On 5 June 2025 Johnson Health Tech Trading, working with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, recalled the BowFlex 552 and BowFlex 1090 adjustable dumbbells because the weight plates can dislodge from the handle during use. The CPSC notice puts the number of units at about 3,844,200 — roughly 3.7 million of them sold by Nautilus before the brand changed hands — and the instruction to owners is not a caution. It is to stop using them immediately and contact the company for a remedy. Everything on this page about the recall comes from that notice, which we link in Sources; nothing here is paraphrased from news coverage.
This matters on a site built around buying things once. The BowFlex 552 has been the default adjustable dumbbell for twenty years, it is still the pair most people picture when they hear the words, and it appears on several of our own dumbbell pages. So this page does three jobs: it states what the recall covers, it tells you how to check the pair you already own, and it ranks what we would buy instead. If you want the wider category argument rather than the recall, that is the adjustable dumbbell roundup.
What the recall covers, in the CPSC's own terms
- Products. The BowFlex-branded Model 552 (adjusts 5 to 52.5 lb) and Model 1090 (adjusts 10 to 90 lb) adjustable dumbbells, in black, sold both as pairs and as single units, each comprising handles, weight plates and a molded plastic tray.
- Units. About 3,844,200, of which about 3.7 million were sold by Nautilus Inc.
- Hazard. “The weight plates can dislodge from the handle during use, posing an impact hazard.”
- Reports. Nautilus received 337 reports of plates dislodging during use for units it sold, 111 of which resulted in injuries including concussions, abrasions, broken toes and contusions. Johnson Health Tech Trading received a further 12 reports of plates dislodging, with no injuries, for units it sold.
- Where and when they sold. Johnson Fitness & Wellness, DICK'S Sporting Goods and Best Buy stores nationwide, and online at Bowflex.com and Amazon.com — as early as 2004 through April 2024 by BowFlex Inc. (formerly Nautilus Inc.), and from May 2024 through May 2025 by Johnson Health Tech Trading Inc., for between $200 and $800.
- Why two sellers. BowFlex Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection in March 2024. Johnson Health Tech Trading agreed to provide a remedy for 552 and 1090 dumbbells sold by BowFlex Inc. (formerly Nautilus Inc.) before May 2024 as part of this recall.
Read that date range again, because it is the single most important line in the notice: units as old as 2004 are in scope. This is not a bad batch from one quarter. It is a twenty-year production window.
How to check the pair in your garage
The model and serial number are printed on a sticker on the bottom of the molded plastic tray — not on the handle, not on the plates. Tip the tray up and read the sticker, then compare it against the ranges published in the CPSC notice. The notice lists fourteen serial-number ranges for the 552 and two for the 1090, and the formats differ between manufacturing runs (some begin 00182, some 100182, some 100748, and two begin with a letter), so match the whole string rather than the first few characters.
If your serial falls inside a listed range, the CPSC instruction is to stop using the dumbbells and contact Johnson Health Tech Trading: toll-free on 800-209-3539, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. CT Monday to Friday, by email at recall@bowflex.com, or at bowflex.com/recalls. The company says it is contacting all known purchasers directly, but “known purchaser” means registered — if you bought a pair in a store in 2011, assume you are not on the list.
What remedy you are owed
It depends on who sold the pair, and the difference is not trivial. For units sold by Johnson Health Tech Trading, the notice says consumers can request a refund of the purchase price in the form of a voucher, or a replacement. For units sold by BowFlex Inc. (formerly Nautilus), the remedy is a prorated voucher plus a one-year JRNY digital fitness membership. In both cases you are sent a pre-paid shipping label and return the handle and base of each dumbbell.
A prorated voucher on a pair bought in 2009 is worth very little, and a voucher is not cash — it is credit with the company whose product was recalled. That is worth knowing before you spend an evening boxing up ninety pounds of iron. It is also the clearest illustration we have ever had of a point this site makes constantly: a warranty or a remedy is only as good as the company still standing behind it, which is exactly what our guide to lifetime warranties is about.
What this does and does not tell you about adjustable dumbbells
Be careful with the conclusion here, because the honest version is narrower than the internet version. This recall is about plate retention on two specific models. It is not evidence that every dial-selected dumbbell sheds plates, and we are not going to imply that it is.
What it does confirm is the structural argument this site has made since launch: in an adjustable dumbbell, the mechanism is the product. The plates are iron and will outlive you. The handle, the selector and the retention system are the whole engineering problem, and they are the only parts that can fail in a way that matters. We laid that out in how adjustable dumbbells work and in how long adjustable dumbbells last, and a 3.8-million-unit recall over plate retention is the most expensive possible demonstration of it.
The second thing it confirms is harder to design around: the parts chain is a durability spec. BowFlex Inc. filed for bankruptcy in March 2024, the brand and the liability moved to a different company, and the remedy for two decades of production now depends on an acquirer honoring it. If you buy for the long term, the question “who will still be here to send me a handle” belongs on the spec sheet next to the weight range. That is the whole premise of our replacement-parts guide.
What we changed on this site
We are not going to quietly edit history. The BowFlex 552 still appears on several pages here, because it is still the most widely owned adjustable dumbbell in the country and a page about the category that pretends otherwise is useless. What has changed is that every one of those appearances now carries the recall in its cons, and the 552 is no longer a pick we would make for a buyer starting from scratch. Our published rubric has always scored mechanism and parts-support; a recall on the retention mechanism moves both scores.
What to buy instead, and what mechanism each one uses
Five options, ranked, and the reason each is here is its mechanism rather than its spec sheet. Live prices are in the table below; we do not print figures into prose because they are wrong within a week.
- NÜOBELL Adjustable Dumbbells (5–80 lb) — the closest direct replacement and the one we rank first in the category. A rotating-handle selector in a mostly metal body, which is the opposite of the plastic-tray-and-plate architecture that is being recalled. Our full write-up is the NUOBELL review.
- PowerBlock Elite EXP Adjustable Dumbbells — a completely different idea: nested steel cages and a selector pin, with no plates to leave the handle because the plates are the cage. The head-to-head is 552 vs PowerBlock Elite.
- Yes4All Cast Iron Adjustable Dumbbell (52.5 lb) — spinlock. A threaded collar on a steel handle, which is the oldest adjustable mechanism there is, the slowest to change, and the one with the fewest ways to go wrong.
- Signature Fitness Hex Dumbbells, 5, 10 & 15 lb Set — no mechanism at all. Fixed rubber-coated hex dumbbells have nothing to retain, nothing to select and nothing to break, which is why this site keeps naming them the real buy-it-for-life answer. The trade is space and money: see the hex dumbbell roundup and adjustable vs fixed.
- Core Home Fitness Adjustable Dumbbell Set — the cheaper dial alternative, included because replacing a recalled pair should not have to mean tripling your budget. It is a dial system, so judge it on its own retention design rather than on BowFlex's.
If you own a recalled pair and want to keep training this week
You have handed back ninety pounds of dumbbell and you are waiting on a voucher. Two cheap bridges: a pair of fixed hex dumbbells at one working weight covers most pressing and rowing for the price of a takeaway meal each, and a barbell you already own covers everything else. If the dumbbells were doing the work of a whole gym, this is the moment to read what equipment you actually need before you spend the voucher on a like-for-like replacement you may not need.
How to judge an adjustable dumbbell after reading a recall notice
Ask what holds the plate on, and whether you can see it
Every adjustable dumbbell has a retention system: a pin, a thread, a rotating cam or a cage. The ones you can see and hear engage are the ones you will trust at the top of an overhead press. If a mechanism gives you no feedback that it has locked, that is a design choice, not an accident, and you are allowed to dislike it.
Count the plates that can leave the handle
In a cage design, nothing can leave the handle because the weight is the cage. In a plate-and- tray design, every plate not selected is a separate object relying on the mechanism. That is not a reason to refuse plate-and-tray dumbbells, but it is the number to be aware of.
Treat the brand's corporate news as a spec
A bankruptcy, an acquisition or a brand licensing deal changes who answers the phone about your handle in five years. On this site that is a scored criterion, not gossip — and the BowFlex timeline is the clearest case study available.
Check for an open recall before you buy, not after
The CPSC publishes every recall at cpsc.gov and it is searchable by product name in about thirty seconds. Do it for any used dumbbell purchase especially — a secondhand 552 for cheap on a local marketplace in 2026 is very likely an in-scope unit whose owner has not checked.
Buy the mechanism you will still be using in ten years
Fast changes matter if you superset. Simplicity matters if you train heavy and alone. A spinlock handle is tedious and nearly unbreakable; a dial is instant and has more to go wrong. Both are defensible; choosing without knowing which you are buying is not. The long version of this argument is are adjustable dumbbells worth it.
