York Hammertone Cast Iron Olympic Plates

Reference York Fitness Olympic Weights.

I have bought approximatly 500kgs worth of York olympic weight plates. I bought them based on Yorks good reputation, and the fact that I have had York standard weights from my early teens through to my 30s. On arrival I was very dissapointed with the drop in quality, and lack of QC. Apart from the design and colour of the plates, I have nothing good that I can say about them.

The difference in weights of the 20s are well beyond normal tolerance levels.

The paint is so weak that the slightest knock or contact causes it to chip. (My whole gym is covered in high quality rubber matting, and even that is not enough to protect them).

The paint used on the weights appears to have been done in a very contaminated environment, as all of my 20s look like they have been sprayed over rust/dust/or flakes of metal from other parts of the manufacturing process.

The castings are so bad that in all my years as a gym user, and gym instructor, I have never seen worse. They are pitted, have sharp edges, some have bulges out of the side, and some have dips in them. Some look like they have been attacked with an angle grinder.

The outside of the plates have a camber that never allows them to sit flat on the floor when set up for deadlifts or similar. This combined with a sharp edge means that the metal on some of my plates has already chipped after minimal use of which all is on rubber mats within my home gym.

One of my plates arrived completly snapped in half. I had this refunded at the time by Watsons Gym Equipment, but it showed me just how weak the plates were and I have babied them ever since.

One of my 20kg plates is almost curved. -When it is stacked on top of another plate, you can see a big gap all the way through to the bar.

The holes are all so big that they don't sit well even on a York bar. I have 3 olympic bars from other manufacturers, aswell as a high quality Texas Power Bar, and they all have up to 5mm slack at the bottom which causes the weights to rattle all over the place even with bulldog collars.

For all the reasons above, it is my opinion that these weights are not fit for purpose.

I bought these plates on the assumption that they are high quality pieces of equipment by a high quality brand. When I see photos of the high quality of the plates being produced by York Barbell over in the states I feel very dissapointed by my purchase. I have bought them all over the past two years (new) from Watsons, and Amazon.co.uk. Sweatband, and Fitness Connection.