A couple of years ago I was given a massage gun as a gift. I ended up using it more than I thought I would– not frequently, but whenever I had a muscle pain, trigger point pain, etc. It went a long way toward clearing up a bout of plantar fasciitis that I had in one foot and was just nice to have around for when I was sore.

Until the battery died, that is. One day, it wouldn’t switch on. The LEDs would light up when it was plugged in, but it immediately dead when it was unplugged. I tore it apart and diagnosed it as a bad charging module in the battery pack. This module regulates charging current to each battery but also outputs battery power to the massage gun. The batteries were fully charged but the board was dead and so was the massage gun.

For the price of a new battery pack, I found this massage gun. I didn’t expect much– most of the “good” massagers start around 3X the price of this one– but the reviews were consistently good so I rolled the dice.

The package arrived right away (same day delivery is awesome) and I was impressed by the fit and finish. The quality looks about as good as the much more expensive massager that it replaced. It charges with a USB-C charging cable which is nice because I have a bunch of those all over the place. My last one used a power supply with a DC barrel connector which, while quite robust, is not quite as common.

I charged it and set it to work on one of my hips, which has been giving me some pain lately. No, it didn’t immediately alleviate my pain. In my experience, you have to massage an area several times over the course of a couple of days to get relief, so I wasn’t expecting a miracle. However, it was about as powerful as my recently deceased massager, which is impressive considering the price. I’m sure it will work fine.

It only has 7 speeds vs. the 30 of my old massager, but I don’t really need 30 speeds anyway. Heck, I doubt I need 7. It came with an assortment of massage heads but, again, I’ll probably only use a couple of them. So far the ones that I used seem to work fine.

My guess is that most of these massagers– cheap or expensive– only last a couple of years before their batteries or their charging boards fail (according to some of the reviews, anyway). I’m not going to spend big bucks on one, especially when this one works pretty well. If you’re on the fence about a massage gun and are skeptical of the low price, don’t be. Buy it, use it, and replace it if/when the battery wings its way to battery heaven.

In the next few weeks I’ll use it to really beat myself up, and I’ll be able to see how well it withstands the abuse. If anything interesting happens I’ll update my review.

UPDATE:

I’ve had this thing for a few weeks now. I have to say, I’ve used it more than I thought I would. I’ve been fighting some pain in my leg, probably from a combination of weightlifting and riding a motorcycle. It starts in my hip/glute area and radiates down to my knee so I’ve been using this massager on my glute, the iliac region of my back, and my IT band. With this and some stretching, the pain is slowly starting to fade. It no longer keeps me up at night.

I’ve found that all of the attachments for my recently-deceased massage gun will also fit this one, so it seems as though the interface is fairly standard. Now I have more massage attachments than I know what to do with (I usually use the same 4 or 5 no matter where the pain is).

I use this thing pretty aggressively, really grinding it in to get to the spasming muscle or painful spot. No, it isn’t pleasant, but it works– I usually feel some immediate relief, and the overall pain diminishes with repeated uses. Getting better is hard work, but staying in pain is even harder so I resign myself to a few minutes of painful therapy and then reward myself with a little bourbon (for medicinal purposes, of course).

I’ve never run the batteries past the 2/3 full mark no matter how aggressively I use this thing, and I’m really impressed with how well it’s working, especially for the price. It shows no signs of failing but if it ever does, I’ll probably buy another. It works.