GPI rubber/urethane plates sticking together/melting?

[gatorguy.]

I bought these plates from CL a while ago and they are sticking to each other fiercely and also look like they are melting. They'll literally start dripping the coating off. They are in air conditioned space, so it's not like they are literally melting. Has anybody seen this and can anything be done about it???

I emailed GPI and they basically said "sounds like the urethane is having some sort of chemical breakdown... the only thing to really recommend is to purchase new olympic plates".

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[ajsat23]

I bought these plates from CL a while ago and they are sticking to each other fiercely and also look like they are melting. They'll literally start dripping the coating off. They are in air conditioned space, so it's not like they are literally melting. Has anybody seen this and can anything be done about it???

I emailed GPI and they basically said "sounds like the urethane is having some sort of chemical breakdown... the only thing to really recommend is to purchase new olympic plates".

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I have some intek plates with this coating. The only thing I have noticed is that when the humidity gets higher the plates seem to get a little tacky. Maybe a dehumidifier would help? Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[rthawker]

Were they in decent condition when you bought them? It looks like the seller used something to clean the plates up that reacted with the coating. Too bad you bought them off CL otherwise you could get refund/replacement. I would suggest cleaning all of your plates with warm soapy water to remove any possible contamination. Good luck.

[deadwoodgregg]

I have some of those plates. They are rubber coated. Sometimes they will stick together slightly if they are laid down flat on top of each other. How come all of them arent doing that? Have you been cleaning them with a chemical that dissolves rubber? Have the affected plates been subjected to extreme heat from something. Has a chemical been leaking onto some of the plates? Those are older style plates. They would have done this before now if it was an issue with the manufacturing. They have had to have been exposed to heat or chemicals in some way.

[gatorguy.]

Whoever I bought them from must have used something on them. They had tried to put paper between them to keep them from sticking together when I bought them but the paper just stuck on the plates. I didn't know any better at the time. I probably shouldn't have bought them. Seems the 25# and smaller plates are the worst. I have to literally use a pry bar to get the 5's and 10's apart sometimes and they are on a weight tree. That's just if I push them too close together on the tree! Aggrevating.

[cm45]

I would clean them up like rthawker suggested. My guess is also this might have occurred from some chemical reaction.

[PacificStrength]

Looks like they were near very intense heat as in a fire given the extent of their deformity.

[deadwoodgregg]

Gatorguy, if you want to sell those plates I would buy any that aren't melted from you if you are fairly close to the east Tennessee area. Especially 5, 10, and 25's. I'm always interested in rubber or urethane olympic grip plates from decent companies.

[kimsbear]

We are having the exact same issue with our GPI plates. Did you find out any additional information about this "melting"? Ours are not stored near a heat source, we are in the desert so no humidity and use the cleaning chemicals they recommend.

Thank you.

I bought these plates from CL a while ago and they are sticking to each other fiercely and also look like they are melting. They'll literally start dripping the coating off. They are in air conditioned space, so it's not like they are literally melting. Has anybody seen this and can anything be done about it???

I emailed GPI and they basically said "sounds like the urethane is having some sort of chemical breakdown... the only thing to really recommend is to purchase new olympic plates".

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[dragon360]

I have a few myself. Now they aren't as bad as those in the photos but they are definitely soft and tacky to the touch. And if pressed together for any real length of time, need to be pried off one another. For now I've had short term luck with talcing or chalking them. Doing so has left them freer and able to spin while racked. No pulling apart needed. From what i have found, not all are created the same but the degradation is due to cheap rubber.

[qaz123]

They didn't put enough harder into the urethane when they mixed it up in the factory. Has nothing to do with temperature, humidity or solvents.

[cmarti063]

I have mentioned thus in other threads, but there was a year or so right after GPI changed production facilities where they made a junk rubber coating. There its nothing you can do about it, it is defective.

[6mildollarman]

Damn, that looks like straight out of a Salvador Dali painting! I'd never imagine something like this happening to rubber/urethane coated plates.

[Bench905]

Wow. Makes me want to stay away from GPI plates...melting plates and the manufacturer tells you to just buy some more.

[2MoreRepz]

^^ No kidding. I know GPI are "normally" top quality plates...but if that is the extent of their customer service then I think I will choose elsewhere.

[ugmoe2000]

I had some of those plates a while ago. I picked them up in horrible shape for free off of CL. I thought I could remove the coating and paint them but I never found a good way to remove the urethane. Tried gasoline with no luck. Ended up taking them to the dump after I got the horrible sticky urethane EVERYWHERE first. Ruined several pairs of gloves and the carpeting the cargo area of my Jeep. Just get rid of them, they are defective. GPI seems to be aware of the defect as well.

I e-mailed GPI a while back trying to identify another batch of the same style of plate on CL and this is the response I got:

"Those are an older gpi plate, they are urethane covered cast iron, not bumpers. However definitely check them out in person. Some generations of these plates had a factory defect and have been replaced by us under warranty so that may be why these are for sale."

Ryan Willey
Director of Technical Services
www.gpindinc.com
805-227-6565 or 1-800-814-4943
fax 805-227-6790

[twodog]

I'm surprised that this is the first time I've seen this thread, and don't know how I missed it.

About two years ago there was a government auction and a bunch of GPI urethanes, that were caught in a fire, were up for sale in Jacksonville, NC at a Marine base. I went to look at them at that was exactly what they looked like. There were a bunch that were still good, some that were usable and others that were just plain melted. There were around 12,000 lbs. worth and went for a fair price. But it was just too much work for me to be bothered. I wonder if these are some of the plates

[cmarti063]

^^ No kidding. I know GPI are "normally" top quality plates...but if that is the extent of their customer service then I think I will choose elsewhere.

He bought them used, not new. GPI did not give poor customer service - the seller was a greedy @$$ hole who sold them after having them replaced. GPI makes a fantastic product - I had their urethane pastes for a while but flipped them and have IGX rubber plates now (made a good profit to boot). The GPI plates had a tighter tolerance on the bar than the IGX do, although they are quite acceptable.

[2MoreRepz]

In my opinion, if the best answer a customer service rep is can give is to "buy more"...that is poor customer service. Apparently this has been a past issue with these plates, so the least he could have done is go into a little detail about the pre-existing problem with their bad batch of plates. Instead the consumer hung up the phone with no answer to his questions other than to "buy more".

Agreed though that the original seller needs to be subjected to a nice firm a$$ whippin.

[twodog]

In my opinion, if the best answer a customer service rep is can give is to "buy more"...that is poor customer service.

Amazingly this was also the answer from Troy to a bunch of people, about a problem that was with an older model of their bumpers. CS in this industry sux, that's why companies like Rogue do so well. When push comes to shove they take care of their customer...most of the time, lol.

[dragon360]

He bought them used, not new. GPI did not give poor customer service - the seller was a greedy @$$ hole who sold them after having them replaced. GPI makes a fantastic product - I had their urethane pastes for a while but flipped them and have IGX rubber plates now (made a good profit to boot). The GPI plates had a tighter tolerance on the bar than the IGX do, although they are quite acceptable.

I kind of agree here. They were used as are mine and I was one of those that maybe should have researched a bit more before handing over my cash. A live and learn moment for sure. That said, mine are not too bad, just soft and slightly tacky but the talc has really helped there.

[gatorguy.]

Well, I originally posted this thread almost 1.5 years ago. The plates got worse and worse with time - way worse than the pictures at the top of the thread. They got soooo bad and sooo mushy that they were beyond unusable. I hated like hell to throw them away, so I let them sit on the rack. They dripped on the floor and all over. My wife was pissed off, but she was an angel and cleaned up the mess with straight acetone, I think it was. Finally only about 3-4 weeks ago, I loaded them up on a bunch of trash bags in the bed of my pickup truck and hauled them to the dump. I had to wear rubber gloves to move them around. The rubber gloves and trash bags were permanently attached to the weights and my hands would just rip out of the gloves which were still stuck to the weights. I got that black s%$t everywhere!! I'm getting pissed off all over again just typing this!

Bottom line: if your weights are starting this "melting", watch very, very closely. They will get worse with time and if you let them go too long, they will be a nightmare. You're going to have to bite the bullet and throw them away.

I picked up some urethane Ivanko revolvers from Craigslist and they are great!

P.S. Yes, it would have been nice for customer service to acknowledge there was a known issue, even if they said that I had no warranty since I wasn't the original owner. They were like, "huh?? never heard of that! You must have put some chemicals on them. Buy new (at full price)."

[twodog]

Well, I originally posted this thread almost 1.5 years ago. The plates got worse and worse with time - way worse than the pictures at the top of the thread. They got soooo bad and sooo mushy that they were beyond unusable. I hated like hell to throw them away, so I let them sit on the rack. They dripped on the floor and all over. My wife was pissed off, but she was an angel and cleaned up the mess with straight acetone, I think it was. Finally only about 3-4 weeks ago, I loaded them up on a bunch of trash bags in the bed of my pickup truck and hauled them to the dump. I had to wear rubber gloves to move them around. The rubber gloves and trash bags were permanently attached to the weights and my hands would just rip out of the gloves which were still stuck to the weights. I got that black s%$t everywhere!! I'm getting pissed off all over again just typing this!

Bottom line: if your weights are starting this "melting", watch very, very closely. They will get worse with time and if you let them go too long, they will be a nightmare. You're going to have to bite the bullet and throw them away.

I picked up some urethane Ivanko revolvers from Craigslist and they are great!

P.S. Yes, it would have been nice for customer service to acknowledge there was a known issue, even if they said that I had no warranty since I wasn't the original owner. They were like, "huh?? never heard of that! You must have put some chemicals on them. Buy new (at full price)."

I owe you reps, when I'm off recharge, just for returning to the scene and finishing the story, Too bad about the GPI's, but good luck with the Ivanko's.

[dragon360]

Too bad about the GPI's, but good luck with the Ivanko's.

Same here. Funny enough, this is the exact path I'm hoping to follow myself.

[STR8OUT]

Anyone looking for more GPI's? lol

http://harrisburg.craigslist.org/mat/4965925678.html

[dragon360]

Brutal. I still have some of my factory defect ones. Funny how they are unusable in the warm months but come late fall/winter they are back to being hard as rock ( work out in the garage). Seems the magic number is about 45-50 F and below.

[Garage Rat]

Most likely cheap chinese made crap.
I have rubber coated made in USA Ivanko 45 lb plates and have no issues what so ever like you have shown.
Some times when rubber coated are left out in the sun or are in hot area this could happen with the rubber coating.

[Bench905]

Most likely cheap chinese made crap.
I have rubber coated made in USA Ivanko 45 lb plates and have no issues what so ever like you have shown.
Some times when rubber coated are left out in the sun or are in hot area this could happen with the rubber coating.

This is way beyond some sunburn or being left in a hot area. It was a huge defect on how they made the plates...GPI even said so: "Some generations of these plates had a factory defect and have been replaced by us under warranty." The problem is that they didn't recall the defective plates and just told customers to keep them. Therefore, you have some unscrupulous parties trying to sell defective plates that melt like a Dali painting (stolen reference from this thread).

[Zach2k17]

Ours melted in our home gym. Dripped all over the floor and had to replace sections of the floor. Gets all over things, and is very hard to get off hands.
Is this stuff toxic and where can i find more info on this? I've been google searching a lot of this and this is the only forum talking about it on the net.
We threw the weights out, but residue is left over. Will the residue harden or stay sticky? Having anxiety about this nasty crap, any advice?

[Mechanon84]

He bought them used, not new. GPI did not give poor customer service - the seller was a greedy @$$ hole who sold them after having them replaced. GPI makes a fantastic product - I had their urethane pastes for a while but flipped them and have IGX rubber plates now (made a good profit to boot). The GPI plates had a tighter tolerance on the bar than the IGX do, although they are quite acceptable.

Bingo. The seller is double dipping since he already got free replacements. GPI should have reclaimed the old plates just so that this wouldn't happen. Now they're gonna be on damage control because of **** like this.

Most likely cheap chinese made crap.
I have rubber coated made in USA Ivanko 45 lb plates and have no issues what so ever like you have shown.

Your xenophobia is showing.

http://www.ivankobarbell.com/press/m...no_borders.pdf

"Ivanko is an American company with an International presence and worldview. We sell our products all over the world. Many of our early dealers, who are my good friends, have been selling Ivanko since the beginning, in Japan, Germany, England, Australia, and South Africa. I don’t need to hawk some rigamorale about “Made in the USA” quality. All these countries have proud manufacturing traditions of their own. And each of these countries (not to mention many others where our dealers and friends reside) continue to make quality products. I know what US manufacturing is capable of. I was a journeyman sheetmetal worker and machinist for the first half of my life. I don’t need to waive the flag to try to prove my patriotism. It’s cheap. And it represents a narrow, limiting worldview. Any thinking person with skilled manufacturing experience would see through this rhetorical smokescreen. I give my customers and readers more credit than that"