I’ve had a home gym for 5 years now. I bought the “sick of your gym” package back in 2010 from EFS. Over the years I’ve added a lot to my gym.
One think I’ve come to realize is that the original plates that came with my “SoYG” package are not very quality controlled. They are off by 1-3 lbs in both directions. They are also pretty lop-sided (I put them on the bar and the heavy side spins down quick). I noticed how wrong the steel plates where after I bought a set of Pendaly competition bumpers and rogue HG bumpers, which are much more accurate. The original steel plates served me fine till now, but I’m ready for an upgrade.
Does anyone have a suggestion on which brands provide a quality, robust steel plate?
What’s the best value in steel Plates?
What is the best value power lifting competition level steel disk?
I’m really looking for a set of steel plates that’ll keep for the next decade or so.
Have you checked all the options at troybarbell.com? They have various options depending on what you want to pay. Their interlocking plates with grips look nice and have both steel and rubber coated versions.
York plates are great, my gym as a lot of those. Ivankos would probably be the best but are very pricey. Never hurts to look on craigslist you can always find people getting rid of theirs pretty cheap, but quality would be hit or miss.
So I’ve come to a realization… The Ivanko E-Z Plates I was looking at are not that much more than the PL Training Eleiko plates. Does anyone have any experience with the chrome finish on the Eleiko plates? I’ll post pictures. I don’t generally like chrome finishes.
(2-45lbs IVANKOs = $274 including shipping)
(2-45lbs Eleiko PL Trainers = $323 including shipping)
I feel like I’d be a fool not to spend a few extra bones and go with the PL trainers. The Eleiko plates are ±10 grams and the Ivanos are ±2%… In other words the Ivanos are either 44.1lbs or 45.9lbs
What do yall think?
[quote]sufiandy wrote:
Have you checked all the options at troybarbell.com? They have various options depending on what you want to pay. Their interlocking plates with grips look nice and have both steel and rubber coated versions. [/quote]
I’ll do some looking into these. I like there interlocking plates.
[quote]sufiandy wrote:
Have you checked all the options at troybarbell.com? They have various options depending on what you want to pay. Their interlocking plates with grips look nice and have both steel and rubber coated versions. [/quote]
The interlocking grip Troy plates which are also ±2% are $187 for 2-45lbs plates. They are the cheapest of the group. They look like a decent plate as well.
Unless you have money to burn, you are better off buying from store that you can pick the plates up from yourself. The prices you mention sound ridiculous to me, I have York plates that cost me 88 cents a pound. That means 2-45lbs. plates cost me around $90 with tax, and I live in Canada where everything is more expensive. I never questioned that they were the weight they claim to be, but unless I’m hosting the next IPF world championship it really doesn’t matter. Put more plates on the bar and the +/- 2% will even itself out.
The PL trainers are probably nice, I’ve never seen them before except in that picture. If I was to buy plates again I would get something with grips, or eleiko competition discs if my budget was not an issue (so probably never). If you don’t care about grip and prefer metal coating and its in your budget the PL trainers might be what you are looking for.
I wonder what the reality of the weight difference really is, they say 2% which is almost a full pound. It seems like something that may rarely get that close and they are just playing it safe by saying 2%.
[quote]JK29 wrote:
So I’ve come to a realization… The Ivanko E-Z Plates I was looking at are not that much more than the PL Training Eleiko plates. Does anyone have any experience with the chrome finish on the Eleiko plates? I’ll post pictures. I don’t generally like chrome finishes.
(2-45lbs IVANKOs = $274 including shipping)
(2-45lbs Eleiko PL Trainers = $323 including shipping)
I feel like I’d be a fool not to spend a few extra bones and go with the PL trainers. The Eleiko plates are ±10 grams and the Ivanos are ±2%… In other words the Ivanos are either 44.1lbs or 45.9lbs
What do yall think?
[quote]sufiandy wrote:
Have you checked all the options at troybarbell.com? They have various options depending on what you want to pay. Their interlocking plates with grips look nice and have both steel and rubber coated versions. [/quote]
I’ll do some looking into these. I like there interlocking plates.
[/quote]
My gym has Ivankos but Eleiko 2.5kg and below. All chrome finish. All remain beautiful with use.
[quote]sufiandy wrote:
Have you checked all the options at troybarbell.com? They have various options depending on what you want to pay. Their interlocking plates with grips look nice and have both steel and rubber coated versions. [/quote]
The interlocking grip Troy plates which are also ±2% are $187 for 2-45lbs plates. They are the cheapest of the group. They look like a decent plate as well.
[/quote]
I found a Troy dealer and was able to order them for ~$1.20 a lb. Basically look for milled centers and the accuracy guarantee. Craigslist is good, especially on the west coast
If you don’t care about getting used plates then keep an eye out for Ivanko plates on Craigslist. I bought 1000 lbs of used Ivanko plates for $500 from a local shop, which they got from a gym shutting down. Some of the plates had minor rust but it was easily cleaned off.
