UKH

Does anyone else find it hard to lower a climber using the Edelrid Ohm? ie there is too much friction?

Trialled one at the wall recently with my relatively inexperienced partner. I am approx an additional 35% heavier than her. While she found the experience of holding falls to be much more pleasant - no more being lifted considerably in the air towards the first clipped bolt, she did struggle with lowering me.

Using a Clic-up which she is very familar with she had to hold the device fully open and even then had to hold her brake hand above the device and amost feed the rope into the device to lower me.

This was even the case on flat panel walls with no changes of angle and therefore no additional friction from rope rubbing on the wall. When routes were done on walls that had varied angles that added friction points the problem was even worse and resulted in a painfully slow decent that saw me get very dizzy as I slowly spun while hanging in space.

Given most routes at walls have less friction than outdoor routes I imagine the problem would only be even worse outside?

While we both had no issue with the device while I was leading or falling off the problems with lowering are a big put-off for such an expensive device.

Anyone else have similar observations?

Was she standing close into the wall whilst lowering?

The greater the change of angle created in the rope, the more it pulls into the breaking groove of the Ohm - if the belayer stands too far back from the wall this may cause issues when lowering. 

Standing directly beneath it may cause it not to function correctly too, so check the manual if you’re fiddling around with where the belayer is standing!

We did play around with position to little effect. She was generally standing a metre or two out in a similar position that most folk would at the wall. Once lowering commenced (and the rope had already been pulled into the v-groove) moving closer in to try and stand directly under the route also had no noticeable affect.

Personally when I belay outside, I move around a lot. I move to get a better view of the climber as they progress up a route, I move forward and back to give slack quicker when the leader clips. And where you stand (outside) is often governed by the nature of the ground and other obstacles. If one has to stand rigidly in a pre-determined 'sweet-spot' in order to get 'just the right amount of friction' then it is not the device I hoped it was.

My only reservation is that as the heavier partner I was not able to try lowering someone on it myself. Then again I could clearly see the trouble she was having lowering me.

Hmm, that’s me out of ideas about the lowering issues then I’m afraid, unless you were using a rope diameter outside the parameters of the Ohm?

As far as I’ve seen you can still move around as you like whilst belaying, you should just avoid standing directly beneath it. It works based on being pulled outwards away from the wall, so as long as you don’t prevent this I guess it’s all good. 

Be interested to hear more as you play with it, and anyone else’s thoughts. So far everyone I know with one is raving about it...

I'm over 18 stone, and people who use it to belay me have commented that it "makes it like belaying someone a normal size".  However, I've tried it with two ropes - my old fuzzy wall rope made it grip a lot tighter than my new fancy 9.5mm one.  It seems that it generally provides a similar amount of grip that putting an Italian hitch in the rope on the first bolt would.

If your rope is quite worn, you might want to get a new one, possibly a bit skinnier.  If you're using it with fuzzy thick wall top-ropes...well, personally, I just found that too cack-handed (the rope running down the wall to the device gets in the way) and have switched to leading everything, which is probably no bad thing.

FWIW with your weight difference you're borderline if you need it or not - I've tended to find a belayer 2/3 of my weight is fine though they do get tugged up a bit.  It's really useful for me because I'm heavier than the two people I climb with most put together

we find that lowering with an ohm in the system is a bit slow too. on a slabby route using an ATC my partner almost has to feed rope through the belay device This seems much worse on routes with a low first bolt. as others say getting right below the device helps. it seems much smoother lowering on vertical/overhanging routes.

I'd be interested to see some data on how different rope thicknesses perform in the Ohm, i would consider buying a skinnier rope if it helps with lowering.

I would add that me and my partner think its a fantastic device and the advantages of the extra friction far outweigh the faff when lowering. 

Thanks for your thoughts. The rope is question is pretty new, definately not furry and on the thinner rather than thicker side (though i do not recall the exact diameter) so that cant be the culprit.

And the weight difference is closer to 50% (my bad maths) which is pretty considerable in my books.

Deleted my original post in light of the updated info on weight difference. I wouldn't recommend an Ohm at 35% but at 50%+ weight difference, even after a couple of decades of belaying I get nervous about hitting the first draw holding bigger falls, so probably worth persevering and trying the suggestion of different ropes.

Do you mean you are 150% of them?  That's in my experience (the top end of) fine, certainly for top-roping, though you might still want to use the Ohm for leading.  (One of the reasons I love it is that it has given me extra confidence leading as I don't feel that the belayer is going to be slammed against the wall or the first bolt).

If you mean you are twice them (as I am most people who belay me) it's very much needed.

I've not used a Click Up - does that give a lot of friction when lowering?  Could it be a factor of the krab used with it?  Does the problem persist with a tubular device e.g. a Bug?

the only downside I encountered is that the belayer cannot walk away from the wall too much. Which is ennoying in very overhanging routes since the climber can climb out of sight.

I guess the device will also be problematic in routes with a lot of rope drag.

But, a great invention.

Why can't the belayer walk away from the wall more?  The effect is greater the closer the rope is to a 90 degree angle through the device.

Didn't find it problematic at all, when I was belaying quite a bit heavier bloke on a few outdoor routes.

Yah, first time it was nasty... but then I figured out that once the anchor is clipped, keep the rope tight and have the climber bear their full weight on the rope. Then a bit of rattling on the rope sort of makes releases the Ohm and then gently get really close to the wall and start lowering... a bit of movement (rattling) keeps the Ohm from locking and lowering is a breeze.

Another thing to bear in mind about the Ohm is that sometimes if there's slack out it doesn't obviously "fall down" in the way it does without it, so make sure to keep an eye (by feel) out that there isn't a load out that you can't see.

That's exactly why. If the belayer moves out too far, the Ohm produces too much drag.

Ah.  I haven't noticed that being too much of an issue, but it'll depend on the rope.

then the Ohm tends to block when you are pulling up rope for clipping draws.

I find it does that anyway if you pull up really quickly.  The leader just has to get used to dropping and pulling back up more slowly.  It basically acts a bit like a seat belt.

Pulling up quickly is still OK (and required for some of the clips I make....). The belayer just needs to feed out much more slack than without the Ohm and make sure that the angle stays ok.