Muscle Rack Muscle Rack UR245P-BLK 5-Shelf Unit

As the title states, the frame is awesome. I was able to convert this from a UPS boxed item into a full shelving unit in about 10 minutes. The frame is extremely sturdy and there’s plenty of storage space. My issue is with the shelves. They’re made of particle board and started chipping from the get go, no matter how careful I was. I helped remedy this by cutting cardboard rectangles to fit over the particle board as protective cushions. The shelves also came warped. I don’t expect them to last long, so I’ll have to come up with a replacement soon. The frame is what makes this such a great deal. I used to work in retail and the frame is definitely professional grade. If they shipped these with plywood shelves, it would be an easy five star product.

I bought four. I liked them and ordered 10 more. The additional 10 arrived with missing parts. The part that was missing is the part which connects the two corner rails. Without this piece, the center shelf is at a fixed height, and the entire unit therefore is not “fully adjustable”. It should say partially adjustable. I have multiple email correspondence with the company to furnish the missing parts, but has been over a year since I last contacted them. I was told to provide an address, which I did. No parts showed up, I wrote them another email, and no response. I’ve given them the benefit of the doubt, and now its time to give them the 1 star review they deserve. After building 15 of these (I ordered another larger sized model as well), I will say that without the coupler piece, they are a huge pain to assemble, and without this piece, I wouldn’t trust more than 150 pounds per shelf on the top two shelves. Many of the brackets came bent, requiring hammering back into shape in order to assemble. Most of the shelving units are missing the plastic edge guards, which will scratch up your flooring. I see it is also no longer eligible for “Prime” shipping. As such, I would look elsewhere for your storage shelving needs. Not only is the description deceitful but the customer service is among the worst I’ve ever dealt with.

I would give this product an extra star if it DIDN’T come with the wood shelves. This may seem odd but the wood shelving they ship with the unit is a very flimsy particle board. It’s not like the sturdy particle board you’re used to seeing at home depot. It’s almost as if Edsal went out of their way to manufacture an especially terrible particle board. What they should do is sell and ship just the metal framing in a compact packaging and tell you to go to Lowe’s to buy the 2 ft x 4 ft shelves….which is exactly what I did. That would save a tremendous amount on the cost of the product as well as the shipping costs.

If you want to store any appreciable amount of weight (I’m talking cases of water) on this shelving unit then you need to replace the 3/8 inch boards that come with it. I spent $90 at Lowe’s for five pre-cut 1/2x24x48 inch birch plywood sheets and they fit this unit perfectly. Now the unit is a lot stronger and sturdier.

The actual metal racking isn’t especially thick however it is made of steel so it feels pretty sturdy. I would not consider this a heavy duty rack. The metal wire rack I have standing next to this unit is a lot stronger and can hold a lot more weight. The reason I went with this unit is because I wanted flat shelving.

I would probably purchase this again but it would’ve been nice to know that the shelves would have to be replaced immediately.

Good shelving unit but missing 2 of the very badly needed parts. Post connecters CPIN-BLK. Please send me these parts.