Wet Rope Strength

Four inches is the magic number for maintaining full strength in a rope up to 5 8.

Wet rope strength.

Rope strength is a misunderstood metric. Any bend tighter than 4 reduces the strength of rope because they stress the rope in flexure the fibers weaker direction. However when wet it is possible to see as much as a 70 percent reduction in dynamic performance which is important when taking a lead fall. According to sterling rope a non dry treated rope can lose 70 percent of its strength and a dry treated rope can be 40 percent weaker when wet.

In sterling s tests an 11 mm drycore rope held 11 falls dry and seven falls wet. A wet rope is not dangerously weakened for rappelling compared with a dry rope. Both of these are important measurements and it s worth learning how to measure and understand them. A wet rope is not dangerously weakened for rappelling compared with a dry rope.

Static strength is most important when rappelling and ropes can have up to a 30 percent strength loss there. Static strength is most important when rappelling and ropes can have up to a 30 percent strength loss there. One boater will talk about tensile strength while the other will talk about working load. Strength is the tensile strength from the manufactures specifications without knots.

But again for toproping this isn t an issue. Each of these measurements has different uses and here we re going to give. Strength 8 is the min. Test 2 is the wet test with figure of eight knots.

But a wet nylon rope is also weaker than a dry one.