find great instructions on the Trango website . So I guess I’m not a very big fan, and wouldn’t recommend that you rush out and buy one when there are so many other good devices that do what the B52 does. As a whole I think Trango climbing gear is super great equipment at a fair price, but with this piece, I think I’ll stick with my Kong Gi-Gi until I’ve got enough time on my hands to figure this one out.

I have been using this belay device for about 2-3 years now and it works amazingly on ropes smaller than 11mm. It is smooth and easlily lock off. However when I use it on 11mm rope that have expanded a bit it becomes quite a work out to pull rope through.