KETTESTACK KETTLEBELL HANDLE REVIEW

My Kettlestack handle arrived yesterday, after ordering it on the 29th december. That's really super-fast for Italian delivery standards. I expected to receive it about mid-January. I'm very happy it got to me so fast, but in a way I'm a bit disappointed that I haven't yet had the time to build my own adjustable kettlebell handle. Well, anyway I'm happy. This is what the content of the parcel looked like.

It's a "blue steel" model, the highest end of the scale in the kettlestack range. First off, I ordered the product since I thought it was a very good idea and one I couldn't easily if at all duplicate for a variety of reasons. BUT I did have a few doubts. First, as a person used to deal with metal, talking plastic is a huge turn-off, and that's what the handle is made of. Second, as a person used to deal with CHEAP metal, the general rule of thumb is that thickness=strength; 1-odd mm steel band? Forgetaboutit! Now, as soon as I opened the box and the kstack was still in the plastic pack, I had to check what the plastic handle felt like. The kstack site already tells that it's ABS or something like that, the kind of plastic that some hardcore stuff such as motorbike helmets are made of. Being totally profane on the ways of plastic though, I had to check. Boy does it feel solid! This was the real first surprise. Took the kstack out and checked the handle a bit closer. The feeling of holding it is even more solid. Banging your finger-nail on the handle makes you realise that it's hollow plasic, but on the technical detail page of the Ksack site you can see that internally it pretty much filled with cross-sections, so the mechanical properties are similar to a full handle. Obviously you can break it if you really try to, but that is true to everything. Used as it should it's very safe. Also, the handle is built around the steel band, it doesn't really support much weight. The steel band itself is very high quality. I got blue steel, but I guess even the other models using stainless use very high quality material. This is not the kind of metal I'm used to. You can tell by sight alone. In this case, thickness is only marginally an issue, I'm sure the 1-oddmm band on my stack is as strong (if not more) than the real thick flat stock I've used to connect the chinning bar and cross-section on my chinning station. Moreover, being flexible offers a few advantages I'll go on about below. I haven't yet had the chance to actually use the product much, so I will have to update this page as soon as I get the chance to use it more, which should be soon. For now just a few other considerations. The kstack site is full of ideas and pictures of possible configurations using your own weight. They even give very detailed set-up instructions. One thing I missed when viewing the site and affected my set-up last night is that the hex axle doesn't necessarily have to go through both sides of the strip. Since I don't have a pc at home I couldn't go check what the deal was, thing that I've done today. Check this link to a typical 35 lbs set-up on the kstack site. The axle doesn't have to go through both sides of the strip, the structure is kept together by the plates tightened on the strip. Since I didn't know that last night, I tried for a central core configuration that had the axle passing throught both sides of the strip.

That took the form of 3 of my 5kg plates, and a bit of space was still left. I was very disappointed as I wanted to use 4 of my 5kg plates and test the kstack with 20kg. Had I studied more carefully the site, I could have gotten a 21kg set-up with a 4x5kg plates as a wide core and 2x0,5 kg plates outside the strips, using the axle and 1 bolt. This is what I'm gonna do to "play" with my kstack tomorrow, or probably a 19kg of plates model. To avoid frustration everyone getting a kstack should check carefully the site. there's everything one needs to know there, and then some. Except for this issue, that is the only counter-intuitive aspect of the kstack (after all, if you have 1 hex handle and 2 hex holes, logic wants the haxle to go through both holes), assembly is really simple and rather quick. I ended up tesing the kstack with a loopsided 17 kg of plates model pictured below. Being loopsided it felt a bit weird, but it did work ok. cleaned it a few times, pressed it a few times, snatched it a few time. All worked good despite my plate configuration being less than ideal. The reason I had to settle for a loopsided version is that: a) I couldn't be bothered to grab other plates; b) another bolt wouldn't fit the axle on the other side. Had I understood that the axle doesn't need to go through both holes I could have added another 2kg plate on the other side using just 1 bolt.

One last consideration. Apart from the quality of the handle, particular shape configuration is entirely up to the user and depends to an extent to the type of plates he ownes. I said "to an extent" since the steel bands are flexible so can allow for quite some adjustment. Obviously it's not good to overdoit, like putting just 2, or 5 of my 5kg plates pictured above as the core. That wouldn't be smart, but you can put 3 like above or 4 of my plates in, and that's a very nice and important feature, very usefull to set-up a particular weight configuration. Anyway, back to plates, there are more shapes and sizes of cheap standard weights on the market than Catholic churches in Guadalupe. Pictured below are 2 of my 2kg plates. One is of the same brand of the 5kg plates above, the red one is of a different brand. The red 2kg plate is actually only slightly smaller than my 5kg plates.

Right below here you can see the 2 plates of the same brand as you would use them to try get a "round" configuration: a 2kg on top of a 5kg. The next weight up 2kg for that brand is 5kg, so those are really what you get. Doesn't look too neat, right? With a Kstack there is the possibility of getting a rounder shape by moving the plaes about (as both the axle and obviously the bolts are smaller than a 26mm bore), as seen in this page, but this is too much of an extreeme case, though it could still be done, probably. Compaired with the picture below on the left, where a red 2kg plate is placed on top of a black 5kg plate. The red plate has a removable rubber rim that adds a bit of size. Without the rubber you would have the optimal roundable configuration potential even without having to adjust the plates around. I'm not saying that one has to go shop around to find the correct sizes of plates for its kettlestack (though if he hasn't already got any standard plate around the house, he very much might!), but I'm saying that apart from the "crossgrip" feature of the kstack, that does indeed help, your plates models play some part in the confuguration of your kettlestack.

This ends the first part of my review. Will put more up once I get the chance to use the kettlesack a bit more, and experiment with some weight confgurations, now that I understand a bit better the mechanics of the handle.

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