Can a Car Polisher Give You a Great Massage?
The Black & Decker WP 900 Is a Fabulous Self-Massage Tool for the Right Person
You may have heard that the WP900, Black & Decker’s inexpensive car polisher, can give you a pretty good massage. Rumors about its power to heal sore muscles have been floating around the web for a decade. It’s been written about in The New York Times’ Wirecutter and New York Magazine’s The Strategist. You may have seen it used in CrossFit boxes or at Spartan races. You may have heard it whispered about while on massage therapists’ tables or physical therapists’ waiting rooms. I’ve been hearing about this damn car polisher for years and never believed the hype. Until now!
What Happened?
I tried it! I’ve used the WP 900 every day for the last two months to massage my aches and pains away. It’s astonishing! Even more important: it actually works. Here’s what it’s done for me:
Relieved my muscle pain and soreness
Speeded my recovery after workouts
Delivered a full body massage in minutes
Relieved a chronic shoulder problem
Enhanced my athletic performance
Improved my mood
Here’s how I know it worked
Before and after using the device, I assessed how I felt on a 1 to 10 scale. Over the 60 days I used the WP900, I felt significantly better after my massage than before it.
Once I knew the device worked, I wanted to know how it worked. How could a cheap power tool deliver an expensive massage? We usually expect to get what we pay for in this case we get just the opposite. How could an inexpensive car polisher deliver a better massage than machines costing hundreds of dollars designed and marketed to do nothing but massage sore muscles?
Here’s How
The first thing I discovered about the WP900 is that it’s not the best car polisher in the world. As car polishers go, it’s mediocre at best. Black and Decker sells it as a combination furniture-floor-boat-car waxer/polisher. It wasn’t designed to do any of those things at a professional level. As you might guess, an industrial grade car polisher would be too powerful to use on your body. You want a device that’s kinder and gentler and that’s exactly what the WP900 is. It was designed for home use and is intended to be safe and easy to use.
How does it work?
The second thing I discovered about the WP900 is that it is part of a general class of power tools known as random-orbit dual action devices. What that means for the WP900 is that it doesn’t just spin or oscillate. It does both things simultaneously. It uses a mechanism that causes its pad to both rotate in a circle and oscillate in an eclectic pattern inside the circle. The oscillation causes the massaging pad clothed in its white wool bonnet to wobble.
It’s the Wobble that Makes the Difference
The WP900’s wobbling pattern is random making each stroke different. It is this eccentric movement that lets the WP900 deliver a fabulous massage. Every time it touches your body it touches you in a unique way. Its orbiting speed is 4400 OPM. Turned on its side, the WP900 delivers 4400 unique wobbling percussive massage strokes every minute to revive sore tired muscles.
The wobble transforms the WP900 into a first class massager able to compete with the $600 Theragun and its progeny. The wobble imparts a soft percussive stroke that penetrates deep into muscle tissue and fascia. But it’s the heat produced by its gliding stroke that distinguishes the WP900 from the higher priced percussive massage tools.
How to use it:
It’s simple. The WP900 has an on-off switch and two basic massage modes.
Mode #1 Gliding: Hold the WP900 so its wool bonnet is face down. Let it hover on your body gently guiding it as it glides on you. To add heat, press it into your body.
Mode #2 Percussion: Hold the WP900 so the side of its wool bonnet is touching you. Slowly guide it over your muscles. To go deeper, add pressure.
Full Body Massage
The WP900 can give your whole body a massage in less than five minutes. That’s another reason the device is so effective. It is sometimes nearly impossible to know where your pain is coming from. Because of what is called referred pain, you might feel pain in one part of your body, which is caused by another part of your body. That’s not a problem for the WP900 because its 6-inch diameter wobbling head can cover your entire body quickly and effectively so you don’t have to identify the precise source of your problem as you would with a higher priced percussive device.
The WP900 is not for Everyone
It’s for people who have sore muscles from too much activity, too much sitting, too much screen time, and too much time sleeping in strange positions. It’s for people who suffer from all or any of those problems and want to feel better fast. It’s for people who are comfortable living outside the rules. Black and Decker does not market the WP900 as a massage tool and on its Amazon page discourages people from using it for that purpose. In short, it’s for people who want a great massage for sore muscles but are too cheap to pay for it.
Who It’s Not For
If you want a spa massage, a relaxing massage, or a sensual massage, the WP900 is not for you. It’s also not a tool for treating serious injuries or medical conditions. For those you’ll need to pay some serious bucks if you live in the USA.
Specs:
Type: Dual-action/Random-orbit
Dimension: 13.8 x 6.2 x 8.6 inches
Net Weight: 3.4 pounds with bonnet per my scale
Power Cord: 10 feet
Variable Speed: 4400 OPM
Speed Settings: 1-speed setting
Backing plate: 6 inch
2 ergonomic handles
It comes with 2 wool polishing bonnets and a blue foam applicator bonnet. I use the wool bonnet for massage.
Price and place to purchase: $24 to $60
Check price at Amazon