Dumbbells · 9 min read

I Bought One Pair Of Dumbbells In 2022. Four Years Later They Are Still The Only Pair I Own.

In June 2022 I priced a full rack of dumbbells, then spent $49 on one pair of handles that hold weight plates instead. Fifty-two months later I have spent $109.97 more, all of it on small plates, and I have not bought another dumbbell. This is the logbook: what four years did to that pair, and what the rack, the dial sets and the spin-locks would have cost over the same four years.

By Tyler Brandt

Senior writer · Oct 1, 2026 · 9 min read

The rack I priced in 2022 and never bought

In June 2022 I had a one-car garage, a barbell, and a pile of plates from 2020, the year every gym near me shut. What I did not have was dumbbells. Half of what I wanted to train needed them: rows, lunges, incline presses, and the goblet squat my knees actually like.

So I priced a rack the way most people do. One pair every five pounds, from the weight I could curl to the weight I hoped to row one day. At today's prices on REP Fitness's own site, that is 11 rubber hex pairs from 10 to 60 pounds for $1,799.89. The three-tier rack REP sells for its hex dumbbells is another $209.99, and it is 48 inches long.

Forty-eight inches was the whole wall between my barbell and the garage door. And 60 pounds was a guess. If I got stronger than the guess, the rack needed a pair of 65s at $299.99, a pair of 70s at $319.99, and a longer wall.

I did not buy the rack. Instead I bought one pair of handles that turn weight plates into dumbbells, loaded them with the plates I already had, and told myself they would do until I could afford the real thing. That was 52 months ago. They are still the only dumbbells in the house, and the rest of this piece is why.

Three other ways out, and the second bill each one sends

Before I paid, I looked hard at the three usual alternatives to a rack. Each one wins something outright. All three also have a part, or a ceiling, that sends a second bill later.

Spin-lock handles win on price, until the collar walks

CAP's 40-pound cast iron set is $49.99 on CAP's own site: two threaded bars, eight plates and four spin-lock collars. Nothing here gets you into dumbbells for less with the plates already in the box, and that is its outright win.

The catch is the collar. It is a big nut you spin down a threaded bar, and it can back off during a set, so the plates start to creep toward the end. The bars take 1-inch plates only, which meant none of my 2-inch barbell plates would fit, and the whole set weighs 40 pounds.

Dial sets win on speed, until the recall letter

BowFlex's Results Series 552 is $479 a pair on bowflex.com. Turn a dial and the handle picks up anything from 5 to 52.5 pounds. Nothing on this list changes weight faster, and that is its outright win. The ceiling is 52.5, so a lifter who outgrows it buys the 1090 for $799. That is $1,278 to reach the weights I use now.

In June 2025 the second bill came. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of about 3,844,200 BowFlex 552 and 1090 adjustable dumbbells, sold from as early as 2004 through May 2025, because the weight plates can come loose from the handle during use. The company that sold them until April 2024 had 337 reports of plates coming loose, 111 of them with injuries. A pair bought in June 2022 sat inside that window. For pairs that company sold, the refund was a prorated voucher, and owners shipped the handle and base back on a prepaid label.

The better dial sets cost about what the rack would have. PowerBlock's Elite USA wins on build, with welded steel plates made in the USA, and PowerBlock says it is built to last a lifetime. The 50-pound pair is $469 and the kit that takes it to 70 is $199, so $668. PowerBlock also sells spare selector pins for $20, which tells you which part does the work. NÜOBELL's 80-pound pair has the highest ceiling here, changes weight with a twist-lock, and costs $845 with a two-year warranty. Its maker sells a five-year extension for $69.95.

Fixed pairs win on toughness, until you outgrow the last one

A hex dumbbell has no moving parts at all. Drop it on concrete and it does not care. Nothing on this list is tougher, and that is its win. The bill is the next pair, every time you outgrow the heaviest one you own, plus the wall it has to live on.

The four-year test

There was no list in 2022. I have one now, because owning one pair for four years shows you exactly what usually ends a pair. These are the four things the only pair has to survive.

1. It gets heavier without being replaced. My row went from 35 pounds a hand in 2022 to 60 now. A pair that stops at 40 or at 52.5 gets replaced, and then it was never the only pair.
2. It has no part that wears out. Dials, latches, selector pins, plastic trays and spin-on collars are the parts that move, and the parts that move are where adjustable dumbbells fail. The BowFlex recall was about plates coming off the handle.
3. It takes every plate I own and every plate I will buy. Old 1-inch plates from a garage sale and 2-inch Olympic plates from my barbell, on the same handle.
4. It costs less than the next pair. REP's lightest pair in my quote, the 10s, is $54.99. If the only pair costs more than the pairs it saves me from buying, it saved nothing.

The pair that passed

The handles I bought in June 2022 were called the AdjustaBELL then, and the page listed them at $49. Kensui has since renamed them the Kensui AdaptaBELL. The plastic version I own is the one it now sells as the PRO, still $49 a pair. An aluminum MAX came later.

Each handle is a grip with a threaded post at each end and a flat cap that screws onto each post. Slide the plates on, spin the cap down, and the cap clamps the plates against the handle. That is the whole mechanism. The PRO is rated to 140 pounds across the pair, which is 70 in each hand, and takes both 1-inch and 2-inch plates with 3.3 inches of plate space on each side. Empty, the pair weighs 1.56 pounds.

The verdict

Kensui AdaptaBELL PRO

★★★★★ 4.51 from 627 reviews on kensui.com

• $49 a pair. 140 lb across the pair, 70 lb in each hand.
• Takes 1-inch standard and 2-inch Olympic plates, with 3.3 inches of plate space on each side.
• A grip and two screw-on caps. No dial, latch, pin, tray or collar to wear out.

Against the test, it passes all four. It went from 35 to 60 pounds a hand on the same two handles. The only parts that move are four caps. It takes both plate sizes on the same handle. And at $49 the pair costs less than REP's single pair of 10s.

Get the AdaptaBELL

What four years did to it

Plate prices are CAP's own prices today for 1-inch cast iron, not what I paid at the time.

What wore: the grip is a little smoother where my palms sit, and the caps are scuffed from four years of plates going on and off. The threads still spin down by hand. Nothing has cracked, bent or stripped, nothing has been replaced, and I have never had a plate move during a set.

What changed is how I train. A plate change takes me about 30 seconds, so I load a weight once and keep it for the whole exercise. Goblet squats run on one handle loaded heavy while the other sits at the next exercise's weight. A dial would be faster. I stopped minding in the second month.

Now the part I would tell a friend. The PRO is reinforced polymer, not steel, and I treat its 70-pound rating as a real number. I stop at 60. Loaded, it gets set down and never dropped, because polymer does not like a loaded drop onto concrete, and a few owners who did that cracked an end cap. Spin the caps down hand-tight and stop there, since a cap cranked too hard is tough to grip on the way off. And 3.3 inches of post fills up fast with thick rubber bumpers, so cast iron is the plate for it. If I needed 80 a hand, this would not be my only pair.

Other PRO owners, in their words

"They don't loosen during use, which is a problem with conventional spin lock handles."

Julian C., PRO owner

"They are light and extremely durable. The mechanism is very simple yet very effective."

Ed, PRO owner

"I can use the weights I already have to complete a full array of options for dumbbell work."

Bryan B., PRO owner

Four years of dumbbells, priced five ways

Here is the whole bill side by side, at today's prices, for someone who ends up where I am: rowing 60 pounds a hand.

Prices read from each maker's own site on October 1, 2026: kensui.com, bowflex.com, powerblock.com, repfitness.com and capbarbell.com. Recall details from CPSC recall 25-311, June 5, 2025.

Before you buy

Do the handles come with plates? No, they are handles only. Starting from zero, CAP's 1-inch 25s are $89.99 a pair and a four-pack of 5s is $39.99. With the handles that is $178.98 for up to 35 pounds a hand, a dollar less than REP's single pair of 40s at $179.99.

Will my old plates fit? Standard 1-inch and Olympic 2-inch plates both fit the same handle, and you can mix them on one side.

What if I outgrow 70 a hand? Then it was still years of dumbbells for $49, and every plate you bought along the way goes on whatever comes next. I have not got there.

What if it is not for me? Kensui gives you 100 days to send it back for your money, no questions asked. I never needed it.