REASONS TO BUY
Very large basket
Excellent gate clearance
Easy to handle
Affordable
REASONS TO AVOID
Heavy
Stiff gate springs
Notch and hook on nose
Black Diamond Hotwire Review
An updated version of an OG classic, but one that is heavier than similar sized competition and doesn’t offer the smoothest clips
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Our Verdict
The Black Diamond Hotwire has been a longtime staple on many old-timers trad racks, and has seen an update for 2020. It now features a bend near the bottom of the spine that changes the geometry of the basket a little bit, allowing for a wider surface for the rope to run over. Indeed, this versatile carabiner has a huge basket, and is also shaped at the top to accommodate any width of sling, whether a quickdraw dogbone or Camalot C4 sling. We also like its affordable price. Compared to the full-sized competition, however, we found it slightly harder to clip than most, and quite obviously heavier than almost every other similar sized carabiner. It is suitable to all styles of climbing, especially winter climbing where a larger sized wiregate is easier to handle and clip than smaller alternatives.
Compare to Similar Products
 This Product
Black Diamond Hotwire | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards |  Best Overall Carabiner |  Best Bang for the Buck |  Best Ultralight Carabiner | ||
| Price | $7.95 at Backcountry Compare at 3 sellers | $5.89 at REI Compare at 3 sellers | $10.00 List $8.95 at Backcountry | $8.00 List $7.95 at REI | $5.19 at REI Compare at 2 sellers |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Bottom Line | A versatile choice for any style of climbing, and one that almost anyone can afford, but lacking the top end performance | A very affordable carabiner that is also one of the easiest to use and won’t cost you anything on the scale | The Astro finds a nice middle ground between large heavier biners and small, ultralight biners that can be difficult to handle | An affordable option for racking your camming devices | The ultralight climber’s dream carabiner: lightweight and tiny, yet full strength |
| Rating Categories | Black Diamond Hotwire | CAMP Photon Wire | Wild Country Astro | Trango Phase Carabiner | Black Diamond MiniWire |
| Clipping (25%) | |||||
| Unclipping (20%) | |||||
| Weight (20%) | |||||
| Gate Clearance (20%) | |||||
| Handling (15%) | |||||
| Specs | Black Diamond Hotwire | CAMP Photon Wire | Wild Country Astro | Trango Phase Carabiner | Black Diamond MiniWire |
| Manufacturer Weight (g) | 40g | 30g | 30g | 30g | 23g |
| Gate Closed (kN) | 24 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 20 |
| Sideways (kN) | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 |
| Gate Open (kN) | 8 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Gate Clearance (mm) | 27 | 26 | 24 | 23 | 21 |
| Forging Method | Hot | Cold | Hot | Not Specified | Hot |
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Our Analysis and Test Results
The BD Hotwire has been updated for 2020, along with all the rest of Black Diamond's carabiner lineup. It is the largest and most versatile of the three wiregate offerings, and is understandably easy to handle. The bend in the spine makes it so the rope runs over a wider surface, which is both better for the carabiner, and also for the rope. However, this carabiner is heavy, and doesn't have the best clipping action. It also currently only comes in a small handful of colors, sold as singles, and is not being marketed in a rack pack, eliminating it for consideration for color-coded pairing with your cam rack.
Performance Comparison
The Hotwire has been redesigned with a bend in the spine near the basket. This feature makes the basket larger, the gate opening even wider, and also manages to reduce friction within the basket on both the carabiner and the rope. It is an easy to handle and affordable carabiner, but has a couple flaws, most notably the hook and notch gate opening.
Clipping
The wire gate of this carabiner is made of thicker gauge wire that weighs more than the lighter weight gates more commonly found on many of its competitors, and is molded in an absolute straight line, rather than incorporating any bend to aid with clipping. We also feel like the gate spring is noticeably stiffer than most other wiregates, which means that more effort is needed to push the rope through. Once you do, that stiff spring snaps closed with authority! The gate angles outward as it descends, coaxing the rope into the basket if it is pushed downward, but the gate itself is too tight for the rope to do all of the work, you certainly need to push it on through.
The gate springs are rather stiff, and the heavier duty wire used to make the gate is also completely straight, without the added bends that can help the rope drop into the basket easier. This is not one of the easiest carabiners to clip, and requires a bit of extra effort to push the rope through.
Unclipping
The Hotwire is by no means the easiest carabiner for unclipping. The principal downside of a traditional wiregate carabiner is that there is a notch and hook on the nose for the gate to slot into. This notch and hook can work to catch the rope when trying to unclip it while seconding, or hook on bolt hangers, slings, or stopper cables while trying to unclip the carabiner from them. The notch and hook on the Hotwire is larger and deeper than most other competitors, meaning that compared to the competition, this negative attribute is actually enhanced. Added to the mix is the fact that the nose angle actually bends back on itself, creating a vertical wall, so to speak, preventing the rope from simply sliding out on its own if the gate is open. While these issues can easily be worked around with a little extra care or fiddling, they could also be addressed with better design.
The notch and hook on the nose are quite pronounced and relatively large. This allows them to catch in many applications, such as when unclipping a placed stopper if used as a racking carabiner. This notch also catches on bolt hangers when cleaning sport routes, and can work to hang up ropes and slings as well. A recessed notch design makes unclipping easier.
Weight
A single Hotwire carabiner weighs in at 40g, which is the heaviest in this review among standard full-sized carabiners. This amount is 10g heavier than the lightest full-sized options, and 17g heavier than the lightest mini options. If you were to multiply out the 10g difference between it and the lightest full-sized choice, times 20 for all carabiners on double length slings that you are carrying, you would be carrying an extra 7 ounces by choosing Hotwires, or close to half a pound.
Despite the fact that it's a full-sized carabiner, the Hotwire is pretty heavy compared to the competition, and in this review, only specialty option with added features weighed in heavier. Not the ideal choice for retooling your entire cam rack with.
Gate Clearance
This is a large carabiner with tons of clearance. The gate clearance is measured at 27mm, which is easily among the largest of any we've tested. Furthermore, in our testing, we were easily able to fit three knotted ropes into the carabiner, side-by-side without stacking, and still have plenty of clearance for the gate to open and close to add or remove items. If your potential uses include building complex anchors, or holding a lot of items, this carabiner will not let you down.
The Hotwire has one of the largest baskets and also gate openings, which is a product of the bend in the spine right near the basket. If you have tasks such as building anchors that require the versatility of clipping many items to the same carabiner, this is a great choice.
Handling
As the name suggests, the Hotwire is made using hot-forged I-beam construction, which gives a nice flat surface along the spine for gripping. Its full-size shape makes it easier to handle than tiny alternatives, but we also noticed that the colored anodizing seems a bit slipperier than some other models. The fact that the gate springs are stiff and thus take more effort to open certainly adds a little bit of a chance that you would accidentally drop this carabiner while trying to use it.
The large size of this carabiner makes it pretty easy to handle, although the slightly more difficult clipping and unclipping actions relative to the competition does make it more likely that you could fumble while performing one of these actions.
Value
One of the best attributes about these carabiners is their relatively low cost, which is an effect of having a notched nose rather than a recessed one, like most models that are more expensive do. However, it didn't score near the top of our overall ratings, and other, full-sized carabiners that scored much higher overall have a very similar price. You also can't buy them in rack packs (why not BD?). Thus, we aren't sure we would recommend them as a top value purchase.
With a very large notch and hook on the nose, these carabiners are not as easy to get the rope unclipped from, or to unclip from bolts, as notchless and key-locking counterparts. Sport climbing, with its many clips and unclips, often in difficult positions, was a great way for us to test this.
'conclusion'>Conclusion
The Black Diamond Hotwire has been redesigned and reengineered with a different geometry in the spine meant to increase space within the basket while reducing wear on your rope and the carabiner itself. The design seems to work, but other attributes of the 'biner, such as its heavy weight and stiff gate, bump it down a bit on the list of our favorite carabiners. While it's a pretty decent product, we also feel like there are better options in the full-sized market.
Testing carabiners on the ends of sport draws on a weekend climbing trip to the welded tuff canyon of Penitente.
—
Andy Wellman
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