DONOW Smith Machine with Weight Stacks Power Cage Squat Rack Dual Cable Crossover Machine Home Gym Systems Station LAT Pull Down (No Weight Plates for Barbell)

This first review, is about the receiving of it, the unpacking of it, the assembly of it, and the quality of it.First, be ready for eight, mostly heavy boxes. One of them is 50 pounds or so, and the rest are all like 80+ bordering on 100 pounds.Assembly: Once you unpack everything this is where the real work begins. There is a video on YouTube that is invaluable and should win a short film Academy Award for those of us that go about building something with 1000 parts. I’m joking about the number of parts.First of all, one of the most amazing things about the organization of parts is the way that they have each of the bolts and nuts organized by the section you’re working on. Some cover multiple sections, but what’s nice is that 90% of the nuts are all one size. They say 17 mm but in all actuality a 16 mm wrench was perfect.I set out to not be in a hurry in building the rack. In fact, I did not take YouTube out to the garage with me where I was building it. When I had a question, I came back into my house, sat down in my recliner and watch the video back-and-forth a few times (for the section I was working on - not the whole thing). I slowed YouTube down to 50% speed and no volume because the music might send you over the edge mentally.Stepping away for the video, was incredibly helpful.Everything went smoothly, and I built it all by myself without an extra person to stabilize anything. As I said, I was slow and methodical, even so I still got things backwards and had to undo things a couple of times.Pro tip: when assembling the large cable with the ball at the end, pay very close attention. When you run it through the very front set of pulleys - make sure you go underneath a metal piece there on the back of the lower pulley. Going from memory here. I think it was the lower pulley either way look at the back of those two pulleys and you’ll see it. Otherwise you’re gonna have to undo quite a few pulleys, but it wasn’t catastrophic.As for the parts, they were pretty much perfect. I ended up with only two extra washers.Stability: You’re gonna be very impressed with how stable the set up is there is no rocking or wobbling, unless you lean into it and force it to wobble.So you might ask yourself why not do a review on how well it is to work out with?And that’s a fair question. You see I’m 61 years old and have not worked out with any kind of weights in five years so after moving everything into place and getting it all set up, I feel like my first week in a gym. My back was sore. My glutes were sore And my hamstrings feel like a weedeater got to them.In other words for those in my age bracket, I’m the scrawny kid on the back of the comic book getting sand kicked in my face. Unfortunately, there’s no Charles Atlas to rescue me now.Give me a week or two, and I’ll come back and write a review about how well it works, the smoothness and all the mechanics.My first inclination is that I may have to go back and back off the tightness of the pulley bolts. It could also be from being brand new, and I only grabbed the balls at the end of the cables. Once I put a proper handle or grip on it, it might work a lot easier. Once I sit down on a bench or start working the cables properly I’ll be able to tell if this thing is smooth and fluid with the cabling and pulleys and weights.First impression there may be more expensive ones out there with brand names, but this thing to me seems top of the line. The only reason I can see not buying this is if you wanted something American made versus Chinese.Having said that, if you’re looking at an American company, do your due diligence and make sure they’re not importing it from China and putting their name on it. Because as of right now, this Chinese product is top-notch, especially in the price range being sold.

Previous to this product I had smith machines from another well known fitness company. I am a person that gets a little nervous about buying products from companies I have never heard of before and this was a big leap given the price point of this product. I took the chance mainly because I was looking for a home gym that would do everything. The biggest need for me was adjustable cables with weight stacks built into the home gym. I follow the Hany Rambod (won multiple Mr. Olympia Titles as a coach) FST-7 workout platform. This requires a lot of cable work along with Olympic lifts. The previous home gym I had required a lot of changing weights on a cable system by loading and unloading plates. Annoying to deal with when you have to do this frequently. Comparing this product to my previous set up, this is leaps and bounds ahead of that other system.Structurally speaking, this home gym is solid. All of the pieces fit together like a glove, I notice this mostly when doing heavy lifting. A lot of other home gyms will shift around or rock with racking and re-racking weights. This machine stays put and makes me feel very secure when doing squats and bench press out of it.Versatility of exercises. This home gym will let you do it all between the smith machine, support arms for lifting free weights out of it, cable system for Lat pull downs, rows, chest fly, weighted ab exercises, overhead pull up bar. this home gym as it all. The ability to move the cables from over your head and all the way down to the floor is a game changer. Changing the weight on the stacks in the back of the home gym is a breeze. The most important part of cable exercises for me is the smoothness of the pull. some cable machines are jerky due to bad pulleys or easily kinked cables. Not this product, the cables pull smooth likely due to the amount of pulleys and guides that the cable go through. This is a well put together product. The weight in the weight stacks in the back are plastic. Not a big deal to me at all, weight is weight. It does not matter if it is plastic or metal, it still achieves the goal of giving resistance. The guides for weight on the weight stacks are in kg is the only thing I do not like about the product. I just put tape over one side of the weight numbers and converted it to lbs.Add-ons: Due to the build of this home gym I was able to add some hanging ab straps I owned previously to the overhead pull up bar to let me do a larger variety of abdominal work outs. I also purchased dip attachments that work well with the frame of the cage. The last thing that I added was a cage attachment to allow me to do leg extension and leg curls. Things I plan on getting in the future was looking into an attachment for the smith bar so I can do leg press and calf raises. I would not expect these add-ons to be included with the home gym as they traditionally are not from the research I did before deciding to purchase.Lastly price point: Its unmatched, other home gym systems like this easily go for 1-2K more than the price this product is currently listed for. THIS IS A STEAL for the price it is selling for. I would be highly surprised if you bought this product and were not satisfied with your purchase. If you are not familiar with this company have no fear, this is better than any other home gym I have had in the past.

I've been working out with this machine for about 2 weeks now. Overall, this gets the job done! You can't beat the bang for the buck. A smith machine, stack weights, and the ability to have an actual squat rack. It has everything you need. Though some of the construction seems to be on the cheaper side, it all lines up together well. I'd recommend getting the better model with 1-1 pulley ratio and steel stack weights, but my base model is just fine. It took my friend and I 5ish hours to install. Paper instructions are a C- at best. The video helps, but they move so fast that you have to rewind 3-4x just to see what's going on.Customer service was great as well. I was missing some bolts and washers for the stacked weight guards. They shipped out the parts basically the next day and I received a couple days later. Ballin on a budget? Get this!