I've had my TRX for about a month, and quickly began to notice that I was chipping away pieces of foam from the handles.  I'm doing the Essentials Strength DVD, and am not abusing the equipment in any way.  I don't know if it's from my shoes or my hands, but at the end of the workout I see bits of black foam on the ground, mostly near the anchor point.  The problem is that now that this erosion has started, it gets worse with every workout.  At this rate, I'm going to tear off the foam by the end of the year.  Anybody have any ideas on (a) what's happening, (b) how to stop it, (c) whether I can get the damage repaired somehow?  Thanks for any replies.

Did you buy your TRX brand new? That just seems rather odd the foam is tearing, particularly how short of a time you have owned it.

I have been hearing this similar scenario on the forums recently within 3 - 4 months of ownership. I just don't understand how this is happening in general. I mean sure maybe after some years of wear I can see some tearing, but just after a few months or 1 month seems odd.

My speculation why this is happening, is people are inserting, removing or rotating the feet inside the foot cradels too fast and/or hard, and it pulls on the foam, and it slowly starts to tear. It's hard to say though.

From my understanding, you can put a certain kind of tape around it to prevent it from tearing. Just poke around the forums, and you'll find the post fairly quickly.

Either way, thats a bummer your handles are getting torn. Hope this helps.

I don't have my own TRX, but I've made handles to imitate the perfect pull up handles. I took pipe insulation, the thinnnest I could find purchased at Home depot,  and  wrapped it around the handles. Then I've used tape to close the opening. It worked expremely well and was nice and cushy.

Good idea.

So you did that for the handles of this TRX you use that someone else owns, or you just made a similar contraption?

I did buy it new.  My hands sweat a lot, so I think it's actually coming more from my hands than from putting my feet in the footstraps.  It seems to have stabilized somewhat, so I'm hoping it doesn't get much worse.  If it gets really bad, I will look into the pipe insulation idea or bike handlebar tape.

Actually, I was just informed from Fitness Anywhere that they will replace your TRX (both of you). They are committed to 100% satisfaction, and will happily replace the TRX due to defectiveness and defficiency. Call customer service and they will get the process going, and get you taken care of. Just click on Contact Us in the upper right of the site, and their phone number is on there.

Really?  That's great.  Thanks for letting me know.

I am in the same boat.  The customer service is awesome and they said they would replace it, but I caution you to be careful with the handles.  Mine started with a tear in the foam, then it lead to a small break in the grey plastic lining, now I was doing an exercise today and the handle broke...If anyone has tears and can be fixed do it immediately or you could really ruin the handle.

Actually, I just phoned them and what they offered me was a tape kit to tape the handles.  I'm appreciative to get that, but they did not offer to replace the TRX.

pnwskier:

Actually, I just phoned them and what they offered me was a tape kit to tape the handles.  I'm appreciative to get that, but they did not offer to replace the TRX.

Interesting. I'll see what the deal with that is, and get back to you...