Perfect Pullup or perfect way to get hurt?

Federal law requires companies to report possible product defects to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission as soon as possible. In the case of Perfect Fitness, the company that makes the Perfect Pullup exercise equipment, it failed to report any problems and was hit with a $425,000 fine in the process.

And as Paul Eng writes for Consumer Reports, Perfect Fitness failed to report for more than two years.

As Eng reports, the Safety Commission discovered “an unusual number of returns” and 23 injuries since 2010 due to “inferior” handles, which apparently snapped off when exercisers did pull ups, resulting in injury.

Perfect Fitness seems to have been aware of the problem for awhile – after 45 complaints that the equipment caused injury and more than 2,000 requests by customers for replacement parts for the defective handles.

The Safety Commission has issued a recall of 7,000 Perfect Pullup units.

Unfortunately, it took more than two years, the involvement of the Safety Commission, and a hefty fine in order to get the company to act.

Source: Consumer Reports, “Perfect Fitness pays $425,000 fine for failing to report faulty exercise gear,” by Paul Eng, 08/11/11