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- Verified Buyer
I waited to write this review so that I would have a chance to use the rower for a few days and so would the members of my family. That way I could give the most accurate information. For starters, shipping was SUPER FAST! To be more specific, upon purchase I was notified by Amazon that it would take 1-2 weeks for the machine to arrive. The rower was delivered 3 days later! Next, is assembly. (INSERT EYE ROLL!) My husband is a mechanical engineering major and the king of putting things together. Even with his exceptional skill, this rower was a bit of a challenge simply because it forces you to use intuition to put it together! The instructions are sooo bad, as others have mentioned. For a better explanation of what makes them bad, they don't give the buyer and REAL guidance. They DO offer a few pictures so that you can see what order assembly should go in and they do give the occasional brief description of where to place something. But considering the amount of screws, bolts and pieces included with the item, if you are not mechanically inclined, you may never actually be able to figure this out. It's like a big, wooden, expensive puzzle in a box, for lack of a better description. It took my husband around an hour to hour and a half to do what should have taken, maybe, 20-30 minutes with proper instructions. This is counting all of the time including removing the machine from the box and laying out all of the parts and pieces. Now if you make it past this hurdle, the rower itself seems to be a good purchase! It was easy to fill the water tank, although we chose to use a funnel and just poured the water into the tank instead of using the siphon that is included but either way works. The wood is heavy duty and high quality and the materials are, overall, quite impressive for the price. As for use of the machine, I would have to give it 4.5 out of 5 if it were possible. The only reason I would remove a half star is because the machine using a pulley type set up for the tension wheel while rowing. This thing tends to VERY EASILY come off of the track. That leads to a bit of frustration trying to constantly put it back on the track. However, if you keep tension on the handles, it's not too bad, just frustrating when this happens in the middle of a workout. Aside from that, the workout is smooth and the overall quality of the rower is great! Everyone from myself, to my 10 year old daughter, to my 17 year old son and my husband, who weighs a little over 300 pounds, all are able to use this rower without any issues. Initially, my husband did hear some type of weird squeaking sound while rowing but with use, it went away in about 5 minutes. Besides the things mentioned, I would say this machine is a winning purchase thus far. As a side note, we did go ahead and purchase the protection plan they offer at time of purchase because if we have any issues down the road we don't want any problems with getting a repair or replacement.Edit: Well as an update, I am now a month and half later after purchasing and using this rower and we are still overall happy with our purchase. The pulley assembly at the top of the handle bars that occasionally slips off the tracks still does that on occasion BUT I did realize that if I just made sure to keep tension on the workout bars during my workout and sit them in their proper holding place when I'm not rowing, there is no issue. I haven't had any additional issues with the foot pedals and straps or anything breaking on the machine and neither has anyone in my household. We use the machine regularly and I like to do HIIT workouts on it and there have been no issues. I did purchase a universal device mount to hold my cell phone and/or tablet in front of me during my workouts and I find that very helpful. I haven't had any issues with the display screen that it comes with. It's not the best screen BUT for this price I didn't anticipate that it would be so that doesn't bother me as long as it keeps up with my strokes, timing and distance. All in all, I am still very happy with this purchase and would buy it again.
