This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in February of 2022. For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izf1RVU3fnk.
Bob: So, Brad’s going to show us how to buy the perfect massage gun.
Brad: Yeah, massage guns are very popular, and for good reason. It's because they work well. There are a lot of them out there and you want to make sure you buy the right one for you. Make sure it’s not too big, not too small and it’s going to last a long time. We’re going to show you all of that.
Bob: Brad has a mad scientist version of how he’s going to test the gun.
Brad: Not at all, Bob, it’s from my 10 years of working on electric motors, before I got into this. I know how to load test electric motors. I understand them. This is professionally done. What I’d like to talk about first, is we go the extra step. We promote some massage guns, but we know they work well because we like how they look, we like how they work.
Bob: The company we work with is reliable and good at quality control.
Brad: Right and I didn’t trust them at first so, I made this device to load test the gun which means we’re going to test it under a heavy load and leave it run for a long period of time and find out how it responds. Is it going to last or is it going to fail?
Bob: Can you imagine living with this guy?
Brad: Yeah, you should see my garage. Anyways, I was an electric motor mechanic, we rewound motors, and rebuilt them in the industrial world. This spring is going to be the load.
Bob: This thing is strong.
Brad: It’s an aggressive spring. We’re going to use that to load test one of our guns.
Bob: That’s putting a lot of load on that gun. The first thing you want to know, you want to look at the Amazon ratings. That’s the greatest thing about Amazon I think they came up with, these ratings are negative and positive. If they have a lot of ratings, a lot of people bought them, and you can be certain that the ratings are correct. We have about 4.8 to 4.9 ratings on our guns because they are good guns to have.
Brad: Right now, I have this spring, I’m putting a lot of pressure on it, and now that I can just leave that pressure on it for a while.
Bob: Next thing we're going to talk about is amplitude. Now, this is important to a lot of people or travel or head movement. We’re talking about how much the head percusses. So, if you look at this one, you can see that it goes in and out. See the distance that it travels?
Brad: The X6 Pro Massage Gun with Stainless Steel Head goes 10 millimeters.
Bob: Which is pretty good.
Brad: Right. Other ones go six millimeters, like the Q2 Mini Massage Gun. The lighter ones, like the Handheld Massager, go about 2 or three, I haven’t measured it inside the specs, but it’s less. We have one coming out that’s going to be 16 millimeters.
Bob: It’s going to be a monster.
Brad: If you’re a small person or a thin person, you do not want to go that heavy.
Bob: Even with the X6 Pro Massage Gun, if you were elderly and you had osteoporosis, I would stick with something like the Handheld Massager.
Brad: For us or the average person, six millimeters, somewhere in that range is going to be more than adequate to get into those muscles.
Bob: Right. Let’s talk about stall force, Brad.
Brad: Stall force means how much pressure can you put on the gun before it stalls.
Bob: I’m pushing this as hard as I can.
Brad: Now, there are ratings on stall force. We have the Q2 Mini Massage Gun that has a good stall force of 13 kilograms, in other words, 29 pounds. Our bigger one, the X6 Pro Massage Gun, has 20 kilograms, 44 pounds. If you’re in those 30 pounds and you’re an average person or a thin person, you have more than enough stall force. If you’re a big bulky person, heavier, you have more soft tissue, you want to get deep into those muscles, then you want to get into that 40-44 range. I have a feeling our big one is going to be closer to 50. We’ll find out when they give us the specs.
Bob: All our massage guns come with at least five different heads. We have the field goal, the bullet, that is air-filled, which is very popular because you can go over bones and it won’t bother you. Brad likes the round one because he comes in from the side instead of going right on the muscle. I showed my daughter Jamie last night how to do that.
Air-filled Round Flat Field Goal Bullet
Brad: Oh, good. She was grateful.
Bob: Well, she wanted to do it on her foot, but it was too much. I said, go on the side.
Brad: Yep, get that angle on there.
Bob: How about battery life, Brad?
Brad: Battery life. All of these will last a minimum of one and a half hours up to three hours. That’s loaded, that’s with you working them. Working them on your muscles.
Bob: They work a long time.
Brad: If they have free will, they go much longer than that.
Bob: They’re lithium batteries, right?
Brad: You know, I have to check into that.
Bob: Some of them are.
Brad: Yeah, they’re good batteries, I’m more concerned about how long they are going to work loaded.
Bob: I know that Alex said at one point that we had the same battery that Tesla uses.
Brad: Oh, sure. Not Nicola, but the Tesla car.
Bob: Yeah.
Brad: These are all brushless motors. You should get one that is a brushless DC motor. They last much longer. They’re much more efficient. I’m not even sure if they make brush ones anymore. If it doesn’t say brushless on there, do not get it. Sound level?
Bob: It’s important.
Brad: It is.
Bob: We’ve had some that we were testing that were really loud and irritating.
Brad: Yeah, it’s no fun. You can’t watch TV and do this if it’s loud.
Bob: That’s what I do, I sit there and watch TV while I’m massaging myself.
Brad: So, decibel wise there should be a rating on there for decibels. These are all at 55, which means 55 is good. If you’re getting up higher than that, in your 70, 80, or whatever, look for one that’s quieter. Unless you don’t care about the noise. Most people do.
Bob: Appearance-wise?
Brad: Appearance is what you like. It’s a personal thing. Color, appearance, all that.
Bob: It’s funny the Q2 Mini Massage Gun is the small one, but I really like it because you can grip it well. It’s functional. Some people talk about the big ones are too heavy.
Brad: For traveling, the mini is much easier to travel with than the big one.
Bob: You can explain to your airport, it’s not a real gun.
Brad: It’s a massage gun. Let them do a little massage on the plane. They’ll be grateful, or say "oh, I need to take this away from you, " and they'll be massaging their way away and you'll never see it again. There is one other thing that you really need to be aware of, there is something called the auto-shutdown time. All of them that we sell have a 10-minute timer. If you’re working with it for 10 minutes, it will automatically shut down.
Bob: Sometimes I’m massaging myself and I’m watching TV and time gets away from me and suddenly it shuts down, but I hit the button and it starts right up again.
Brad: Right. It lets you know that it’s been going that long. As a matter of fact, we just had a shut down on the one in the spring. The other thing is that if you overload these, or the batteries are starting to go low, then it will turn off too. It’ll turn right back on. So, don’t get worried, it’s not a problem with your massage gun. That’s the way they're built. You’ll see on the better guns, they have little holes and that’s for cooling the motor. Don’t cover that up, make sure it stays open. Again, it all depends on if you’re big muscular or a heavy person and you’re chunky, you want to get in deeper, get the bigger gun with the more travel, and the higher stall force.
Bob: And Brad and I think you would concur that I’m very proud of the quality of our guns.
Brad: Well, I wouldn’t have gone through all the effort to make something to load test it properly, and find out it wasn't good quality. It’s just fun for me when you know you have something you’re proud of.
Bob: So again, all our guns come with at least five heads.
Brad: This one passed the test. We have the auto shut off and life is good. Keep that in mind. You’re going to buy the right massage gun and of course, look at the warranty. It should have a one-year warranty.
Bob: If you buy an inexpensive gun, you’re going to know right away. My nephew bought a gun and he said it was junk.
Brad: Did he get a refund?
Bob: No.
Brad: Ours, if you’re not happy with it, it’s not working, get ahold of us (Email support@bobandbrad.com) and we will get you a new one.
Bob: Brad will pay for it, right?
Brad: Well, no, you’ll get a new one. That’s a good question but we’ve had almost no problems in a couple of years we’ve been selling them. It’s not an issue because we test them. Be careful and have fun with your massage gun!
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