Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Our fitness center closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so we got model MWM-988 to work out at home. I had no choice but to assemble it myself—my husband is not handy and we didn’t want to have someone come to our house to assemble it. I am a 58 year old woman under 5 feet tall—I read and followed the instructions and put the whole thing together in two evenings —about 4.5 hours total. That does not include all the trips my husband made carrying the parts to our basement. He helped me hold some of the parts but otherwise I assembled it myself. The instructions are fairly clear but there is a lot of different screws, washers, nuts etc, so you need to pay attention. Everything is labeled with assembly diagrams and all the parts fit together nicely. No issues with screw threads being off or stripped. I cannot imagine successfully putting this together by ignoring the instructions. Several times I had to stop and really study the diagrams—but it was possible. I just took my time. Like other reviewers commented, the sheet metal cover to the weight stack came all banged up. But the user manual has an email address and phone number to request replacements for damaged or missing parts and guarantees 100% satisfaction. There was no answer to the phone, so I emailed the part number, my Amazon order number, and my address—and within only a few hours they replied to say that a replacement part was being shipped. To me—that is very good service. (But I do think that they should pack this better so it arrives undamaged). The sheet metal cover is held on by 8 screws—we were able to assemble the entire gym with the damaged cover and use the gym while we wait for the replacement part to arrive. We will be able to swap out that part without needing to remove any other parts. This home gym is good for the price we paid. It offers a lot of different exercises. The 150 pound weight stack on Model 988 that we got is enough weight for my husband. The online description is accurate. The equipment works well, and the pulleys operate smoothly. The sheet metal weight stack cover has a big sticker on it that displays all the ways to use the equipment. That’s very handy. The only exercises that don’t work excellently are the standing leg pulls (with the lower pulley and the ankle strap). The pulley is designed to pull UP, but when standing, with the ankle strap on, you are pulling OUT more straight from the wheel. The design of the equipment means that each time you pull OUT with your ankle, it also brings the swinging black leg bar out with it a little bit, and then after a few inches, that swinging leg bar (which you are not using) drops and bangs back against the gym. The exercise works fine, but that banging of the swinging black leg bar while you’re using the pulley is a little annoying. They should have added a pin to hold this firmly in place while using the leg pulley. All other exercises work great. Our set came with two carabiner clips but as far as I can tell. this set needs 3 so that you can do all the exercises without having to remove and “borrow” one of those clips. The lat bar needs both clips—one for each end of the chain. But the ankle strap also needs one. I had a spare carabiner clip at home that we are using for the ankle strap. Overall I do recommend this home gym. We are pleased with it. Although it doesn’t say that it needs a mat, we did purchase one (separately) because we have hard wood floors. We are using a 36” x 78” basic treadmill mat and it fits fine—it could have been several inches shorter and still would have been fine. If my review was helpful, please let Amazon know by clicking “helpful”. Thanks. IMPORTANT UPDATE: I failed to adjust the tension (of the pulley cables) correctly at assembly, so two weeks into using this gym, one of the pulley cables “jumped the track” and came out of its wheel. This stripped part of the rubber coating off of the pulley cable. Please read this to avoid my mistake: Two booklets come with the gym: (1) the Assembly Manual and (2) the Owners Manual. The Assembly Manual has all the step by step instructions for assembly. BUT the Owners Manual has important “please read before assembly” information including (on page 7) how to properly adjust the tension of the cable. READ THE OWNERS MANUAL BEFORE assembly (I wish I had). Then, when assembling the gym, please not the following clarifications to the Assembly Manual: 1. Parts 30 (pages 3 and 23 ) have 4 different sets of holes for adjusting the pulley cable tension. After you are all finished assembling the entire gym, go back to part 30 (page 23) and make sure that you use the hole that makes the cable comfortably snug. 2. Double check that you have both parts 74 placed correctly (there are two). Part 74 is shown on pages 4, 20, and 23. It is a metal “L” shaped guide which keeps the pulley cable inside the tracks of the two wheels attached to part 30 (see #1 above). Parts 74 should be positioned so that when you operate the gym, they do not abrade (rub up against) the rubber coating of the pulley cable. 3. Double check that parts 12 (pages 2 and 17) swing freely (are not too tight). When you operate the gym, they should be able to move in order to stay aligned with the pulley wheels directly behind them (those pulley wheels are installed on page 21). Those two pulley wheels are attached to part 14 (page 21) and ALSO should swing freely to stay aligned with parts 12 while you operate the gym. I hope this is helpful to you. If it is, please let Amazon know by clicking “helpful”. Thanks.