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CAMP USA Dyon Review

The Dyon is an excellent carabiner that we found effective in a wide variety of climbing applications
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CAMP USA Dyon Review
Credit: Backcountry
Price:  $15 List
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Manufacturer:   CAMP USA
By Brian Martin ⋅ Review Editor  ⋅  Oct 26, 2020
77
OVERALL
SCORE


RANKED
#4 of 9
  • Clipping - 25% 9.0
  • Unclipping - 20% 8.0
  • Weight - 20% 7.0
  • Gate Clearance - 20% 6.0
  • Handling - 15% 8.0

Our Verdict

The Camp Dyon is an excellent and versatile wire gate carabiner offering a balance between ultralight tiny biners and the jumbo trad dad biners from the 90s. The Dyon is both lightweight and offers fantastic ease of clipping for those high-stress clips when fiddling around could land you in a world of pain. The smooth nose offered excellent clipping and unclipping earning top marks in both category. It was a tall order to find any cons with the Dyon and feel it is worthy of any climbing mission.
REASONS TO BUY
Easy clipping and unclipping
Keylock design
Lightweight for medium size biner
REASONS TO AVOID
Relatively expensive

Compare to Similar Products

 
camp usa dyon
This Product
CAMP USA Dyon
Awards  Editors' Choice Award
Best Overall Carabiner
Top Pick Award
Easiest to Clip
Best Buy Award
Best Bang for the Buck
Top Pick Award
Best Ultralight Carabiner
Price $14.95 at Backcountry
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$7.95 at REI
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$14.95 at REI
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$8.00 List
$7.95 at REI
$6.95 at REI
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Overall Score Sort Icon
77
86
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66
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Star Rating
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Bottom Line The Camp Dyon is an easy handling, lightweight 'biner that is a true all-arounderA very affordable carabiner that is also one of the easiest to use and won’t cost you anything on the scaleProvides very simple clipping and unclipping action, and feels great in the handsAn affordable option for racking your camming devicesThe ultralight climber’s dream carabiner: lightweight and tiny, yet full strength
Rating Categories CAMP USA Dyon CAMP Photon Wire Wild Country Helium... Trango Phase Carabiner Black Diamond MiniWire
Clipping (25%)
9.0
9.0
10.0
6.0
5.0
Unclipping (20%)
8.0
8.0
9.0
6.0
5.0
Weight (20%)
7.0
8.0
5.0
8.0
10.0
Gate Clearance (20%)
6.0
9.0
8.0
7.0
6.0
Handling (15%)
8.0
9.0
9.0
6.0
7.0
Specs CAMP USA Dyon CAMP Photon Wire Wild Country Helium... Trango Phase Carabiner Black Diamond MiniWire
Manufacturer Weight (g) 33g 30g 38g 30g 23g
Gate Closed (kN) 21 22 24 24 20
Sideways (kN) 7 8 7 8 7
Gate Open (kN) 11 9 10 7 7
Gate Clearance (mm) 26 26 27 23 21
Forging Method Not Specified Cold Hot Not Specified Hot

Our Analysis and Test Results

The Camp Dyon is an ergonomic, lightweight, and easy to handle carabiner. We especially appreciated the narrow profile of the keylock nose for its quick and efficient clipping and unclipping. Most notably, unclipping and removing the biner from bolts, pins, or fixed wires was snag free which can go a long way towards making your mission run quickly and efficiently.

Performance Comparison


camp usa dyon - the camp dyon is an excellent carabiner. the smooth clipping action...
The Camp Dyon is an excellent carabiner. The smooth clipping action was extremely smooth and the ergonomic shape and mid size dished out some above par handling.
Credit: Brian Martin

Clipping


The Dyon was one of the highest scorers in the ease of clipping department. The unique keylock gate is bound with enough tension to keep the biner from cross clipping on your harness but not so much that it feels like it's resisting a rope being clipped through. Just as the wire gate feels balanced and user friendly, the subtle notch formed where the nose and gate meet cradles the rope enough to keep any potential fumbling to a minimum. The concave spine gave the Dyon a unique ergonomic feel when using a pinch clip technique.

camp usa dyon - while the dyon has a few downsides, clipping prowess is certainly...
While the Dyon has a few downsides, clipping prowess is certainly not one of them. The gate tension and ergonomic shape made for perfect clips consistently.
Credit: Brian Martin

The toothless nose has more advantages than just unclipping performance. We noticed times when putting the draw in as a quickdraw and realizing it needed to be flipped to the opposite direction, removing the carabiner was significantly easier than biners with an exposed tooth. This equated to less fumbling overall and consistently quick clips.

Unclipping


While all of the biners we tested this year were wire gates, the Dyon was the only one to utilize a key-lock closure. The extremely smooth and narrow nose profile made unclipping and cleaning remarkably easy. Even compared to biners with a hood or recessed clip on the nose, the completely smooth keylock worked a treat and slid effortlessly out of bolts and the ever snaggy fixed wires. If you really want to set your follower up for success, the Dyon was one of our top performers in unclipping even in steep, pumpy situations.

camp usa dyon - the toothless keylock design made for simple unclipping. we didn't...
The toothless keylock design made for simple unclipping. We didn't have any issues with the Dyon snagging on ropes, wires or slings. The only thing it did snag was our heart.
Credit: Brian Martin

Weight


Surprisingly, as the Dyon was nowhere close to the smallest biner tested, it was on the lighter side of the spectrum. At 33 grams, the Dyon, certainly won't weigh down your harness and has so many positive attributes from clipping, unclipping, and overall handling the extra couple grams is worth it. If you're truly on the hunt for the lightest biners you can find, the Dyon is probably not on your radar as it's about 10 grams heavier than the lightest biner we have tested. If you're looking for a buttery smooth biner that doesn't get hung up but still retains a reasonable weight, the Dyon is an excellent choice.

camp usa dyon - the dyon hovered around 33-34 grams on our rather cheap taylor...
The Dyon hovered around 33-34 grams on our rather cheap Taylor scale. While this certainly isn't an ultralight biner, it didn't feel bulky or heavy in hand. The performance certainly makes up for the relative weight penalty.
Credit: Brian Martin

Gate Clearance


Somehow we were able to slam six loops of 9.8mm rope through the Dyon, which makes it competitive even with some biners that have a larger surface area. While it is highly unlikely to run into a situation where you need to capture so many strands of rope with a biner so focused on sport and trad climbing, we felt that this was certainly adequate.


camp usa dyon - the dyon has just enough room to fit 4 9.8mm strands of lead rope...
The Dyon has just enough room to fit 4 9.8mm strands of lead rope before the gate gets clogged up.
Credit: brian martin

Handling


The full-size profile and concave spine give the Dyon excellent handling. Even handling with gloves on wasn't too fiddly though having something that fills your grip with a straight spine or convex spine would certainly handle better with a gloved hand. As it stands, for sport climbing or fair-weather trad climbing the Dyon has excellent handling for both large and small-handed climbers. For clipping into bolts, wire, or pins, our thumb naturally settled on the smooth keylock bead getting the biner in and out quickly and easily without much re-gripping on the way.

camp usa dyon - everything from manipulating the biner on our harness, to...
Everything from manipulating the biner on our harness, to re-threading our alpine draws was pretty simple with the Dyon. Having a bent spine and larger profile payed dividends in this metric.
Credit: Brian Martin

Value


All this tech and design comes at a price. While we loved the performance of the Dyon, the fact that one biner costs more than many quickdraws on the market definitely took the wind out of our sails. While the price may turn off even the trustiest of trustafarians, there is no denying the high level of performance offered by the Dyon. If you're willing to part with the extra shillings required to rack up with these bad boys, you won't be disappointing.

Conclusion


The Dyon is an excellent carabiner. The operation is smooth throughout applications and will be appreciated by the leader just as much as the follower because of its unique snag free keylock gate and smooth nose. We put a significant amount of time into finding a problem with this carabiner but came up mostly empty-handed. Yes there is a steep cost to get into the Dyon game but once you're in there, you are sure to have a good time.

camp usa dyon - the bottom line is that the dyon is an excellent carabiner. we found...
The bottom line is that the Dyon is an excellent carabiner. We found the handling, clipping, unclipping, and design to be top notch.
Credit: Brian Martin

Brian Martin