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Kettlebell Do You Weigh Your KBs?

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watchnerd

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I just got a new set of 2 x 16 competition bells to replace my set of no-longer-competition-legal VF 16 kg bells with the flat 'wrist spots'.

As I always do when I get new bells, I weighed them on the bathroom scale to see if they're true to advertised weight.

And then I realized....maybe nobody else does this?

Or do you weigh your KBs, too?
 
I haven't weighed my kettlebells. But I did weight a dumbbell a little while ago. Couldn't remember what weight it was.
 
I just got a new set of 2 x 16 competition bells to replace my set of no-longer-competition-legal VF 16 kg bells with the flat 'wrist spots'.

As I always do when I get new bells, I weighed them on the bathroom scale to see if they're true to advertised weight.

And then I realized....maybe nobody else does this?

Or do you weigh your KBs, too?
What makes you think your bathroom scale is calibrated correctly? :)
 
What makes you think your bathroom scale is calibrated correctly? :)

Because I have laboratory grade calibration weights. ;)

"Why in the name of Christmas would you have those?", you might ask...

Because I have some bumper plates that are IWF-certified / calibrated, and some that aren't. I wanted to find out how big of a margin of error there was on the cheaper, non-IWF plates.
 
Because I have laboratory grade calibration weights. ;)

"Why in the name of Christmas would you have those?", you might ask...

Because I have some bumper plates that are IWF-certified / calibrated, and some that aren't. I wanted to find out how big of a margin of error there was on the cheaper, non-IWF plates.
Fair enough... :cool:
 
Yep, I did weight my bells.
The issue is that my bathroom scale is of course not precise. It seems accurate on lower weight, and get off by one kilo when I am weighing myself (as per comparison when I weighted myself on various other scales on the same day, multiple days), so it is more an indication than a true value.

The main point for me was to see if, overall, they all stay within a reasonable range. Both 16s showed 15,8. Both 24s ended up at 23,6. The 32 and 40 were exactly where they should be. The 28s were different: one at 27,5 and one at 29.
 
I weighed all my bells with the accurate industrial scale. 16 kg bell was 16,1 kg, 24 kg bell was 25,4 kg (WTF?) and 30 kg bell was 31 kg. If my memory serves, the 20 kg and the 40 kg bells were okay, the same accuracy than with the 16 kg bell.
 
I have only iron cast bells, never weighted them. I bet they would not be perfect, you could tell it by how the shape itself is imperfect. But it’s not an issue for me with using 4-8kg jumps, and not using pairs (yet).
 
I weighed all my bells with the accurate industrial scale. 16 kg bell was 16,1 kg, 24 kg bell was 25,4 kg (WTF?) and 30 kg bell was 31 kg. If my memory serves, the 20 kg and the 40 kg bells were okay, the same accuracy than with the 16 kg bell.

Were those steel or cast iron?
 
Yes. I do this by weighing myself first, then weighing myself holding the kettle bell. I think it’s reasonably accurate.

Back in the day, kettle bell weights did not used to be very accurate, for example, I remember I had a 24 kg kettle bell that weighed 23.2 kg. The most recent kettlebell I weighed was my brand new StrongFirst 24 kg and it weighed 52.8 pounds, which is exactly what it’s supposed to weigh.

-S-
 
I have done it to check new bells that I received. I came to the opinion that I could trust the maker after a while. I'm now using a couple of adjustable bells so I do weight them after setting them to a new weight, just to make sure my math is right.
 
Yes, I do now. Ever since my 40kg turned out to be 41.9kg and I couldn't press the damned thing (years ago). I had the numbers with my 32, 36 and my cleans with my 48. Each of those was almost bang on weight (the 36 is 36.1).

Turns out 5% in the press is the difference between 1 and 2 reps, or 1 and 0.
 
I weigh mine as well. I have only found one that was really off, a 20kg that was a kilo light. My CFF kettlebells are spot on, the others are on, or within acceptable limits.

And now that my OCD has been activated, I am going to take the scale down stairs to the courage corner and re-weigh all of them now.
 
I weighted kbs once because i once ordered a bell from a diferent cheaper brand. There were big differences. In weight. But besides that. Never
 
I just weighed mine (Wolverson 'black' series cast-iron bells, purchased between 2016/2017):

Stated Weight
Actual Weight
Discrepancy
16kg15.8kg-200g
24kg23.8kg-200g
32kg31.8kg-200g

Well they're nothing if not consistent! It could even be my scales that are off. I'm actually rather impressed.
 
I just weighed mine (Wolverson 'black' series cast-iron bells, purchased between 2016/2017):

Stated Weight
Actual Weight
Discrepancy
16kg15.8kg-200g
24kg23.8kg-200g
32kg31.8kg-200g

Well they're nothing if not consistent! It could even be my scales that are off. I'm actually rather impressed.


They nicked your iron, brother!
 
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