Review on Nite Ize Stainless Carabiner Separately by Michael Bressler

It can be fantastic right away. But unfortunately the production does not match the design. If you look at my photos, the first shows poor casting/stamping of the area where the sprues should fit into the "notches" in the S-shaped pieces. . Each one I received (and I placed several orders over the course of several weeks and ended up buying four or five of these sets) had incomplete casting or stamping, resulting in warped or missing cutouts. The design requires that the latches line up with the slots and slide into the slots to secure the bins AND ensure the locking knobs are properly tensioned so that the knobs engage easily enough but are still firm enough to latch to stay. I've read the reviews where they complain that the locks are very difficult to close. And I've read reviews where the locks fail after a while. If the cutouts are poorly formed or missing, the pressure required to engage the locks will be excessive. This makes latching difficult and leads to excessive forces, which will soon cause the latch to fail. What I had to do with ALL of these little binders before I could use them and rely on them was use a little round file to create the cuts. And since the gate doesn't hit the exact same spot every time, I have to look at where the gate is trying to align with the (nonexistent) notch and then put the notch where it works. Eventually, since the formation or opening of the grooves allows the gate to move further outward, in this case the locks turn too easily, resulting in an unreliable lock. So I bend the side of each door that hooks the lock to get what I think is the right amount of tension (not too tight, but not too loose). Ideally, with the right tension, the locks can engage and disengage fairly easily, yet be tight enough to remain securely locked. Time will tell if the lockdowns hold or not. But they should be better than they were the way these trusses came out of the factory. I would like Nite Ize to put some pressure on their factory in China to make them more carefully and correctly. It's a shame that what appears to be a beautiful design is marred by poor workmanship. Again, the first of the photos I've attached shows the typical condition of the locking notch on one of these biners as received. Then if you follow the photos you can see how I put a zip tie over the two gates to hold them open. Then I put the biner in a small vise. Then I check the position of the sprue and make a cut in the right place, checking the alignment of the sprue with the groove, which I file several times. Finally, I use needle nose pliers to bend one side of each gate to achieve the desired lock tension. If you bend it too much, you can bend it back. The key is to adjust the gate so that the lock operates at the desired tension. I've made this zip tie once and reused it, attaching it to each carabiner as needed. So this cable tie has become something of a "tool" for this process. Since I have a lot of these little folders, I needed a way to make this whole process quick and easy. Hope this helps everyone. Look around your carabiners and see if they are that badly formed/stamped. And if it does, you can tweak the grooves and set the gate so it works the way it's supposed to. A cheap item like this is hardly worth the trouble of getting it right and SHOULD be as received. But after the repair/tuning they are actually very comfortable. So it's worth it (sort of). I probably should have sent them all back. But after receiving several orders for them they were all bad but I wanted to use them. I'm sure the replacement sent to me would have been just as bad. I posted 12 photos and Revain only shows 2 chosen at random. So I think the review and instructions I posted are pretty much useless! Okay, it's been a few weeks and now all my photos are showing. Thank you to everyone who viewed this review and decided to allow all photos to be viewed! I hope this overview and how-to is clear enough in case someone else decides to do the same repair on their device to get it working properly.