Concept2 RowErg Indoor Rowing Machine - PM5 Monitor, Device Holder, Adjustable Air Resistance, Easy Storage

The Concept2 RowErg is wonderful; the mechanisms are smooth and secure, no noise, and provides a nice workout. This is a solid of equipment. The size is LONG, but it does fold to half its size for storing. The resistance allows for an easy or intense workout. It serves its purpose; an exhilarating workout, without joint pain. Concept2 did a great job at communicating and correcting the shipping (FedEx - did NOTHING). Concept2's team were responsive, respectful, and made sure the purchase met customer satisfaction. Thank you.

I have never rowed in my life, but during the winters in New England, I am often uninspired to go outside for a run, especially when the sidewalks are icy. I did a lot of surfing on the web to see what might be some options. I don't have the room for a treadmill, a stationary bicycle did not appeal to me, and I do some bodyweight exercises already. The indoor rowing machine was something that continually caught my eye and the more I read about it, the more I was intrigued. Once I decided on the indoor rower, I did a lot of reading on different websites, compared many indoor rowers, and also talked to a couple of people with some experience with rowing. If I was willing to pay for it, the Concept2 Model D was the one I wanted. It was certainly an investment, but having had it for a month, I have nothing but great things to say about it. I'm nowhere near the indoor rower that I hope to one day be, but I try to get a decent row in several times a week. For me, "decent" means trying to work on my form (I have watched many videos) and getting to the point where I am very tired. Thankfully, it feels like I can go a bit longer each week. With the proper form, I feel that my wind has certainly improved, my legs are very tired, and my arms seem to get a decent workout as well. The legs are definitely the body parts that get the best workout. I know I haven't even come close to figuring out everything that the digital monitor can do, but after such a short period of time, I can say with certainty that this machine is perhaps my best overall purchase in many years. I need to be diligent, but it feels like something I can do for years to come and if I continue to concentrate on my form, I should stay healthy with it as well. I must say that I enjoy the different workout options on the digital monitor and I'll continue to figure it out more and more. I definitely like how the machine was extremely easy to put together (instructions were great and it took about 15 minutes to assemble) and it can also come apart in about 5 seconds so you can store the rower in a closet if needed. I'm careful with it, but it also feels very sturdy. Last but not least, keeping track of workouts and syncing it with my phone using Bluetooth is a great option so I don't have to write things down all the time anymore. And...for the time being, until I move it upstairs, the Concept2 Model D sits in front of a television so I never have an excuse to avoid even a quick workout while watching a show or movie. I could not recommend this indoor rower any more highly! It's definitely a financial investment, but for me, it's already been a very worthwhile one. One final thing...I emailed Concept2 with a couple of simple (probably stupid) questions and they got back to me within a couple of hours on a Saturday. I always expect good customer service, but this was great. They were both helpful and extremely enthusiastic with their response. That just takes things over the top and if I could, I would have added a sixth star to the rating.

I have owned most types of exercise equipment out there: treadmills, climbers, Spinbikes, recumbent bikes, total gym, ab machines, ellipticals, weight benches and all sorts of small do-hickys that were made to help you maintain or get into shape. No, I'm not a shopaholic LOL I am naturally small to average size but need to stay fit and healthy. Over the past year or so I have hit that dreaded time my mom and Aunts always warned about: that time when everything you ate stayed with you and loosing a quick five pounds was no longer a simple thing. One big note here though; One of the reasons I have had so many different types of exercise equipment over the years is, I have cerebral palsy and need to stay at a healthy weight and try to keep flexibility and cardiovascular health as high as I can have. Unfortunately I have found that many types of exercise equipment have something that prohibits me being able to use them effectively. For example, the total gym is a great piece of equipment however most of the exercises that I want to use involve laying on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the slide board. For me it is nearly impossible because of my muscle tightness I am unable to do that as well as a lot of the other exercises that require a bit of balance or flexibility that I just don't have. I also have weaker leg muscles so a lot of the other equipment seemed to either wear me out immediately, or I'd have to used my upper body exclusively. Several months ago I began thinking about a rower. I actually ordered and canceled a different, less expensive rower that had gotten good reviews here because I'd been reading independent review sites and the Concept 2 had always gotten great reviews and I knew I wouldn't be happy with lower quality. The water rowers looked good too but frankly I couldn't swing the cost especially since as much as I hoped a rower would work for me I knew the odds were I'd be selling it if it wasn't something I could use well. Assembly was probably the easiest of anything I've ever owned. The hardest part was getting the two pieces out from the Styrofoam! LOL Eight screws and the screwdriver was included. The item is well-made and feels sturdy but wasn't too heavy for me to assemble on my own very easily. All you are doing is attaching a V shape bracket to the rower and then down to the flat piece that sits on the floor. Once assembled you just lift the front piece of the machine (one handed it's not too heavy) and the back part has a little hook shaped end that goes down on a bar on the front piece and you lower the machine and the parts lock together. The machine is long but narrow. Storing may not be as easy as a machine that just folds but stays in one piece, but on the other hand having the two pieces come completely apart could make storage easy if you needed to put each piece away in different area. Now for the usage: As I have said I do have limitations and I do know they make a different model that sits up higher off the ground and it is supposed to be easier to get on and off if you have any type of balance or mobility issues however I chose this model because I felt it would be easier for me to get on and off. I did have to make one adaptation: because I do not have normal flexibility, I found that once my feet were strapped in I could not quite reach the handlebar to begin rowing, so I borrowed my Service Dogs tug rope she uses to open doors and attached it to the handlebar of the rower. It gives me the extra length that I need that once I am seated with my feet strapped in I can use the rope and pull the handle bar up to begin rowing. If you are heavier or built where you're not able to reach the bar comfortably this is an easy fix. When I first began using the rower I found as I had expected that I was using very little to no legs, however after just a week I am able to use my legs some. Nowhere near the "normal" amount of a correct row form where your legs are doing about 60% of the work, but I have seen enough improvement already to know that as I continue my leg strength will improve enough to where I will be rowing in a more full body natural form. The reason I am saying this is just to let you know that even if you are limited and you're not able to start out with the "correct" rowing style, you can still use this machine. I think it is important however to know what the correct form is. I would suggest going to the Concept2 website and watching a video. It's not difficult at all but I do like to remind myself as a row that it's legs core arms and then arms core legs. Since I did not have leg strength to begin with I needed to be aware of not pulling with my back. They also have a great video on adaptive rowing for those with physical limitations. So you can see that this really is something that everyone can use and benefit from. The machine is quite. Not silent but you can watch TV while using it without having the volume to max. You set the amount of air to allow through the machine by sliding a "damper" lever. The more air the more resistance but your pull also makes a difference so you can get a more challenging workout just by changing when and how fast you pull. The monitor is small but the numbers are large and easy to read. It has several features but I find the "Just Row" is what I'm using now. I also have an app on my phone and the rower and my phone connect via Bluetooth and it will log my information so I can have a record of my workouts. The app also offers a verbal feature so if you are visually impaired you can know how you are rowing as far as distance and time. They also have software that allows you to see yourself in a boat rowing against other people that you can see on a monitor or your tv. Even though I've only had the machine two weeks I can easily say it will be one of the very few that I will keep and use. It is by far my favorite and I'm already seeing improvements. I have lost 5 pounds and know that I am improving not only my cardiovascular system but I am getting stronger and more flexible as I can see improvements in my leg use. I started with 0% legs and now am maybe 10% and that's a big improvement that will only get better. Oh and I will add that it is FUN!!! I actually enjoy rowing. Something about the repetitive movements and sound I find enjoyable. I do not give five stars often at all because I am extremely critical and consider all factors. This rower and the company has not only met but exceeded my expectations and I would recommend it without hesitation. I'm looking forward to using this for years and seeing a real improvement in my health and happiness. If you have been considering this rower I would say go for it!

So I'm new to rowing completely. Long time runner, never a biker. Needed something for cardio and an overall workout to do in between running because my knees can't take it anymore. So I borrowed a rowing machine from a neighbor, it was one with magnetic resistance. I like the workouts enough to decide to get my own machine, but I really wanted the ability to connect to apps through my phone/ipad to track my workouts and add to my Strava app. Coaching and workout design is not something I would want to do myself since I'm new to this and have no idea how to design a rowing workout. The machine itself arrived on time and packaged perfectly. I put it together in 15 minutes. Everything was in perfect shape. It's a solid, well thought out machine. The seat is a little hard, so a pad might be beneficial. Also, they sell a $5 phone holder on the Concept 2 website that clips on nicely. The reputation of the company and this machine is easily found in all these reviews, so I'm going to tell you about the apps from my experience. In the 2 weeks I've had the machine, I've completed about 15 workouts using different apps like Liverowing, Asensai, Kinomap, and ErGData. ErgData is Concept 2's app and I've found it to be okay, but it doesn't sync my workouts all the time and it's mainly for people who know what they're doing and want all the metrics and data and know what it all means. Kinomap and Asensai are great ideas, but I'm not interested in paying a lot for a subscription. Kinomap was buggy and hard to load in my experience. Asensai worked great if you want coaching, but it's costs quite a bit. What I've settled on is Using Liverowing for all my workouts. I have the free liverowing currently and it works great. I have it linked to my Concept 2 logbook (free) and I have my concept 2 logbook linked to my Strava account (free). You can link Liverowing to Strava, but it doesn't always work in my experience. I'm not sure if the Liverowing app is being actively developed, which is why i'm not paying for the upgrade. And I don't need it currently anyway. There are plenty of workouts available for free for now. So that's my experience, I wanted a "connected" rowing machine and this setup has worked out great. I love the workouts and actually look forward to working out again.

Just arrived and quality is evident when you open the box. Solid construction, VERY easy to put together and did a quick row and it is as quiet as people have said. While the length of space needed is about 9 feet, the width of the machine easily allows you to put this close to a wall or out of the way if you have limited space. It's a rower and the movement is in a straight-line so it's easy to stage most places. To move it around you simply lift the back end up to tilt it on the front wheels and comfortably push or pull to the desired location. Not heavy at all. It's basically just two pieces with a 3rd piece (2 metal bars and 8 small bolts) for attaching the front stand. Even comes with a standard size tool which you can use for other star bits. The two main pieces don't even need to be put together once you bolt the front stand to it--you simply insert the section with the seat into the rower section...no tool or bolts needed. And none of the pieces are too heavy to move around for most people. The shipping box is not huge either and it's well-packed. I've only use this rower a couple of times just to test it out after delivery so I cannot speak to long term usage but based on what I see-----well worth the money. I'm sick of buying cheap equipment only to have them fall apart or metal joints bend and break from wear & tear. Won't happen with this unit and it's the ones the gyms use so for home use it should last a long time even with regular use. I can't wait to cancel my gym membership and use this rower and do my walking/running outside from this point forward. Will save me time, money over the long run and allow me to do more workouts on a more regular basis. No more dealing with driving to the gym, waiting for equipment and paying monthly fees....hope this review helped.

This is a fabulous rowing machine. I've owned rowers in the past and while they're kind of fundamentally similar, this has several features that make it stand out. First, the build quality is superior. The glide rail is solid and the seat doesn't jiggle loosely on the horizontal. While other reviewers find the seat uncomfortable, I think it's a matter of placement. If you pay attention to the contours of the seat it isn't uncomfortable at all, IMHO. The PM5 monitor is well done, easily readable and has a wide variety of features to make tracking your rows easy. I went ahead and got the RowPro software from Digital Rowing, and it rocks. First, setup was a breeze -- put the information in it asks for, connect it to the PM5 with a USB A-B cable (like a USB printer cable) and it reads everything. Having your past rows to use as race buddies on the screen is wonderfully motivating. I'm running the software on a Surface Pro 3 and it doesn't stutter or have any issues. I am awaiting the peripheral cradle to be able to mount my Surface Pro on top of the PM5 so it's more in my line of sight while rowing, because the software requires interaction when you setup your session, and it's kind of a pain to have to unstrap your feet to go tap the screen to start things off or end a warm up/cool down session. I'm still early in my workout build up (I haven't rowed in years) so I haven't tried going online to compete with other folks, but if it's as smooth as doing quick rows against yourself, I'm sure it'll be a blast. The glide action is extremely smooth, and the fan is surprisingly quiet. It isn't silent (it is a fan after all), but compared with other rowers I've used, this is usable while I watch television at a reasonable volume level. The chain is quiet as well, which has been an issue with other rowers I've used. I like the fact that you can adjust the shock strap, too, which makes this a long term exercise machine. The parts all look easy to replace and it seems you can buy all of them from Concept2. I did not get a heart rate monitor, but after seeing how it would integrate with the PM5 and RowPro, I'm seriously considering it. The wireless HRM capability is a real selling point -- no wires, just the strap. The only thing I'm not a huge fan of, but it wasn't enough to lose a star over, is the foot rest. The manual is super basic, and doesn't point out the value of adjusting the foot rest depth, which can alter your form if you don't have your feet in the right spot, so pay attention to making that adjustment. They're very easy to adjust, it just didn't occur to me what was wrong until I as a couple of sessions in, since the manual doesn't really make any mention. Setup was super simple. A few screws and connecting the two pieces together was all it took. It took me longer to clean up the styrofoam than it did to put together the unit. Overall a terrific machine I'm actually excited to use and will help me get back into shape with the motivation of competition.

Overall, will give it an A, but there are some interesting things to know ahead of time. First off, the unit is solid, and "fun" to use. I have done about a total of 20 min on my first day in a few test runs (says to only do 5min first day, and increase from there for those that have not used one before...such is my case. The unit is a solid machine and looks to be built to outlast me. Key pts, which I will go into detail below in most of these: * easy to assemble, but parts are "heavy"/long (about 35# each). Just not lightweight per se * No real printed instructions, everything is on the PM5 though. * heart rate monitor & phone have to be relinked for every session * takes up a bit of space, but the footprint is listed, but it is large. * noise, sure, but not really a huge issue....sounds like a fan * you will need to wear shoes, bare feet and socks will not do. The footrest where the heel is, has an "edge" that will annoy and could lead to a blister over time. Nothing too big, but will need something to buffer between foot and foot rest. *PM5 probably gives you everything you need, but the phone adds some more, and the unit per my reading allows other SW to be attached.....if you have more than one machine (say a family gym), you can link and row together. * Firmware update is not too hard, but the website could maybe be not so clear. Need to install the utility on your computer, start the utility, insert a thumb drive, start the update, stick thumb drive in PM5 Operation: the seat moves really smooth, as does the chain and fan. Basically, operation, once I was used to the proper motion, is almost like you don't know the machine is there. Assembly: They supply reasonable instructions, and a solid tool. Basically everything is included, and a real torx driver, and not a cheap tool...took me maybe 30min including removing from the box. Parts are heavy/large...but then again, its basically two pieces. Assy amounts to attaching the legs in the front. Instructions for operation. Instructions are on 2 pages....Since I believe this is designed primarily for the gym, most of the instructions are on the PM5....which is good in that you can't lose them...but it takes a few button pushes to locate them. They even show images/video of proper operation of the machine for the exercise. Heart Rate/Phone: both sync with only a few button clicks. I picked a Garmin, and make sure you get ANT+, so you can Bluetooth to your phone. You can do both at one time if you have ANT+ on the heart rate monitor. My only gripe is that you have to resync both each time. Not a huge issue, but for a home gym, a little annoying. The holder for the phone works great, but to adapt to all phones, it has a bit of compression for my phone...but works great. Noise: I think I remember hearing comments on this. It sounds like a fan...which makes sense. I would not consider it loud. If the rower was in a room next to someone sleeping, closing the door should muffle any noise. Listing to new on the phone, I do have the volume up past halfway to hear over the fan, and the distance from the phone during the exercise. Footrest: They are comfortable, and adjustable for foot length and size. Though, because were the heel rests its a firm plastic, the edge there will rub over time....so no bare feet or socks. The part is like a strap, so this is what I mean by an edge - not a sharp one. Any light footwear would be fine, as well as gym shoes of course. Seat: I know there were some comments about this. It is a firm foam. It gives, just not a lot. I really didn't have an issue with it. I sat on it for at least 30min while playing with the PM5 and settings/instructions. Firmware update: Some of the links on their page will take you to the wrong places, but after a few tries I was able to get it. You do have to install a utility on your computer, then run the SW, install a thumb drive, slick update SW which will load the thumb drive for all their equipment....in case you have more than one, and then just put the thumb drive in the PM5. Takes about 15min from start to finish....once you have the utility installed on the computer. Maintenance: There are few maint activities that I noticed in the limited instructions. Clean the rail the seat rides on...I'm guessing to keep dust and sweat from sitting on it. Another is after 40hrs, to lube the chain. Also, the fan cover has to be removed periodically to vacuum any dust and lent out of the unit. Apparently there is a calibration set that has to be done, and the PM5 will tell you when this needs to be done and provides the instructions to perform it. I'm guessing it amounts to pulling the handle a certain way and the fan resistance???? maybe???

I rowed for a time in college, and I have to say, it was most "in shape" I have ever been in my life. To be fair, I was 19-22yrs old, so getting in shape was a lot easier to do and maintain back then. But I digress.... Since the pandemic put us all in lockdown, I have been doing my best to keep in shape with my at-home equipment, but without access to a full gym, this is an inherently limited endeavor. So, I decided to finally invest in a rowing machine. Did a lot of research and shopping around, spending a lot of time looking at the water-rowers since they are such nice looking pieces of equipment. However, the prospect of maintenance and having to fill/empty the water container didn't seem particularly conducive to my 2nd floor workout room. After much deliberation, I decided to drop the extra coin on the concept 2 rower. This rower is the gold standard of all rowing machines. And honestly, nothing even compares. It is the rowing machine that we trained on in college and it's the rowing machine that ALL competitive rowing programs train on. And when you get on it, you can see why. This machine is rock solid. Smooth seat glide. Authentic crew rowing reach and range of motion. Excellent pull and recoil of the chain. And the resistance levels have something for any level rower. And I guarantee, after 5 minutes on this machine, you'll see why all of the *serious* rowers train on it. It's definitely a full-body workout. You'll be huffing with a racing heart after those first couple of workouts on here. It's not the quietest rower on the market, but it's by no means loud. Noise is more on par with a loud fan - which is basically what it is. Make sure that you watch the videos on correct form for the concept 2 - it's key. Yes, you will spend a few more dollars for this rower, but I guarantee you that if you compare this to any other rower on the market, you'll see why you're paying more for this one. It's an excellent investment in your health, and if you ever decide to sell it, you'll see that they hold their value. You'll rarely find one for re-sale for less than 800. Stop your research of the other rowers. If you want to be serious about getting in fantastic shape, and you want to do it on a machine that will out-live you, invest in a concept 2.