Catch Belay Device

This was my first belay device and I used it belaying topropes in a gym for a couple of weeks before I abandoned it. I belayed frieds from 50-90 kg on skinny and thick ropes and i was never able to lower smoth. Maybe heavy people with skinny ropes and double carabiners will work.
Buy an ATC or any thing else instead. Its not rocketscience so I wonder how the designers managed to fail so bad

Its a great device but for smaller ropes. In Europe it is uncommon to use 11mm or even 10.5mm ropes. Add to that, most US rope manufacturer are producing slightly oversizd ropes and you have a device that binds up. Rating 1 or 2 for fat ropes 4 or 5 for skinny ropes. Faders historically makes very high quality gear. Use two belay carabiners if you own this device and are using fat ropes, should help out allot. I saw I believe Lisa Gnade (Petro) doing this back in the day and found it to be a useful trick.

Been using this for years, was the only belay device available in the store at the time.

Is fairly good, with just a couple of negative points:

1) Loks down againts the belay biner quite easily, making...
1.1) ... rapelling difficult
1.2) .... feeding out on skinny ropes difficult.

By far not my favorite belay device. It does what you ask of it, but the thing jams too easy and locks down against the carabiner. With anything other than fat and fuzzy ropes it locks down hard and is a PITA. Variable friction depending how you rotate it is a plus, but it doesn't make very much of a difference. It is very cheap, and very light so it would be suitable for a backup perhaps. I think it is the same as the Rock Empire Tube Style belay device so the same comments apply here.