Zaaz 20K

Zaaz 20K Review

Since the Zaaz 20K is gaining popularity throughout America through either Costco or Sam’s Club (they are more commonly found in CA, CO, FL, TX, and SC) we decided to test one of these units and write a review on it and let our readers know what type of machine this is and if it worth their buck to have one in their home. The Zaaz Studio brand is part of the Tzone Vibration in Canada but the former is marketed primarily in the United States. The Zaaz 20K is equivalent to the Tzone VT20 and the Zaaz 15K to the Tzone VT15.

Design Overview

The Zaaz 20K is an oscillation machine that utilizes a single 500 W motor to create the teeter-totter motion. It uses a rounded square control panel and a handlebar system that wraps around to the front and back corners of the base machine. The tapering of the handlebars makes it a little less restrictive than competing machines that uses non-tapered side bars. The handlebars are good for users that require a handlebar in the front, and sides, however, because of the bars on the side, you’ll most likely have trouble doing certain exercises that require a greater degree of movement and freedom. Exercises such as calf stretches, where you are required to lean on one side to stretch the calf muscle would be more difficult to perform on the Zaaz 20K.

The machine itself is very lightweight. At under 100 lbs, you’ll find that as you put weight onto the side handlebars, there is a tendency for the machine lean and wobble towards that direction. Try leaning slightly backwards as you pull on the handlebar slightly and the machine may flip you. If you put too much of your body weight on the handlebars, as with other machines of this style, there is a chance the machine can tip over and you may end up hurting yourself. We discussed previously in other reviews that having a low machine weight and a small platform is not ideal as that creates a problem where the machine has a tendency to tip if leaned against or pulled. Also, machines that are lighter weight may shift and move on the floor when it is vibrating. The Zaaz 20K has a platform size 21″ wide X 15″ deep.

Display and Control Panel

The Zaaz 20K’s control panel no longer comes with the body fat monitor, instead, the pulse monitor replaces it for measuring the pulse. The pulse sensors are mounted conveniently on the side rails. We found that pulse monitors on vibration machines are relatively inaccurate and if you need to rely on an accurate pulse reading for whatever reason, I highly recommend buying an actual heart rate monitor. The monitor on this particular machine fluctuated by about 18% when I took 3 measurements in a span of about 2 minutes. The control panel is made of ABS plastic and displays certain interesting information like the number of steps taken, and the calories burned. The LCD screen is quite large and makes reading the display easy. The center shows the speed setting you selected and on the left side shows the Pulse, Calorie, and Steps taken during your workout session.  The control panel is fairly easy to use and you would appreciate the bigger LCD compared to that of the Vmax i25.  The Zaaz 20K comes preloaded with 8 pre-programmed training routines and you can select whichever works for you–the programs will automatically change the speed settings for you during your 10 minute session and they are of different intensity.

As far as power and intensity of the vibration goes, it feels extremely familiar to the Vmax Fitness i25.  The Zaaz 20K has 99 speed settings which should be sufficient to tailor to many users in the family. It is a good bonus to have a wide speed range so that we have the option to adjust the frequency setting in lesser increments. The speed settings modifies the frequency changes that you experience when you increase or decrease the speed and you end up getting a smaller frequency increment per speed level and therefore, the machine can be tailored to a lot of users from varying degrees of fitness. So far, the Zaaz 20K seems to be the only oscillation machine in the market with 99 speed settings, a definite bonus, however, it did bother me as I had to push the speed up to about 50 to 60 every time I used the machine. It could be a frustrating inconvenience for user’s that adapt extremely quickly to vibration training as you’ll have to spend at least 30 seconds to adjust to the higher speed settings every single time you intend to use the machine.

Movement Around the Platform

Resting my hands on the vibrating platform as I’m doing a shoulder press, I still find the bars on the side to be restrictive especially if I wanted to do situps or triceps dips on the vibration machine.  If you rarely do other exercises besides standing on the platform, then this shouldn’t be an issue at all, and the handlebar system should not bother you at all. The platform is sufficient and not restrictive enough for most standing exercises.

Accessories

The Zaaz 20K comes with a few different accessories depending on where you buy it from. Firstly, you get the aerobic mats. These mats are in addition to the standard plastic black pad that you get on the machine. You can install the aerobic mats by removing the regular pad, and mounting the aerobic mat frame onto the metal base. After this is complete, you have a soft mat and a hard mat that you can easily change. You may not need to switch back to the regular pad, but if would up to you depending on your comfort level. The only use I found with this is if you intend to use the chair accessory, and also for the softer pad. The hard pad is essentially the same as the regular pad but gives you the option of switching to a softer pad within the aerobic mat frame.

Another accessory that you get is the chair. I’m still not certain why this is useful when trying it and I am guessing it is designed for users that can’t bend too far down to sit on the platform directly. The stimulation between sitting on the chair and sitting on the platform is night and day as the chair, together with the soft mat that goes underneath significantly dampens the vibration to the point where I don’t really know what its doing when I was sitting on it.

Finally, the hand straps that come with the machine are the stretchy type bands. The bands hook onto the back of the unit and allows you to do upper body exercises. However, this is limited to the strength of the stretch band itself, as it is a resistance type of exercise. The nylon stiff types are much more desirable because they transfer the vibration from the platform to the upper body without requiring the user to be on their knees or placing their hands onto the platform.

Zaaz 20K Final Thoughts

The Zaaz 20K offers a wide range of speed settings (99 to be exact) than the comparable Vmax Fitness i25 and quite a number of accessories. Firstly, they have a chair where you can sit on to do your exercises, in additional to 2 extra vibration pads that are of varying hardness. They are useful to a certain extent and the foam pads do add an additional level of comfort for users with joint sensitivity and pain. However, the foam pads reduces the vibration felt by the user (which does, in essence, defeats the point of using the machine in the first place). The chair I haven’t really found a use for as I find sitting on the platform or the floor directly gives me more control of the exercises that I do, in addition to feeling the vibrations directly.  The Zaaz 20K has a handlebar system that is slightly more sloped than other machines of this style. It helps with the restrictiveness but it is still distracting. The hand straps are a little disappointing as they weren’t designed to hook into the platform where it can help transfer the vibration to the upper body through the straps, but rather, are the resistance band type of straps. This machine comes at a high cost premium compared to other similar vibration machines that make this deal cold. If you want something that just works and can try personally at your nearby Sam’s Club or Costco, then this might be the machine for you. Otherwise, there are much better options out there for the price you are paying.