Edelrid

Mega Jul Belay Kit

Works great! has issues

Familiarity:

I've used it several times

I've used the MEGA JUL a few times and its very "different" to a normal assisted tuber device. Theres a lot of things that this device does right a few things that I wish they would address. Starting with the good: the weight, omg this thing is wicked light and it really makes a difference when belaying, it feels very similar to a BD XC just with a big handle that makes it excellent for Lead climbing. It functions very similar to the BD guide with the eyelet and belaying from above in "Non-Assisted" mode is a piece of cake and having it be steel instead of aluminum is a great confidence booster. That of course perfectly segways into the problems. like a few other reviewers on here have mentioned it's very "Jerky" when bringing a climber down, it takes a lot of effort to keep the climber at a constant speed and on long climbing seshes you can quickly get burned out. Despite how it looks, this device is not easy to understand. and due to its quirky German design its not intuitive compared to other devices. If you are buying this to do any Multi-Pitch climbing the first thing I would say is DONT or at the very least PRACTICE belaying from above on this thing is weird and I had to repeatedly pull out my phone to make sure I was setting it up right and when my climber got stuck between holds, this device pretty much welded itself to the rope and I had to wrap the brake rope around my leg and pull the device up with all my might to lower him a few feet. Of course I checked the manual and saw that you have to put a carabiner in the front hole but its really designed for one of Edelrids special carabiners and doesn't work well with most of the carabiners that I normally take while climbing. repelling off this device isn't too bad but you are forced to use it in "Non-Assist mode" with the green handle pointing in so if the assisted brake is importiant for you while repelling I'd suggest buying something else. TLDR: Its a funky device that works great in most applications and falls short of its competitors everywhere else.

The perfect device doesn't exi...

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

Bought this instead of the Giga because of the simplicity and well, it looks neat with a green Edilrid bulletproof screwgate. Was super impressed rappelling and lowering. Very smooth!

The little ATC that could

The MegaJul is an ATC on roids, with passive braking built in. I've used one for about a year, year and a half, and finally parked mine. The pros are the lightweight, small package, passive braking ATC format. For lead belaying, this is hands down my favorite option. The con, on the other hand, is Top rope belay is a pain, and I found myself packing a Madrock Lifeguard for Top Rope belay. Because of the design, you have to exert constant pressure on the device to release it during the lower on top rope. This is fine for a couple of routes, but when you're doing a lot of that throughout the day, be it on a project or at the gym, I got to where I was carrying two devices. There's also the confusion on using it with Multi-pitch, which I have not done myself, and probably wouldn't use this for anyways. Edelrid has released other options a little more suited for that. For straight single-pitch lead belay, this is a great option. If you plan to do several top rope belays, the constant effort of cranking the belay to release will get old. It's definitely not a gym belay for that reason. Instead of carrying two, I've just switched to my other braking option and use it exclusively. If you're almost strictly lead climbing, this is the best. Start mixing it up and there are other options I think.