I have to say this is well made little stiff but being a big guy it holds strong and don't show sign of wear after few uses I'm going to say it's tge best deal for the money and we'll just as good as high end rope. The life line ascender is well made its very stiff I took it off and worked it around to soften it up some and it worked really good ..Note\" I recommend doing this to insure it grips as it should . When I f7rst tried it out I noticed it was slipping a little ti I set it hard . So I suggest doing what I said before first use .. it's not a malfunction issue it's from being new so don't worry about it not working it will wirk great.. I'm surprised how ever it don't have a warning for break in on that issue tho. But I'm going to give this a 4 star rating only because of that reason. I look forward to buying another one.