[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by BBray_T1296

Chains take 2 minutes to fix, unless your design has them hidden away stupidly.

Even an easily accessible belt requires significant work to replace, in comparison. WCD makes this easier, but still a major PITA.

TL;DR, I would rather repair the same problem in 2 minutes 5 times, than a 10 minute fix once.

FWIW, I'm pretty sure even if I were to weight failures by repair time my experienced rate of chain failures would be about ten times greater than belt failures. Maybe I've been (un?)lucky.

Originally Posted by Jared

Our team has never used belts in a drive system, but we've always used chains. Our experience is that chain issues are mainly caused by stuff getting stuck in the chains or the sprockets, or the sprockets being bent or misaligned (located incorrectly axially on the shaft, not C-C being wrong).

This has been my experience, as well, though I've had a few come off due to them becoming exceptionally loose if they weren't tight to begin with and had time to stretch.

Chains are also absolutely terrifying at 5,000 rpm, and belts aren't great for higher torque.

This is also certainly true.