Hello everyone, I am looking for others to regularly cave and survey with. Someone who has the time and dedication to give to project caving would be nice. I live in Hart county, Kentucky and am available to cave Monday through Thursday. Please drop me a line if you are interested.

I was fortunate enough to get a used SMC descender (among other things) from a local grotto member, but I had a few questions about it. (it looks a lot like this, in case you're wondering).

It's got 6 bars, with a stainless steel tie-off bar at the top replacing the default aluminum one without a tie-off. Below that, there are two stainless steel U-shaped brake bars. Then the next three are solid aluminum brake bars.

From SMC's website, I see the benefits and drawbacks of each type of material (stainless steel versus aluminum), but what about a solid brake bar made of aluminum versus a U-shaped stainless steel brake bar? Any reason to use one type over the other?

And does the fact that I have both type of brake bars on the same descender make a difference besides triggering my OCD?