I still think a carabiner would be weaker and less secure in every imaginable way. Keep in mind that a biner's strength plumets when the load moves even a centimeter from its strong axis (represented by the indentations next to the spine, made by the 5mm steel pins of the testing aparatus).

First, speaking as an official Omega person, I confirm that the the rap rings are designed to be used as rappel rings. Anything other than that is outside the parameters of design and I can't say that they're appropriate for anything else until a bunch of pointy-headed engineers and designers around here sit down to talk about it for a long time.

The rap rings are tested like our 'biners. That is, they're put in a load cell with CE-compliant fixtures and loaded to failure. Three-sigma applies and 20kN is the rated strength. They are built with similar material to our biners e.g. 7000-series aluminum and the barstock is 11mm, pretty much the same as our standard Oval 'biner.

Therefore, when it comes to wear and repeated lowering (meaning ropes running over the aluminum), you can expect it to wear and behave much like our oval would.

Likewise, when using our Rap Rings, one must be careful not to apply simultaneous, multi-directional loading. In other words, put the load along one single axis. To load them otherwise is to weaken them. Just like a carabiner.