O2 Fitness – Downtown Carrboro

This gym isn’t the prettiest girl at the ball, but she’s reliable. Generally, it’s easy to get to any machine you need. It’s open 24 hours. Parking is easy in the lot out front. It doesn’t have the same funky smell in the Group X classroom that the O2 in Elliot has. People are friendly. You can’t ask for more in a gym.
If you’re looking for personal training, I can’t recommend Rob F. more. I was really out of shape and he made everything accessible and got results in a relatively short time. He’s really funny which makes the work seem less.

I am grading this compared to other O2 fitness locations, here’s why I like this one best:
* It’s open 24 hours (unlike other locations that close at night or on holidays)
* The locker room is actually really good (compared to Chatham, which is disgusting), though only some of the showers have consistent hot water
* The location in DT Carrboro is great
* It is mostly clean and well-​maintained

My favorite of the O2 gyms. For people that prefer to work with free weights over machines, I generally have had no problem finding a bench and weights to work with. The ²⁴⁄₇ hours are something I’d like to see at more of their gyms as I like to go at non-​peak hours. The group x room is genera the perfect size for the amount of people showing up to classes and the instructors are great. My only complaint is the size of the parking lot but there’s not much that can be done about that!

O2 Downtown Carrboro is bright and shiny new at last. The total rehab in August 2015 fixed a lot of the issues other people had with the place. For me, I sort of liked the old-​school grungy gym of the past. But I appreciate the new cable machines, the new floor pads, a few new machines, and thank goodness they kept all the old machines and racks that I love, just moved things around to make way for the new.
The atmosphere here is plain old «do your workout, shower, wave a goodbye to your pals, and get out.» There are no gauntlets of judgmental creeps to wade through. Heavy lifters are quiet for the most part, and few drop their weights. The grunting and groaning isn’t for show here, it’s because it’s heavy and it hurts. Nobody is showing off, looking around, or judging. As far as I can tell! What I’m trying to say is this: I feel very comfortable taking a squat rack or a bench for myself even though I’m female, old, and not a typical lifter.
I’m on my second personal trainer here at O2 Carrboro. Both have been fantastic: caring, knowledgeable, motivating, and they listen to my goals and problems. They treat me as if I’m their most important client in spite of my age (I’m 61). I improve every week under their coaching.
Speaking of age and gender, this gym is a great place for the retired crowd between 9 am and 4 pm. Lots of old folks in fine shape and keeping it that way. It helps to have peers. There are plenty of strong women lifters (mostly young) and nobody acts like it’s unusual. Nobody stares, nobody cares. Perfect.

O2 Fitness (Carrboro) is a typical gym that serves its purpose. I’m an every day goer, and have been to multiple locations. The Preston (Cary) one is by far the cleanest and newest. This specific O2 Fitness is seen as «antique.» A lot of the equipment/​machines are old and rusty (although they did recently get a new set of dumbbells which is nice). The place smells pretty rough, especially the locker rooms. However, there are a few pros about this specific club. One, they have a plethora of squat racks (3) and bench presses (3 Flat, 2 Incline, 1 Decline), so if you’re looking to do powerlifting or olympic lifts, one is usually available to work on. Second, this particular club is 24/​7, so it’s nice to fit my workouts in during the late night or early in the morning.
The staff is mostly nice. There are a couple people who work the desk that aren’t as friendly as others. Regarding personal trainers, most seem courteous and easy to work with. Many pay close attention to their clients, as personal trainers should.
The only complaint I have about O2 Fitness is the ridiculous fee they give I think once or twice a year? In addition to the monthly fee (of about $ 40-​$ 45), you have to pay an extra $ 60 or $ 70 (I’m not quite sure the exact value, but it is atrocious).
Overall, not a «Gold’s Gym» or anything, but definitely a comfortable place to workout at if you avoid rush hour (~5−8 PM).

There are a lot of things to recommend this gym – the child care is really nice and the classes are good. The main drawback, as others have noted, is the condition of many of the machines. I just got back from an afternoon jog on the treadmill, but while waiting for one of them to open up, I tried several of the other machines. Many were broken, both those with signs indicating this, but others as well without signs. These machines have been broken a long time without repair and it’s a real problem. I’ll be happy to upgrade the review once the equipment is repaired.

They did finally get some new Dumbbells, but still need to update some of the older equipment.

Among several reasons, I would not recommend that anyone join this gym. The facilities and equipment are subpar, particularly in Carrboro, and slightly less so at other branches in the area. It did the job, barely.
Primarily, the problem is shady management. I cancelled membership in June, after graduating school and leaving the area (which at sign up I was told would be no problem), and have been charged for three months since. I have called repeatedly about this, been told that my cancellation has (finally) processed, and as soon as I bring up the June cancellation date and necessity of a refund, staff gets shady. I have been told each time that the manager would get back to me, still have heard nothing. I have seen similar complaints before but thought it wouldn’t happen to me… oops. This place needs to get it together.

Great facilities for the money and open 24 hours.

When I moved to Carrboro from Greensboro, I decided on the Highway 54 O2 fitness for my primary gym (instead of Kinetix) for a number of reasons:
–The Highway 54 location was nicer looking
–Conveniant to stop on my way home from work
–I didn’t want to pay a stinking sign-​up fee, and Kinetix wouldn’t budge on that front, but O2 would.
So, due to those factors I went with O2 fitness right next to I-​40, and it was great for a while. The equipment was decent, the employees friendly, plenty of available machines.
But things started to change at the Chapel Hill location. Namely, it got a LOT more crowded. These days it’s chancy whether I’ll even be able to take a left into the parking lot after work, and if I do, it’s really really crowded.
When I saw that O2 Fitness took over the Carrboro location, I was quite pleased. It’s close to my house, and it looks nicer than Kinetix ever did. Also, I can almost always find a spot nice and easily, and there’s always treadmills and weight machines available.
The Carrboro branch has become my go-​to gym, for the reasons stated above.

This gym location has a long history of owners that have not taken care of it. I believe it was once a grocery store, then a Gold’s Gym, Carolina Fitness, and recently, Kinetix and probably a few other names I am missing. It was never well run or taken care of and Kinetix in particular really let it get run down and in general, offered horrible management, especially in the billing department. They could barely keep the A/​C and hot water running, half the lights were burnt out, and the equipment was showing it’s age and was frequently broken.
Within days of O2 taking over, the first thing that really caught my attention was how much brighter the main floor was when I walked in. All that they had done was replace burnt out lights but it made a huge difference and just illustrated how slack Kinetix had been. It isn’t that replacing light bulbs and fresh paint is that big of a deal but if you were a Kinetix member, this is actually huge.
As a business manager having taken over older assets that have been let go, I know the battle that O2 has in fixing this gym. It probably needs $ 100K worth of maintenance, repairs and replacements and the business needs to show financial stability first. Logistically and financially, it has to be done over a period of months or a year as mentioned in their comment reply to Craig S. The important thing to me, as a user of this location is that I see progress. It doesn’t have to be lightning fast; rather steady and of good quality will satisfy my desire for improvements.
I have been to the Hgwy 54 location and it is pretty slick. I imagine that this is the O2 club standard which they are striving for with Carrboro. If it gets to that level, we will have something more special than has ever been in this location.