Original Post

Mr. Stevens · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 1,564 Oct 19, 2014 · Boulder, CO I have a fairly new yellow fixe alien, which has never been fallen on and only placed a handful of times. I was climbing this past weekend and hung on this particular piece (it was a perfect placement in a splitter Indian Creek crack). I did not fall, I placed the piece and gently hung on it. The cam worked just fine, nothing happened, I rested and continued on with the rest of the pitch. I lowered and cleaned all my gear, didn't notice anything unusual. As I was racking my gear at the base I noticed that the yellow alien looked a bit strange. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the bolt or whatever it is that holds the lobes on the cam had simply fallen off and/or come unscrewed. With this piece not intact it allows the lobes on that one side to simply slide right off. I've already contacted the place where I bought it and they were very nice and told me to bring it in so that they could warranty it and notify the company.



alien



alien



alien



alien



alien

highaltitudeflatulentexpulsion · Joined Oct 2012 · Points: 35 Oct 19, 2014 · Colorado You're right, it is just a nut. It's rounded so it can't be taken off with a wrench but that's all it is.



It's supposed to have red loctite on it. If it came off without special tool and/or heat, it's totally a manufacturer error.



That's scary. I wonder if they forgot or if it's bad loctite. Is there any residue on the threads or are they totally clean?

bearbreeder · Joined Mar 2009 · Points: 3,065 Oct 19, 2014 · Unknown Hometown Its happened before



supertopo.com/climbers-foru…



Fixe get your QC act together .... And i do own and use a full set of fixe aliens



;)

teece303 · Joined Dec 2012 · Points: 596 Oct 19, 2014 · Highlands Ranch, CO And here I thought the Aliens QC errors were a thing of the past. Yikes!

Mr. Stevens · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 1,564 Oct 19, 2014 · Boulder, CO nicelegs wrote: Is there any residue on the threads or are they totally clean? There's a bit of residue on the threads There's a bit of residue on the threads

Geir www.ToofastTopos.com · Joined Jun 2006 · Points: 2,635 Oct 19, 2014 · Tucson, AZ Thanks for the heads up. I am surprised the nut came off as it takes a hell of a lot to break loose that thread locker. (I have removed this nut disassembling a couple of CCH aliens.)

NC Rock Climber · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 60 Oct 20, 2014 · The Oven, AKA Phoenix I have said this before, so I probably sound like a broken record...



Totem's "alien," called the Basic Cam, appears to be much more refined and better made. IMHO, it is not even a contest. I highly recommend Totem's Basic Cam as the way to go in the small cam category.



I hope that the OP will keep us posted on how Fixe responds to this and what they identify as the root cause of the issue.

Mr. Stevens · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 1,564 Jan 8, 2015 · Boulder, CO It's been a while, but just wanted to let anyone interested know that I brought the cam to Neptune Mountaineering (where I purchased it) and they were super quick to give me my money back and send the cam to fixe. I never got word of what happened after that, so this is more just a shout out to Neptune and their quick, helpful service. They were all pretty frightened looking at the cam!



This further solidified my preference for metolius in the finger sized pieces!

MP · Joined Sep 2013 · Points: 2 Jan 9, 2015 · Unknown Hometown Hello,



I'm the climber from the supertopo thread who had the exact same failure on my fixe alien.



Fixe was awesome about warranting it, i was very impressed.



Note that the new generation of Fixe aliens (evolutions I think they are called?) now uses the same method of attaching cam lobes to the axle as Totem uses on their "totem basics." It appears to be both a stronger and slimmer mechanical solution.



best of luck,

matt

Jeff Gicklhorn · Joined May 2008 · Points: 300 Jan 9, 2015 · Tucson, AZ Was just talking to someone in Bishop this last weekend who had this same thing happen on a blue Fixe alien. The cam was less than six months old, and Kevin Daniel's (Owner of FIXE USA, and who lives in Bishop BTW) response to him was simply tough luck, and that all gear has a life expectancy.



I agree, support Totem.

Josh Kornish · Joined Sep 2009 · Points: 805 Jan 10, 2015 · tufaclimbing.com I won't even consider purchasing a product from Fixe after hearing how Kevin responds to product issues.



Same thing with Petzl ropes.



The problem isn't really the problem for me. It's how their customer service responds to these issues

Ryan Marsters · Joined Jan 2011 · Points: 1,366 Jun 23, 2015 · Golden, CO Thought I'd tack on to this post as I have a similar experience. Brand new alien purchased a month ago from Neptune.



It has not taken a fall; placed about 3 times. My girlfriend was leading a pitch, got a bit nervous, and bailed. She semi-hung (low angle dihedral - 2nd pitch of Hiatus at Lumpy) on the cam while placing a larger cam to lower off of. I'd estimate partial body weight, about 60 lbs or so, placed gently on the cam.



The trigger wires came out of the brass (?) casing during cleaning - the brass appears crushed as if it had taken a fall. Defect?



Alien failure

bearbreeder · Joined Mar 2009 · Points: 3,065 Jun 24, 2015 · Unknown Hometown One of our local gear shops indicated that some of the new aliens were brought back with broken wires ... There was some manufacturing issue



;)

Matt Westlake · Joined Jul 2009 · Points: 632 Jun 30, 2015 · Durham, NC Looking at that picture it seems like the wire is broken on diagonal opposite sides. Is it possible that was caused by rotating the trigger wire keeper (or whatever it's called) too far while keeping the cams locked in one position? More or less what the hand is starting to do in that picture... that would seem like a way to get failure with a lower load. Maybe that is obvious/the point of holding the cam that way in the picture.



The old alien and basic appear to have a smaller keeper than that new one. Also how rigid is the connection between the trigger and the keeper?



Matt

djh860 · Joined Dec 2014 · Points: 110 Jun 30, 2015 · Unknown Hometown I've dealt with totem on quality control. They are crazy for it . The man said the would retest the Batch my cam came from as they still had some at the plant. When a cam had a loose trigger wire