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The Stinky Weights Problem
Any brand new dumbbells or plates might stink when you first get them.
There’s a couple reasons for this:
- For iron weights – Factories usually put a layer of oil on plates, bars and dumbbells to protect against rust during storage and transport. Once you’ve got them, you don’t need that nasty oil on it anymore. Sometimes it’s a thick brown oil that resembles rust. It’s not, it’s just a nasty oil… unless you actually do find solid rust. This oil stinks. Fortunately you can wash it off (see below).
- Recycled rubber dumbbells and plates can off-gas for a while after being manufactured. Even if they were sitting a while in the warehouse, they probably spent most of their time boxed up as they were from the factory in China and have been wallowing in their own fumes for months.
Here’s what to do to get the smell out of your weights:
Wash Them
The first thing you should try is washing your weights to get rid of the surface oil.
Wash them with a very light solution of dish soap on a rag. You don’t need much. If you use too much soap you’ll just cause yourself more work as you create a whole new problem and have to wipe it off repeatedly to get it all off. Be sure to wipe them dry immediately afterwards with a towel. VERY dry. Even a short time wet can lead to rusting. A rubber coating protects weights from moisture somewhat, but moisture still seeps through the pores in the rubber. Plus, the steel handle of dumbbells isn’t coated, and the center hole of weight plates might not be coated on some plates.
If that doesn’t do the trick, it’s worth trying laundry detergent. Or even engine degreaser, if you have some.
Absorb the Odors
If that doesn’t work, what kind of weights do you have? If they’re plain iron, they normally have a baked enamel finish that shouldn’t stink once you get the oil off. If they still stink in such case, perhaps the enamel never cured properly, or it wasn’t baked, or it wasn’t baked long enough. It’s a temporary issue, anyway. They will finish off-gassing in a while.
If they’re rubber coated, it’s chemicals in the rubber outgassing. Same principle. Also temporary.
There are all kinds of materials that absorb odors. It all depends on what’s convenient for you.
If you have a cat, make use of your kitty litter. Seal the weights in a large container filled with kitty litter and leave them there for a couple days. Kitty litter is effective at absorbing odors, and it doesn’t care of it’s poop or other chemicals. I think it helps for the kitty litter to be in contact with the weights, so cover them up.
Baking soda sucks up odors from the room well and is totally unscented itself. I always have some on hand for sprinkling in the garbage, unclogging drains, whatever. There’s dozens of uses for it. Just dump some in a bowl and leave it in your workout area for an indirect method of getting rid of the stink over time.
Or if you do a little charcoal grilling like me, smash up some spare charcoal (jut enough to expose the insides) and leave it out in a bowl just like baking soda and it will absorb odors from the air.
Mask the Odors (not recommended)
Chemical air fresheners like Febreeze can do a good job of masking odors, but they’re bad for you. They’re loaded with chemicals that can irritate your eyes, skin, lungs, flare up your allergies, and even cause cancer. When the point of gym equipment is to get you in better shape, it’s counterproductive to be doing something like this in the process that’s so harmful to your health. It’s worse for you than whatever odor is coming from your weights, and you’re just adding chemicals on top of chemicals.
If you found an air freshener you like, well, don’t let me stop you. Maybe that’s the best solution for you temporarily until your weights have finished out-gassing.
Please don’t do what this member of the bodybuilding.com forums did:
He went into full duct tape mode, completely covering his brand new, beautiful, but stinky plates. It should be a crime.
At least he didn’t stop halfway through. This took time. He committed to it, kept wrapping over the edges, smoothing it out the best he could. Instead of locking him up, let’s honor his commitment to the task!
As you might imagine, the worst part of this is when you remove the duct tape and you’re left with a horrible sticky film over the plates that’s a pain in the butt to try to remove.
Time
The last thing you can do is just wait. They will only out-gas for a a couple weeks or month or so when you put them in an environment where they can air out, like a garage, or even outside if you cover them so they don’t get wet from rain or dew. Until then, keep the area ventilated and do something to absorb the odors as per above.
Once it gets to the point where you can’t smell it unless you get your nose close to it, that’s as good as it’s going to get.
To avoid the issue altogether, consider getting virgin rubber versions of rubber weights for just a little more money. They don’t have nearly the same level of outgassing that recycled rubber does. It’s very faint or not there at all. If you’re still super-sensitive to any amount, rubber might not be for you. Urethane is a sure bet for zero odor, and it’s what commercial gyms get nowadays.
Now that your weights are clean and odor-free, be sure to keep them from forming rust by following these guidelines.
I bought Rogue bumper plates and I tried the cat liter method. It worked at first but the smell came back. Living in the Northeastern USA there isn’t much strong sunlight out now to de-gas the plates.
I am going to try the degreaser method. Would you just apply it and let it sit? Thanks! Great article!
Follow the instructions on the degreaser can, but it doesn’t need to sit for long. If there’s still an issue then it’s not grease, it’s the rubber, which just needs some airflow.
David, Thanks for the info. I’m really glad I found this blog. I thought I might be the only one that is bothered by the volitility of gas emitting from my iron weight plates. I recently purchased 780 pounds of the Troy PO or premium weight plates in black–which are awesome–but they do have an odor. I do not see an oil or even feel any residual film from the surface. I expected this to be the case while unpacking the plates but I didn’t see any evidence of the oil. The smell is there definitely there but I think it’s from the enamel. I’m a grad student building a homegym while living in an apartment. So, now I live with this slight odor–it does seem to dissipate daily though. I’m keeping windows open and hoping the off-gas will slowly go away. I did purchase an odor removing gel that’s being shipped tomorrow..we’ll see if that helps. Any other suggestions? I’m thinking I should probably wipe them down even if I don’t see or feel an oil residue.Thanks again.
Let me know how well the gel works! I haven’t heard much about that. At a minimum use a light solution of dish soap and dry well. If that doesn’t work then I would suspect the enamel didn’t fully cure or something and it might need a little more time.
Thanks for the reply. ***Update: it took about 7 days from the day they arrived for all of the plates off-gas to dissipate. I really don’t smell anything anymore. For anyone who purchased the Troy PO iron plates…no more smell after about a week! Thanks David appreciate the reply.
Excellent. Seems like the odor always goes away after a short time. The thing that can take a long time to stop stinking is rubber flooring, I guess because of so much porous material involved.
Just bought a barbell bar and it smelled like someone took a shit in it (the packaging) and lidded it up before shipping. I’m not entirely sure its supposed to smell like that, but given I only use dumbbells and machines – so this is a first. Even the outside smelled like shit, my eyes burned trying to get a sniff.
I figured since the it took a one month journey to me from Amazon, it contaminated from other packages. But is this smell normal? I’m getting paranoid that someone purposely shitted on my package or didn’t wash their hands. It doesn’t have that factory smell I get from my dumbbells.
That kind of odor doesn’t sound typical. Who knows what happened.
I was going to attempt to use the kitty litter method. Afterwards, to get the kitty litter off, just rinse the dumbbells off? I don’t want to ruin the rubber with kitty litter dust lol Thanks!
I would wipe them with a cloth, then go over them with a damp cloth to get any remaining dust. Any metal areas wipe dry again if your cloth was damp enough to leave it very wet.