Some time back, I was approached by a company supplying RecoverFun products to the European market. Yes, one of many. There's plenty of massage guns around available. Most of them are from eBay, Aliexpress, local electro resellers chains. Many massage guns are available on the market. But not many of them matched "solid" brands like Theragun, Compex, Triggerpoint, and some good but expensive copies of mentioned brands.
So I was curious what the RecoverFun Plus model could offer for the competition, beating the price of 169USD? Especially when the brand representative told me that their highest model (Plus) matches the Theragun. Wow - I want to see it; I'm in. :-)
Shipping and
delivery
Before I get to the point of review, the usual show stopper preventing buyers from getting something from "non that known shops" is the "feel" of delivering goods from China. It takes longer, and sometimes it even doesn't arrive at all. Not in this case. Though the website says delivery time to Europe is 10-15 days, I was told they have warehouses in Europe too. "yeah, let's see,"… and I saw it. The package arrived in 2 days at my home address in the Czech republic. OK, there's something true about what they say. Let's check the product.
Warranty
The guarantee over product or services is usually the second show stopper preventing consumers from buying goods abroad. The RecoverFun offers a 1-year warranty on the machine, six months warranty on its battery, and 90 days warranty period for the replaceable message extensions, which is obvious. The extensions could be exposed to heavy daily utilization in physiotherapist office to lots of clients, including massage emulsions which reduces their lifetime.
RecoverFun Plus versus competitors
Finally, we get down to the thing. The RecoverFun looks more like Thor's hammer than a massage gun we know (Theragun or Compex Fixx) compared to big brand market players. The only similar product from the "established" brand is the Triggerpoint massage gun. What I was curious about most was the comparison against Theragun, which I have experience with.
First, unpacking and try the massage gun. OK. It's… silent! Obviously, you hear massage gun, but it's not the sound of construction pneumatic drill hammer. The mechanics are as quiet as possible, with no crackling noises or anything that would make you angry while doing massage while watching a movie at the exact moment.
My second test was - push the gun while muscle as hard as possible - most of the massage guns simply stop but the RecoverFun Plus. It's just because most of the motors of the massage guns are too weak except the more expensive machines and this one that I had for the test. The motor's power is 100W and won't stop even if you press hard against the massaging muscles.
The weight of the massage gun is 1,15kgs which makes the grip and hold stable while you use it. Some lighter guns are just bouncing away from your muscles. While not this one.
Then I took the machine to a friend of mine - Radek Brunner - one of the best endurance athletes in the world who regularly places among top athletes in 100k and 24hrs world champs and who placed consecutively in the past five years on the podium of Spartathlon (2xbronze, 3xsilver). Radek is a long-time user of Theragun. Even he was positively surprised - nearly amazed by the RecoverFun Plus. Though Theragun has 16mm amplitude compared to 13mm of RecoverFun Plus, still the "small guy" does a good job, and surprisingly Radek said the performance was comparable to Compex Fixx 1.0
From the price standpoint, the RecoverFun Plus is a good deal. Excellent and stable performance, six replaceable massage heads included, compact package, and superb battery performance for "just" 169 USD? As mentioned - a good deal!
Rationales
The massage gun
weighs 1,15kgs, and the massage mechanism amplitude is 13mm, battery capacity
2900mAh.
The actual battery performance is not just 3-4 hours as stated by the manufacturer, but if not in professional use (like all day long), you can use it for about 6-8 hours at least through the period of 1 month, which is practically the same time you'd spent on a massage bed at physiotherapist office.
The use
I was amazed by the replaceable massage heads. They're enjoyable to touch, especially the one that looks a little bit like a smaller soft tennis ball is not catching hair on men's legs.
I had to adapt a bit to the gun grip as I am a user of Compex Fixx 1.0, but in the end, I managed to get used to the hammer-like shape.
The main switch is placed on the bottom of the battery barrel. Without turning the battery on, you can't do much. The control button for the massage gun self is located on the backside of the "hammer." Cycling button clicks take you through the speedup massage frequencies and then back to slowest again. Holding the power button turns the gun off.
Two sets of LEDs are placed next to the control button. One indicates the frequency of the massage head, and the other shows the battery charge level.
I like this gun most because of its silent motor, power, package size, and robustness. It's well built, and I have no fear putting the massage gun without the storage box into my running backpack between other stuff. The construction is good, and I like it. Also, its size is suitable for transport. Just the weight makes you feel there's an extra brick in your bag.
Overall
rating
The most significant advantages for potential customers of RecoverFun would be the price and the number of replacement attachments. No doubt, for this price category, I didn't see many products to beat RecoverFun. And even if they would, I'd be cautious about the quality of the products. I tried the RecoverFun Plus, and I am delighted to say I was wrong with my pre-cautious approach towards this product.