Inferior engineering and dangerous

by Dave
(Phoenix)

I have a set of Bowflex Selettech 1090's. When laying on a bench to do fly's the natural tendency is to lift them off the ground and position them vertically on your knee before beginning. For a regular set of dumbbells no issue for these it stresses the selection disk. Did you know the selection disc is plastic and that the disk has a tiny lip on it and the lip grasp the nipple on the weight. It holds it in exactly 1 place. Meaning that if one of these plastic disk breaks, it's plastic so of course it will, or if the nipple on the weight itself breaks or wears as plastic will the weight can and will slip out of the dumbbell. If it falls apart when it is on the floor no big deal but if it fails while it's over your head your in a big mess.

Take a look. Dial up 10 lbs on both sides of the dumbbell, Turn it upside down and see each of the selection disk, study the weight. See the tiny nipple on the weight, see the equally tiny lip on the selection disk. Notice that the disk is held ONLY in that one place by 2 peices of plastic.

Anyway, mine failed, the selection disk cracked, fortunately the weights were on the floor. Now, ask Bowflex if you were the second owner, as I am, if they are covered under warranty. The warrenty is not transferrable. Therefore they would prefer to leave a product with a defect in my hands while I work out and have a weight crash down on my face. Nice!!!!! I would not buy these again. Have a look at the construction yourself. These should have 2-3 holding points made of metal, not plastic. Takes a 10 year old to study the engineering here and realize it's inferior.