How to Age your Gear
Petzl
Most current Petzl products will have the following serial number configuration, in which the first two numbers indicate the year of manufacture and the following letter indicates the month of manufacture. e.g. A = January, B = February, and so on:
Petzl products made prior to 2016 may have the following serial number configuration, in which the first 2 numbers represent the year, and the 3-5th numbers represent the day of manufacture in that year. e.g. 15 001 = 1st January 2015:
Rock Exotica
Rock Exotica hardware can be aged in a similar way as the second Petzl method outlined above. The first two numbers indicate the year of manufacture, and the 3-5th numbers indicate the day of manufacture e.g. 12 001 = 1st January 2012:
CMC
CMC use lot numbers, but it is essentially the same thing as a serial number. Again, the first two numbers of the lot number represents the year of manufacture, and the 3-5th numbers represent the day of manufacture in that year. In the picture below, the CMC Ascender was made on the 228th day of 2017:
Serial number formats will vary between manufacturers. This information can usually be found either on the product information sheet supplied with the hardware, or via the manufacturers website.
19 June 2020
