Best plates for home gym

[Wilhelm]

Like clothing from the 70's hideous.

Wait.
You mean my platform shoes, red thin corduroy elephant bell bottoms, and wide lapel rayon shirt weren't cool AF?

I am most definitely not making this up.

[brkriete]

How much do you lift and what are your goals?

If your deadlift/squat are already 5 plates or close to it you straight up won't be able to do the cheaper bumper options, you have to go with competition bumpers or iron (or a mix of bumpers and iron).

Example: Rogue Ohio Bar, loadable sleeve length is 16.4", a set of collars is ~2" wide so the actual loadable length is ~14.5".

The Hi-Temp style crumb rubber bumpers are 3.75" wide, max load is going to be south of 405 (I used these at my commercial gym for deadlifts and I could JUST fit 405 plus enough of a spring clamp to get keep them from falling off, any more than that I had to use iron).

You could definitely get 405+some iron 25s or whatever with the HG2.0 bumpers (3.25" wide*4=13) but not 495.

I am going to need more plates soon and I'm kind of up in the air about what to do. I like the urethane coated iron plates someone recommended in another "setting up a home gym" thread - example here. Non-iron is much nicer to handle in the winter and I like the the grip holes. I've also thought about setting up a dedicated deadlift station with a pair of iron 100s and just leaving the bar loaded with those.

[FredM]

How much do you lift and what are your goals?

If your deadlift/squat are already 5 plates or close to it you straight up won't be able to do the cheaper bumper options, you have to go with competition bumpers or iron (or a mix of bumpers and iron).

This keeps getting repeated but I think it's vastly overstated and a little silly. I know there are some huge strong guys on this forum that this advice is applicable to, but to most people who weigh under 200 lbs on this forum and elsewhere it's mostly a non-issue (obviously some exceptions, but it's stated like a good rule).

Being able to pull 500 lbs and training with close to that on the bar on anything resembling a regular basis are two very different things. I could probably pull 440 if you gave me a few weeks to prepare for a competition but the number of times I put 4+ plates on the bar is close to zero/year.

If you think you're going to pull 600+ lbs in the next decade, then fine, yes, don't weigh yourself down with non comp bumpers. If you're mere mortal like the rest of us, it really won't matter. You can buy a thin 45 pair for the one time a year you can't fit all your bumpers on the bar. This is what I settled on after years of mismatched plates. My vulcan alphas are my main set but I bought a single set of Strength Co. plates for pressing work and the off chance I need to load 5 plates on the bar in my lifetime.

All of that said, if the only reason you're buying bumpers is because you're worried about damaging a concrete floor with deadlifts or the noise -- maybe read some other posts on this forum and make your plate buying decisions based off different criteria.

[bobmen10000]

540 fits easily with rogue echo v.2. depending on the collar type, you could get 600+lbs. If you regularly pull over 600 lbs and want to use bumpers then get a deadlift bar.

[Skander]

I have the American barbell color kg plates. They actually do not have great durability- they're a bit softer than the Vulcans. Fine for a home gym, but the ones I see at my buddy's crossfit/WLing club are missing chunks, etc. That said, they were the best priced KG plates when I was shopping, and they have good plate to plate fit, which as @damufunman mentioned the Vulcan normal black kg plates do not- it does end up taking up a bit more room. The colors are ugly though imo. If you don't need KG, I think the Rogue echo 2's sound great on paper, but I've heard mixed things about the quality (including plates not fitting together nicely)

Honestly having at least one set of iron plates is nice. I did heavy deadlifts last week, and while I didn't do the most efficient loading, getting over 450 on the bar without the iron was a pain. Personally my ideal set is probably bumpers 45xas many as you want, 25x2-4 (for supersetting, etc) then appropriate change, then 45x4 iron and 25x4 iron (grip plates if possible). Iron 25s are really nice honestly, I kind of want another set (well 10kgs for me). If I was putting in an order, I'd get both bumpers and iron and save on shipping.

Remember to factor in supersets if you do those. I'm mostly supersetting bench and squat, so I don't need crazy weight, but that's still potentially 300kg in use at one time, worth thinking about that when you consider quantity.

[Hardartery]

I have an Ohio Bar, the first one, with e-coat (It seems). I also have a selection of Rogue bumpers that appear to be the Mil-Spec ones. I bought nothing new, it was part of a package deal from a guy that was moving last year. I could fit 5 45lb/20kg bumpers on each end. Plus collars. So I can fit 495lbs/220kg on that bar if I go just bumpers. I would hate for that to be my limit. It's great for meme DL pics because it looks like a million pounds, but that would present a problem in training. Not that I'm supernatural or anything, so I should think that is a low limit for lifters in general.
I have a pair of 100's. I got them from Jesup Gym (They closed up the site/retired last year). I wouldn't bother with ever getting a pair of 100's again. If I had it to do over, I would have slowly collected calibrated plates a pair at a time until I had enough. Most of my steel plates are actually from a scrap yard. I went through once a month or so when I was contracting to get make money from the scrap metal from jobs, and it was not uncommon to find a few plates dumped off for scrap. Some looked new. They are mismatched, but really all the same thing, with "Standard" emblazoned on them. A couple of cans of spray paint and they all match.

[ccoyle]

I'm an old guy who hasn't fooled around with Olympic lifts since my 20s. I don't think I ever saw a bumper plate in person until I was about 40. Other than being able to drop them from a height without doing damage, what's the advantage of bumper plates?

[damufunman]

I'm an old guy who hasn't fooled around with Olympic lifts since my 20s. I don't think I ever saw a bumper plate in person until I was about 40. Other than being able to drop them from a height without doing damage, what's the advantage of bumper plates?

This (bolded above), and possibly less noisy when lowered for deadlifting, though typically the thud is a bigger offense.

[brkriete]

They look cool and you can get them in different colors.

They are all the same diameter so you can start weaker trainees off at standard deadlift height with only a pair of tens.

They are a little less likely to break/break stuff if you drop them.

If your gym is unheated they are friendlier to handle in the winter (matters to me but nobody else seems to care so either nobody lifts in the teens or everyone who does is tougher than me which is very possible).

[FredM]

I'm an old guy who hasn't fooled around with Olympic lifts since my 20s. I don't think I ever saw a bumper plate in person until I was about 40. Other than being able to drop them from a height without doing damage, what's the advantage of bumper plates?

Once again I recommend the Vulcan Alphas. You can lift with them outside.

Remember to factor in supersets if you do those. I'm mostly supersetting bench and squat, so I don't need crazy weight, but that's still potentially 300kg in use at one time, worth thinking about that when you consider quantity.

This. And this is why I recommend having both. After lifting for three years this is what I settled on. The bumpers have the extra utility for dropping explosive lifts and using outside. The iron/steel plates have the extra utility of loading more weight on the bar if you're stronger or plan on getting there. Although, again, if you never plan on making use of the utility of bumpers I'd just get 600+ lbs of steel/iron -- scale up for how strong you are.

[Skander]

I'm an old guy who hasn't fooled around with Olympic lifts since my 20s. I don't think I ever saw a bumper plate in person until I was about 40. Other than being able to drop them from a height without doing damage, what's the advantage of bumper plates?

Also being able to have sub 45# weights that are full diameter. Though obviously you can stack things under the plates too if needed.