This article was submitted by reader Jim Doolittle.

If you have a home gym, equipment safety is your responsibility. Ensuring your equipment is safe is even more important if budgetary constraints forced you to buy equipment that may not have been designed and manufactured with a sufficient level of quality.

For equipment like power racks and benches, failures can be related to loose bolts or weak weld joints. In my case, the leg curl/extension attachment to my bench failed. I found there was a missing weld joint on the bottom of where 2 2”X2” steel tubes were joined. The stress on this joint is lower than the sides and top so it took years of repeated movement for the failure to occur. This type of material failure is called fatigue.

The warranty for the equipment had expired so I had to pay for a new part. I argued this was a design flaw which represented a safety hazard. I talked the customer service representative into giving me the part if I paid for shipping & handling ($20!).

In retrospect, I should have held my ground and not paid anything. You should not let expired warranties stop you when it comes to design or manufacturing flaws that compromise safety. The ironic thing is that I no longer even use this equipment since I am following StrongLifts 5×5.

For barbells, material fatigue, material quality, weight load, impact (such as when bar is dropped) or a combination of all of these can cause failures. The point of failure is most likely where the bar diameter is smallest such as within the grooves cut near the knurls of the bar. A 2nd major point of failure is due to load and impact and tend to be about 1 plate width away from the collar.

How Can Your Ensure Your Equipment Is Safe? I do not have any data that suggests the best inspection frequency but I recommend thorough inspections at least on a monthly basis. If you tend to drop your bar with heavy weight, inspect the bar after the workout. It shouldn’t take too long.

Except for testing whether bolts are tight, most of your inspection will rely on visual inspection because other methods such as ultrasonic testing are costly. Visual inspection only allows you to observe flaws that are… well…visible.

Most failures occur from an existing defect. You can increase your chances of finding defects by using a magnifying glass or microscope. RadioShack has a small one that magnifies up to 100X.

What To Check? This is what you should check on a monthly basis.

All weld joints. Check for cracks near the weld.

All nuts and bolts connecting equipment parts. Check for tightness.

Check for cracks near the knurl marks of your barbell.

Check for cracks at the collar.

Check for cracks about a about 1 plate width away from the collars.

Make sure that bolts on ends of barbell are tight. There may be caps covering the bolts. The caps are typically held in place with a small set screw.

Note whether your barbell has areas flaking of the chrome plating, especially if the flaking is linear. Cracks are linear and they can open and close (fatigue) causing chrome plating to spall off.

Note that flaking can be normal for older barbells so don’t be too alarmed. In my opinion, it is better to be safe than sorry.

What To Do? If you find loose bolts, tighten them. If you have weld cracks in your bench or rack, find a welder to fix them or replace equipment. If you find a crack in your barbell, then ditch it and get a new one. Or, spray paint it red and use it only for empty bar work.

This article was submitted by reader Jim Doolittle.