Finding a supplier of home gym equipment can be harder than it seems and with so many poor quality drop-shipping options available, which do you use?

Well, how about looking up North? Bells of Steel is a manufacturer of various kinds of gym equipment, that is high-quality and cost-effective.

Their range is extensive and the reviews are plenty, but are they worth it? Let’s look at the options they have for sale and if they are worth your money.

Key Takeaways

• bells of Steel is a Canadian company specializing in producing high-quality gym equipment at a fair price
• They produce everything in-house
• Their product range is massive, ranging from Kettlebells to a personalized light commercial power rack

Video Review

Who Are Bells of Steel?

The popularity of home gyms has skyrocketed since Covid, just like toilet paper sales did! The only difference is you might actually need a lot of gym equipment for a home gym. So, where is the best place to go?

Bells of Steel seems like a pretty good option! Based in Canada, this company focuses on building equipment that’ll allow you to train at home to build the best version of yourself. Or, as they put it:

“Bells of Steel’s mission is to help you get stronger, healthier, and more muscles for your hard-earned dollars. We do this by providing real value to YOU, with intelligently designed, the best bang for your buck fitness equipment.”

A mission is basically just a nice thought, and even though I’m sure as a Canadian company their customer care is stupendous, to be a light commercial gym equipment company you need to be more than just nice.

Well, they certainly have the size to assemble anything you’ll need. A 30,000 sq ft warehouse in Calgary and a 15,000 sq ft one in Toronto. Since its start in 2010, they have catered to more than 24 000 Canadian customers. Those are some impressive stats.

How Does Bells of Steel Work?

They produce everything in-house unless it seems easier to purchase a smaller component. They are a very large company with over 30 full-time employees (according to its LinkedIn profile), and they have the goal of producing cost-effective products that still have the quality you would expect.

As a company that produces gym equipment, they have the ability to upsell you into packages. For instance, you can buy a light commercial power rack and add on some safety straps, a bar for kipping pull-ups, and so much more.

This means you have the ability to add key features, making the products somewhat personally designed. Compared to other products you might find online that are “one size fits all”. Bells of Steel seems to go the extra mile.

Best Bells of Steel Products

Boy, there sure are a lot! To keep things somewhat simple, let’s summarize these into groups:

Packages

These include things like Home Gym Starter Sets, a “Build your own Gym” set, Bar and Plates Package, and various other types of sets. Some are created for certain sports, while some are created for certain goals.

Barbells

Barbells are obviously the bread and butter of lifting. Bells of Steel provide a vast array of different bars ranging from powerlifting bars to Olympic lifting bars.

Furthermore, there are other specialty bars as well, the type that makes barbell exercises a bit more interesting. Trap bars, EZ bars, Buffalo Bars, etc.

Various plates of steel and different manufacturing processes are used to create the best product for your individual goals.

Weight Plates

You need weights. You need heavy weights. You need plate storage. They have all of these.

They have bumper plates, Olympic plates, powerlifting plates, competition plates, and every single plate you can imagine. First impressions can be overwhelming because, Jesus, which do I choose?!

Spend some time thinking about what your needs are and choosing the right weight for your lifting style.

Conditioning

Care about your heart, do you? Do you go for regular cholesterol tests? Well, they have something to help you!

Their Conditioning range is an extensive range of equipment that includes kettlebells, cardio equipment, sandbags, plyo boxes, and more.

These aren’t often produced by the same company that produces heavy weights, so, it’s quite nice having everything under one roof. This Canadian site is looking like a real winner at this point.

Strength Equipment

You’re gonna need benches to do your lat pulldown or cable crossover on. They have a myriad of benches that differ from one another to give your less or more stability, depending on what your needs are.

They also have other stuff you might not see every day, such as a belt squat machine, a deadlift jack, a GHD and reverse back extension set, and even a Viking hammer press attachment.

Gym Accessories

We all could use a bit of padding, J Hooks, safety bars, a dip bar attachment, barbell clips, weightlifting chains, and so much more.

They basically provide everything, I don’t think I’ve seen a more extensive range of products – ever.

They also have some apparel if you wish to rock their brand while you pound off the sets in their rack.

Ordering and Shipping

Firstly, written in bold at the top of the site are the words “30-Day Money-Back Guarantee” which is always a nice addition.

Shipping is done using a combination of local couriers, UPS, Canada Post, and Day & Ross. This means the rate you get for your shipment truly is the best one – why pay extra, you know?

Shipping takes place the same day, or at the latest, the day after. They also mention that if you live in a rural area and the site cannot give you an accurate quote, you simply contact them and they will assist you as best they can.

Lastly, payment options include finance (Paybright)!

1) Pay in 4 is for transactions between $80-$1000, pay for it over 4 equal bi-weekly interest-free payments, no application, just a soft credit check and no fees.

2) 6-month term 0%* interest for transactions over $1,000.

They also offer something called First Capital Leasing, which simply means you hire the products. An excellent alternative to buying the product if you don’t plan on using it for years to come.

Customer Reviews 

From their site:

Good knurling, solid quality. can load a ton of weight. Good packaging arrived in mint condition. All the annoyance I have with those are applicable for all loadable dumbells ever. They are big and bulky. they can be uncomfortable to get in place when bench pressing and they are longer to load and unload compared to a nuobell or a fixed db set. But for a fraction of the price it gets the job done in a home gym set up.

…ship a barbell, if you’re concerned with how your product reaches its buyer! I haven’t used the barbell yet, as yesterday was cardio HIIT day and today is Core, Stretch, and Foam Roller day, but if this is how the bar is shipped, I would imagine that BoS builds it to the same degree of consideration. The chains in the pix are also BoS chains, and I’m actually looking forward to using the chains on my new barbell for Back, Chest, and Leg days. I also have the BoS plate pins for my Functional Trainer, and the money saved by not having to buy an extra 50 lb weight stack almost paid for the bar!

Can’t complain for the price point. I knew it wasn’t going to be a Kabuki. I did wish for the feet side to be heavier so it wouldn’t tilt and have the bar touch the floor on the closed side, but it works as advertised. That’s not a deal breaker nor a star off. Nor is it a deal breaker that when I put a 45 on, it tilts as there isn’t a heavy counter weight on the feet. It works as is.

And then there is a really nice review on Reddit by naclerio3

Joined the home gym community a couple of months ago and I figured I’d show you what my gym looks like so far. I’ll also give a review of my experience with Bells of Steel in case it helps anyone (especially us Canadians up north).

OVERALL – Shipping costs to Canada can be outrageous. For Canadians, it’s going to be fairly tough to beat the quality for the price of Bells of Steel. Only big issue I had was with their customer service.

Note: This review is being created after a month of use.

RACK – 8.5/10: Originally, I was just going to get a Fitness Reality rack because it was cheaper. Decided to go with the Bells of Steel Light Commercial Rack 5.1. Personally, I feel the Fitness Reality rack would be absolutely fine for 90% of people. The only reason I went with BOS is because it was a little more heavy duty and aesthetically pleasing. You also get a few handy attachments such as the roller j-cups, spotter straps, and band pegs. I really like that the rack is flat footed and there is no need to bolt it to your floor. It’s really stable and I haven’t noticed any wobble or movement. The west-side 1″ spacing for the bench press is pretty helpful to get the exact height you want. The multi-grip pull up bar is a bit disappointing. I like neutral grip pull ups and the neutral grips are way too far apart. It’s also pretty tough to keep a grip on the bar. I find myself using my doorway pull up bar instead. This is definitely my fault but I didn’t realize it would be impossible to buy rack attachments elsewhere due to the rack being 2.3″ x 2.3″ uprights.

LAT PULLDOWN/ROW ATTACHMENT – 9/10: It allows me to do a variety of additional exercises. It comes with a lat pulldown bar, a short bar, and a leg brace. Neither bar has a swivel but that doesn’t really bother me. The handles are made of a hard plastic. I purchased some additional attachments separately (tricep rope, double d row, ankle cuffs, and handles). When setting it up, I recommend spraying some 3-in-one silicone lubricant on the pulleys and spinning each one. Spray the metal tube uprights as well. The cable isn’t as smooth as commercial grade but that is to be expected when it’s only $300 CAD. The only improvement I would recommend is that the top cable go past the top crossmember of the rack. There’s no issue when pulling straight down but if you’re pulling at a bit of an angle, the cable itself bends a little, as it touches the crossmember. Little tough to explain but I can provide a picture if you need it.

OTHER ATTACHMENTS – 7.5/10: The sandwich j-cups, band pegs, and spotter straps are all great. Plate pegs are fine. They do what they’re supposed to. The end cap is a little beat up and the coating on the peg is starting to wear off but I feel that would be tough to avoid with plate pegs. The roller j-cups need a little improvement, however. They came SUPER tight and did not spin at all. Actually had to put it in a vice, and hit the allen key with a hammer to get it to finally loosen. It’s also a bit unfortunate that there is a lot of metal-to-metal contact, as there is no UHMW or plastic to protect your bar. I put gorilla tape on each side to protect the bar but I have a feeling I’ll have to keep replacing this. The spring collars I purchased were garbage. Using two hands to open them as much as possible, I still can’t get them on the bar. Probably should have done this from the start but I purchased some other collars off Amazon that are much better.

BARENAKED POWERLIFTING BAR 2.0 – 10/10: My favourite part about this purchase. Aggressive knurl that feels great. 210,000 PSI and 1,500 lb capacity. I just really like the feel of this bar. The bar came a bit rusted but I was kind of expecting this, as it is bare steel. Got most of it off with some 3-in-one oil. Could probably get the rest off if I try hard enough. I apply oil to it once every week to maintain it.

FID BENCH – 10/10: Very pleased with the bench so far. It has a capacity of 1000lbs and I believe the angle range is -20 to 85 degrees. You can adjust the seat as well. There is a gap but it’s not big enough to bother me. This bench replaced my cheap CAP bench and I no longer notice any wobble. I’m about 5’10” and the bench seems really long. However, I would only be upset if it was too short so no biggy.

PLATES – 9.5/10: I decided to buy a set of the Mighty Grip plates. All the plates were within tolerance. Not as aesthetically pleasing as the machined plates but they were cheaper. It’s tough to see from the picture but some plates were a different shade of grey. Again, it’s only cosmetics so it’s not a big deal for me.

CUSTOMER SERVICE – 5/10: First, I would like to state that I think Kaevon (the owner) is great. He seems very understanding and will try his best to make it a good experience. I do think the employees are a different story. When I purchased everything, the shipping was about $500. There was a promotion to get it sent to Toronto and avoid shipping. I contacted them to ask if it had already shipped out and they said no. I asked if I could get it shipped to Toronto instead to avoid paying shipping. They agreed and I set up an appointment to pick it up in Toronto a couple weeks later. The day before I was about to drive to Toronto, I noticed that I still did not receive any refund for my shipping. I contacted them and they said they would fix that right away. They refunded my entire order instead. I had taken a vacation day to pick them up because I live 3.5 hours from Toronto. They did redeem themselves somewhat, as they offered to ship it to me for $200 cheaper. I never received the glute loop that I ordered for my girlfriend. Contacted them and they said they would ship it out but I never received it. This was a free gift for buying the entire gym from them so I wasn’t going to bother emailing them again. So at the end of the day, I received everything I wanted for a good price. It was just a hassle emailing back and forth trying to sort out the logistics of everything. Was going to order the Y dip attachment and some more plates but I would rather avoid another chain of emails.

Conclusion: Is Bells of Steel Worth it?

100%. It is not often that we come across a brand that wins over everyone in the office so quickly and easily. From the UX/UI to the reviews by the clients, this company does not disappoint.

They have some of the best quality and best value you can get your hands on, and whereas other racks reef of “This might break”, these simply don’t.

If you have the space to build a nice home gym, you best spent your money wisely. You can save some cash AND get really a highly regulated and perfect product. The assembly seems to be easy enough and they even help you with it as well.

Whether you are looking for a light commercial power rack or simply a bench at the perfect height, Bells of Steel can help you with it. 10/10 would recommend it.