Petrogrips / Synrock - Jugs & Mini Jugs Review

OVERVIEW

Jugs Set A:   $60 - 15 holds

Mini Jugs:     $100 - 50 holds

POSITIVE - inexpensive, ergonomic, great texture

NEGATIVE - durability, lack of color options, heavy

Petrogrips are made out of a material they call Synrock - ceramic material that exhibits real rock texture.  The texture is great and so are the shapes, but let’s just get this out of the way first - There are durability considerations with these holds – no surprises here. Ceramic is brittle and will break/crack/chip more readily than polyurethane or resin holds. 

Tightening instructions are included in each shipment noting that you can’t tighten these like you would with urethane holds – turn until snug, then ¼ turn more.  We thought spinning would be an issue, but following these guidelines we had not a single spinner.  We tightened a few beyond those recommendations (about a full turn past snug) and didn’t break any of them, but an impact driver is out of the question.  The drop test exposed their true nemesis – CONCRETE.  When dropped onto the garage floor from 4’ (a very realistic scenario) one of the largest jugs shattered into many pieces; you can see this test in the video.  The more compact mini jugs fared a bit better in the drop test - some chipping but no catastrophic shattering.  The holds are also relatively heavy – not a huge issue for a home wall owner, but it isn’t feasible to use these in a commercial gym where holds are subject to more abuse and need to be hoisted up in a setter’s bucket.  The holds are not available in vibrant colors – another hindrance for their use in gyms. 

One of the major trade-offs for these characteristics is the price.  15 large jugs for $60, 50 mini jugs for $100 – amazing value.  Holds this size in urethane you’re looking at twice that cost easily.  Even if you break a few, you’re still looking at considerable savings over urethane holds of the same style/size. 

Onto the climbing - for the most part, the jugs are really useful holds.  Set A contains a range of pinches, pockets, standard jugs, and some not so standard jugs.  The range of hold styles would be good for someone who is outfitting their wall for the first time, but customers may benefit from a bit more focus on specific hold types – a set of pinches, a set of pockets, etc.  Petrogrips will accommodate custom orders, but it’d be nice to see such sets available as a standard offering.  All the holds in this set are ergonomically friendly and all gripping surfaces feature smooth large radii.   The texture feels a lot like a fine-grained sandstone – pretty easy on the skin, but you definitely feel the grit when you pop off unexpectedly.  In nearly all cases, the holds are useful in all orientations without introducing contrived or eliminate problems.  On the 50 degree wall we easy set problems in the V2 range, but also set a stellar V6 by utilizing secondary grips.  They lend themselves to the V0-V2 range on the 20 degree wall.  Check out these problems in the video above!

The mini jugs are all over the place in terms of hold type and size.  The set contains everything from a 4 finger 2.5 pad jug to a little 1/2 pad 2 finger crimp.  There are some prominent styles in there though - cool knob features, standard finger buckets/incuts, edges, and some really cool ergonomic pinches.  For the most part, they are all very comfortable - a few odd balls like a one finger thread and a 3 mono pocket hold seem out of place.  You'll get problems in the V0-V3 range on vertical to gently overhanging terrain.  On the 50 degree, the least difficult you could get would be around V3 and they could easily yield some really hard stuff.  We set up to V5 - check out the problems in the video!  They have the same great sandstone texture as the larger jugs.  Just like in the Jugs set, it’d be nice to see some focus on specific hold types to cater to customer’s specific needs.  This set would be a great buy to outfit a home wall for the first time, or for someone who just wants to freshen up their hold arsenal. 

If a home wall owner is willing to commit to treating these holds with considerably more care than their plastic holds, and can deal with the drab colors, buying these is a no brainer: they are fun, comfortable, very versatile, and inexpensive.  Just keep them away from concrete.

Holds are available at synrockholds.com or on EBay from the seller Petrogrips.