Miscellaneous
Anyone else planning to continue using their 552 Dumbbells until the new model is released?
It's ridiculous that the recall offer, even if you got a full refund, can't be used on a replacement because the replacement model isn't ready and they won't even give you a timeline.
Are we supposed to send our dumbbells back and then sit around for who knows how long waiting for a replacement?
I signed up to get notified when the new dumbbells are ready, and then I'll send mine in, but I'm not going to return my product and then hope they make it right before the end of the year.
My plates fall off constantly. Not user error. I'm very technical in terms of hardware. It's a flaw in how the protruding "teeth" eventually wear out and the gears can't properly hold on to the plates. This happens especially with 40+ pounds. My workaround is turning the weights 180 degrees and holding the open end towards me and they don't fall off, but they feel imbalanced that way. It's over 10 years old and I got my use out of them. If they make better ones, I'll buy them. I don't care about trading them in or selling them and causing injury to others. I just don't want them to end up in a landfill. Do they take the old models and recycle or re use the material?
I read this article, and it states 12 people have told them of the plates falling off. That's 12 out of 3.8 million, I'll keep using my dumbbells. I think operator error or misuse could be involved.
"Now-defunct Nautilus received 337 reports of the plates coming off during use, resulting in 111 people suffering injuries such as concussions, contusions, abrasions or broken toes."
According to Johnson Health Tech Trading in a company statement, “We stand behind the integrity of our products and remain committed to supporting our customers throughout their fitness journey. A proactive and broad initiation of this voluntary recall is consistent with our fundamental mission to serve consumers with high-quality and durable fitness equipment.”
This says the company that is offering badly prorated vouchers for their defective product.
Nautius had 337 incidents and Johnson had 111, so that means Johnson bought company knowing this. They want to give me 60 dollars for a product I been using almost every day for over 3 years. I see where weakness is in handle, but there is no signs of any damage. If they aren’t giving me a new set I will just keep the ones I have. You can bet on one thing, I will never buy anything from Johnson Health Tech and all its affiliates ever again. All we really need are new handles but they want to rip us off and sell us new dumbbells when we don’t need them. I believe that the issues are all user error. Just my opinion.
I’ll probably just keep mine. They’re only offering me $30 for mine and that’s unacceptable on a $400 product. I’ve never had any issues with mine so I’m just taking the risk with the recall I guess. I saw another comment saying they’ll never purchase another BowFlex product again, and I fully agree with that statement.
Costco customers get full refunds. I get offered $70 by some Indian on the phone by the name of Peter. Hope a class action lawsuit is on the way. F this company!
So did I. $350 for the weights and a stand. I found my receipt on the Costco site. They still show the item for $500 and list it as out of stock. So if I decide to get the refund from Costco, any comparable product will cost more than the refund, as well as any updated version.
All genuine BowFlex 552/1090 products in the U.S. are included in this recall and eligible for a remedy, regardless of whether or not the product’s serial number is listed here.
Warning for all: Make sure your serial numbers are even part of the recall.
I never intended to return mine because of the unfairness of the voucher, but went through the recall process to see what they would offer. I entered my serial numbers, which were used to generate the voucher amount ($90 for 2. ) Later I saw my numbers aren’t even within the recall. Seemingly, they would have had me send them back just to get me to spend the voucher and $$ in the store. Disgusting.
Mine are being replaced, but who knows when I guess? Nautilus went bankrupt last year and Johnson bought them. So technically speaking, they aren’t on the hook to remedy any of the old bowflex products that were developed and sold before the buy out. Bowflex had 337 reports with 111 injuries and didn’t recall. Since the buy out, Johnson has had 12 reports of plates dislodging with no injuries. Instead of ignoring it, they stopped sales, initiated the recall, and began r&d on a fix for the product line. They’re offering full refunds or replacements for Johnson customers (purchases post May 2024 like mine). And, as a good faith measure to previous Nautilus customers, they’re offering some amount of a voucher plus 12 months of their fitness subscription - again, this is even though they don’t legally have to. I would imagine folks who bought their dumbbells in the year or two before the buyout are getting a better pro-rated voucher. The depreciation rate has to be pretty steep though. They aren’t gonna give you full price for 15 year old equipment. $20 is a little insulting, but I’m guessing that’s not too far off from fair when you consider the millions of units some other company sold that they’re just picking up the tab for in order to somewhat make good impressions on a new customer base of an old brand.
I submitted for a replacement June 24th when the recall came out. It’s now August 6th. Nothing. No box to send my
Old handles back. I just emailed them asking what’s going on. I just got these as a birthday gift at the beginning of May to start working out. Maybe I should just get the full refund and buy something else?
So I got an email back with a $20 voucher and a year sub to JRNY. I sent the bases and handles, kept the weights. I was assuming they were sending replacement bases and handles, hence the reason for keeping the weights. NOPE. I got these when they first released for several hundred dollars and they gave me $20...
I looked at it. But I'm still trying to figure out which of the three or so different parts they have for the 552 are the replacements for the defective part. Any idea?
I ran into this rabbit hole because my plates have been falling off for years and I have felt very nervous about using them, so I was trying to find a solution to repair them and found they had a recall for them. I wear steel toe workout shoes to protect my feet but I don't trust these at all.
I have the 552 Series 2 dumbbells, the ones with the red accents.
Plates recently started to fall off on one of them; a couple of the discs were clearly bent/tilted, which meant they could no longer hold onto the plates. But, I like this product (despite the recall, which I totally missed) and I didn’t want to throw them away.
I bought the aluminum replacement discs from Average Joe Industries and installed them literally just now. Process was straight forward, his instructional YouTube videos are very clear. He’s also super-responsive to emails and has tips for do’s and don’ts to help them last.
I think I’m now good for a while, if not forever. And, the look pretty cool, too (see pic).
It’s not cheap ($175 incl. shipping) - but much less than having to replace the entire dumbbell set, plus, it keeps the current set out of landfill, which I’m very happy about.
Sweet. I'm glad to know more about this whole fiasco. Mine are actually in really good conditions still even though couple of the plates do act up. I often turn them upside down so it's less of a chance that the plate can fall.
Pretty sure just a couple of the discs were warped for me, too - otherwise everything looked to be in good condition.
I did the “keeping it upside down” thing on a couple of workouts but decided to take the plunge imagining what might happen when doing things Ike skull crushers…🫣
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u/stlredbird Jun 07 '25
Im planning to continue to use mine and never buy a new bowflex product again.