REP stainless steel Power bar vs Excalibur bar

This is a comparison between the REP fitness stainless steel power bar and the REP fitness Excalibur bar. Follow the links for more details.

Overview and review of the REP Excalibur barbell

This is an overview of the REP fitness Excalibur barbell including the pros, cons, and alternatives. This article was originally posted in which barbell to buy from REP Fitness. Follow the links for more information.

Rep Excalibur $289

The rep Excalibur barbell is a middle-of-the-road barbell from REP fitness with average knurling, bushing on the sleeves, and 215K tensile strength. The main distinguishing feature of this barbell is its lifetime warranty which makes it a good commercial buy. Home gym warriors might opt for a REP fitness barbell with a 5-year warranty but get some better features like aggressive knurling, a center knurl, or bearing on the sleeves.

28.5mm diameter (25mm for 15 kg bar)
20kg Length: 87.4"
15kg Length: 79.13"
20 kg (45lb) or 15kg (35lb) option
1500 lb static rating
215k tensile, 205k yield
Bushing sleeve construction
Very mild ribbing on sleeves to keep plates in place
No Center Knurl or Center Knurl Option
Medium/Deep Knurl
Dual Knurl Markings - Powerlifting and Weightlifting
Lifetime Warranty

This is a good choice if a lifetime warranty seems like an attractive feature for you. Otherwise, I would steer clear of this barbell and go for the Gladiator WL or MX in the same price range or the sabre barbells if you want to save some money.

Pros of the Rep Excalibur

The pros of the REP Excalibur barbell are:

Warranty
Well balanced design

The lifetime warranty and the well-balanced design make the REP fitness Excalibur barbell a good option for anyone who wants to buy in stockpiles for commercial use. This barbell can be used for anything by anyone and if they break you have a warranty to cover it. If that is what you think makes a great purchase for your use case go ahead and know yourself out. For a home gym warrior, this might not be the best way to spend their money on a barbell.

Cons of the Rep Excalibur

The cons of the REP Excalibur barbell are:

No center knurl
No aggressive knurling
No bearing
Imported
No color options

Sorry for the long list of negatives but while I think that the Gladiator WL and MX are good design ideas for a home gym user, I personally think that the REP Excalibur is a bit of a bad choice. You are mainly paying about $100 more compared to sabre barbell for a lifetime warranty on a piece of equipment that is fairly hard to break. In return you get no cool stuff like a center knurl, bearing sleeves, or extra color options. Unless you work with big beginner classes for CrossFit that are likely to be all over the shop with their barbells, I would not recommend this. Either go for the sabre bar for yourself if cost savings are what you have in mind or look for a more specialized barbell like the Gladiator MX or WL when you have the budget, but want to treat yourself.

Alternatives to the Rep Excalibur

Alternatives to the REP Excalibur barbell are:

The black sabre and REP sabre barbells are in my opinion better all-purpose barbells for someone on a tight budget or who want to buy in bulk. Of course, the quality of the barbell and the warranty significantly drop when you look at the specification side by side, but they still are good barbells for the occasional user or for a gym that doesn't blow them out on a regular basis. If you are mainly using your barbell for powerlifting movements and do not drop it often from overhead go with the sabres. If you intend to drop from overhead and can conveniently assume that a lot of beginners will get their hands on them, go with the Excalibur.

The Rogue Ohio bar is the bread and butter barbell from Rogue. Based on its design there also power bars and deadlift bars available. For a workhorse barbell, go with the basic model that sits around $200. You can spice it up in terms of colors and material for the sleeves if you wish so at a slightly higher price. The biggest pro of this barbell is that it is sourced and manufactured in the US.

The TITAN ATlas bar is the bread and butter model from TITAN fitness and comes in at a lower price than the competition. TITAN fitness also imports its barbells just like REP fitness does. The big difference is that this distributor also has sideshows to the fitness line in agriculture and therefore their resources are spread thinner. With REP fitness you will get a better service due to a higher focus on the fitness community which also comes at a slightly higher price.

Conclusion for the Rep Excalibur

The REP Excalibur only really makes sense if you buy into the lifetime warranty and see an added value to you. If that is not the case go for one of the MIxed or weightlifting specific barbells with a 5-year warranty to get better features for yourself. A commercial buyer might consider the Excalibur, a home gym buyer should maximize their features.

Overview and review of the REP stainless steel Power bar

This is an overview of the REP fitness stainless steel power bar including the pros, cons, and alternatives. This article was originally posted in which barbell to buy from REP Fitness. Follow the links for more information.

REP Stainless steel power bar $379

The stainless steel power bar comes with 29mm in diameter, a medium Knurl and bushing to attach to the sleeves to the barbell. This is a powerlifting focused barbell which saves you a little money compared to the deep Knurl top dog from REP fitness. The full specifications are:

200k tensile, 1500 lb rated
29mm for extra stiffness
Length: 87.4"
Medium depth knurl
810mm between outside edges of knurling rings
Stainless steel shaft and smooth stainless sleeves
Bushing sleeves for smooth spin
Snap-ring design.

This is a solid choice, although I would pay the $20 extra for the deep Knurl any day if I am already looking into a powerlifting specific bar.

Pros of the REP Stainless steel power bar

The pros of the REP stainless steel power bar:

Stainless steel
200l tensile

The biggest plus is the powerlifting Knurl marks and the stainless steel itself. Stainless steel means that this barbell is a lot less likely to rust than regular steel barbells. It is also the main driver of the price of the bar as REP chooses to cover the sleeves and the barbell itself with stainless steel.

Tensile refers to the strength of the steel and how much pressure it needs to bend. The higher the number the more power is needed to permanently bend the bar. High-quality barbells hover around 200.000 tensile strength so the stainless steel power bar is spot on.

Cons of the REP Stainless steel power bar

The cons of the REP stainless steel power bar:

Medium Knurl
Price
No color options
Imported

To me personally, this bar makes little sense, unless the federation you lift on works with medium Knurl instead of aggressive Knurl bars. If you are already looking into a powerlifting specific bar you might as well pay the little extra and get the deep Knurl instead. For a compromise, this bar would be quite dear.

Compared to other vendors REP fitness has no color options (yet) on their barbell portfolio. Rogue fitness offers a wide array of sleeves made out of different materials and cerakote coatings. TITAN fitness copied this approach with their blues city barbell line. Currently, there is only the black Sabre bar in the REP fitness portfolio that offers a different color from steel.

The biggest con for REP fitness barbells might be for some that they are imported from overseas. If you want your hard-earned money to go into manufacturing jobs in the US you have to purchase from Rogue or Sorinex.

Alternatives to the REP Stainless steel power bar

Alternatives to the REP stainless steel power bar are:

The Rogue Ohio power bar in stainless steel is the current Creme de la Creme in powerlifting bars. There are some other models from kabuki strength and elitefts that are strong contestants for being higher quality, but they are by far not as known as the Rogue Ohio power bar.

The REP fitness deep Knurl bar is in my opinion the right choice from REP for a serious powerlifter to get the deep Knurl. Why stop $20 short on a $400 item that you will probably use for the next 10 years.

The TITAN blues city power bar is the direct competitor of the Ohio power bar and the REP stainless steel power bar. Here some serious savings can be made at the cost of higher risk of a bad user experience through quality issues on the bar or the with the service provided.

Conclusion for the REP Stainless steel power bar

I personally think that the REP stainless steel power bar does not make an awful lot of sense when you know about the deep Knurl bar from REP as they are only $20 apart. But that is just my thinking as I think the more aggressive the knurling the better for my purposes.