Keppi 900lb Weight Bench Review (bench500)

I reviewed Keppi’s first weight bench over a decade ago, and it wasn’t too bad. It wobbled a bit, but I was impressed with for a first-weight bench from a new company.

They’ve come a long way since then. Ten years later, they’re producing weight benches that challenge the likes of Bowflex and Body Solid. They’re that good.

The Keppi 900lb Weight Bench is one of their best sellers. It’s still a low-cost bench (under $150) but punches way above its price tag. Heavy duty? No, not quite, but it’s about as close as you’ll get for $150. It’s a solid bench. Many users have mentioned how sturdy the Keppi Bench feels.

Stability is all about the design. You need wide stabilizing feet front and rear. Also, adjustable levelers built into the stabilizers are really important for stability, as they can be adjusted to keep the bench even on uneven floors.

Thankfully, Keppi thought of using the adjustable levelers with this bench, and the stabilizers are nice and wide, which is exactly what you want.

So it looks like Keppi has tried to include everything with the 900lb weight bench, which isn’t a bad thing, as long as they’ve got all the essentials right, which for 80% of this bench they have.

To get 80% of the essentials right is impressive for a low-cost bench. It’s certainly a weight bench worth taking seriously, and today, I’m going to take a much closer look at the Keppi Weight Bench, all of its pros and drawbacks.

Also, at the end of the review, I’ll compare the Keppi Bench500 to one of the most impressive newcomers this year in the under $150 price bracket, the Barwing Adjustable Weight Bench. It will be interesting to see how these two match up.

First, let’s take a quick look at the Keppi 900lb Weight Bench product specs!

Why Do We Like The Keppi 900lb Weight Bench?

What you’re going to love about this weight bench, is how versatile it is, it boasts 11 back pad positions, which is more than enough for all your pressing needs, and an adjustable seat and foot pad.

When choosing a weight bench, I always recommend choosing one with an adjustable seat, as it’s such an important feature.

An adjustable seat is going to stop your butt from slipping when incline pressing. You need a stable base to press from, and an adjustable seat gives you that when incline pressing.

There are quite a few adjustable benches that don’t come with an adjustable seat, avoid those benches if incline pressing and developing your upper pecs is important to you.

There’s an 80° For Seated Shoulder Presses.

It’s great that Keppi included the important 80° angle for the seated shoulder press. Too many low-cost benches don’t include an 80- or 85° incline for shoulder presses, instead, they have 90° or 75°.

The problem with using a 90°  back pad angle for seated shoulder presses is that it doesn’t allow you to arch your back slightly.

Arching the back slightly is important as it allows you to fully engage the glutes and lower back muscles, creating a more stable pressing base. The more stable, the more power.

And the 75° back pad angle is just a little too low to engage the shoulder muscles fully. So yes, you need that 80 degrees on 85 for seated shoulder press, and Keppi, thankfully, has included it. There are also 10 other back pad angles, including decline.

Its a full FID (flat, incline, decline) weight bench, which is what you want.

Click here to check price of Keppi Weight Bench on Amazon

It’s a Light Bench, Just 30lb!

One of the selling points of this bench is that it’s pretty easy to move from room to room because it only weighs 30 lbs. You can fold it and pick it up with one hand to move and store it against a wall, which is handy for those tight on space.

Still, lightweight foldable benches have drawbacks. You need to remember the weight of a bench is a telling sign of the quality of the materials used in the build. And because this bench is so light, it doesn’t use commercial-grade heavy gauge steel for the frame. It’s not a heavy-duty bench for serious lifters.

This weight bench is more designed for dumbbell workouts and some light barbell pressing.

 Can it Handle 900lb?

The 900lb capacity is somewhat unrealistic for a 30lb weight bench. Many cheap weight benches love to boast about high capacities, but in reality, a 30lb weight bench wouldn’t handle a workload of 900lb daily. It’s not a commercial weight bench.

So, yes, Keppi states a 900-lb Capacity, which I’m sure it could probably take a few times, but don’t risk anywhere near that weight on a daily basis.

A more realistic weight capacity for a 30-lb dumbbell bench is a 300-lb user load and 300-lb weight load, which gives a max capacity of around 600lb.

A 600-lb weight capacity is more than enough for most people’s needs. If it isn’t, you need to spend a few more bucks on something more heavy-duty.

Multi-Layed Padding

Something Keppi got right with their 900lb bench is the padding, it’s 2″ thick, which is perfect, anything more, and you get stability issues, anything less, and it can be uncomfortable and offputting.

The padding is multi-layered, which is great to see. Multi-layered padding is usually reserved for higher-end weight benches, so it’s excellent to find on a sub-$150 adjustable bench.

And the covering is decent too, made from hard-wearing, breathable PU leather.

Remember it’s the upholstery that always goes first on a weight bench. Which is why most of the low cost benches only give you 6 months warranty of the upholstery Keppi gives a year warranty on the upholstery, which is what I like to see!

Anything I Didn’t Like?

For the price, the Keppi Weight Bench is hard to fault. As I mentioned in the intro, they got 80% right, which is impressive for a low-cost dumbbell bench.

Still, if I had to find fault with anything, it would be the adjustment system for the back pad. It uses a pull-pin adjustment system.

Pull-pin systems are okay on high-end heavy-duty benches, but on cheaper dumbbell benches, the pin can snap under heavy loads because the quality is just not there. They are also slow to adjust.

Also, the pull pin systems create a lot of holes in the backrest adjustment bar, and holes will lessen the strength of the bar, which isn’t a good thing.

I prefer and tend to recommend the ladder back pad adjustment system for low-cost benches or any bench. It’s faster to adjust, sturdy, and can handle heavier weight loads.

Still, the pull pin system isn’t a dealbreaker, most people won’t be lifting super heavy barbells on this bench inside a power rack and risking the pin snapping. For dumbbell training, it should be strong enough, just a little slow.

30 Minute Assembly

Most of the Keppi Bench comes pre-assembled, you only need to tighten a few bolts. Tools and clear instructions are provided. It shouldn’t take longer than 30 minutes, and because it’s a light bench, you should be able to assemble it on your own.

Alternative

BarWing Adjustable Weight Bench

Barwing is a fairly new company, they’ve only been around for a couple of years, but they make some excellent benches. The Barwing Dumbbell Bench was released about six months ago, and it’s already a favorite of mine in the under $150 price category.

It’s very similar to the Keppi 900-lb weight bench. Both weigh around 30lb, are full FID weight benches, including the all-important adjustable seat, and feel pretty sturdy thanks to their wide front and rear stabilizers and adjustable levelers.

Also, the Barwing weight bench includes 2 ” high-density foam padding for the seat and backrest. It’s the gold standard for all benches and impressive to find in this price range.

What I really like about the Barwing bench is the back pad. It’s a little wider than the Keppi back pad and doesn’t have the annoying adjustable headrest.

Also the Barwing bench is great in the flat position. Its height is 17.5″, the same height as commercial flat-weight benches, and it’s the perfect height for bench pressing foot placement and dumbbell rows.

And the bench is just as versatile as the Keppi weight bench, with 11 back pad positions, 7 seat positions, and 3 foot pad positions.

The only drawback with the Barwing back pad is that you don’t get the desirable 80 degrees for seated shoulder presses, there are just the 90- and 75-degree positions.

Build quality of this bench is very similar to the Keppi Bench, the Barwing bench is a 30lb dumbbell bench, its not a heavy duty bench for serious lifters. Its designed for beginners and intermediates.

Overall, this sturdy dumbbell bench gives the Keppi Weight Bench a run for its money. I prefer the back pad on the Barwing Weight Bench, but the Keppi Weight Bench has a better range of back pad positions.

It’s really close between these two benches. Both the Barwing and Keppi weight benches are excellent for their price points. You won’t be disappointed with either.

To Sum Up

As I mentioned in the intro, Keppi has come a long way in the last ten years. Their benches now rival the top brands but at a much lower price.

Their 900-lb Adjustable Weight Bench is sturdy and well-made. It’s versatile and includes all the back pad angles you need. The seat is adjustable, and the padding is the right thickness. Eighty percent of the essentials are there with this bench, which is impressive considering the price point.

It’s difficult to find fault with the Keppi Bench. The only slight drawback is the pull-pin system for adjusting the back pad. It’s slow and annoying to adjust, but apart from that, these guys got it right. It is definitely one of the top three dumbbell benches under $150.