Customer Reviews

Lifecore R900 Rowing Machine

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Faithful readers may have read the review of my previous dealings with a rower from Brand X. I have been using this rower for a few weeks now and I am very pleased. As other reviewers have noticed, the magnetic resistance is very quiet. I sometimes get rattling from the seat, but not much. Okay, unlike other machines, the max weight limit on this machine is 350 pounds (not 250). The LCD display is great in my dim basement, the heart rate feature is the HEAT! I waited to try that feature before I wrote this review. It's compatible with my Polar Heart Rate Monitor's existing chest strap(one is supplied anyway). The pulse program is useful as it raises resistance to raise your heart beat to a preset target and also reduces resistance to lower your heart rate to the target rate. There is even a pulse recovery feature for when you stop rowing. It monitors how quickly your heart rate recovers in a minute and displays your score from 1-6 to the nearest tenth. The preset programs and options are varied enough to prevent boredom. If there is any drawback, it's the way that the operator's manual needs a couple of readings to get the meaning across. In fact, I basically tell you more about the Pulse Recovery feature than they do in the manual. Barring that, I was able to assemble the rower by myself in one session using the tools that came with it. Overall, a very satisfactory balance between price and features.**UPDATE** 16 March 2007: I had a part break in the seat. I called Customer Service and not only spoke to a human being, but a human being in the States! The part was on it's way THAT DAY. Now THAT is what I call a positive experience.

The R900 has 8 levels of resistance and one heart rate control program. Not 20 or 16 levels of resistance and 3 heart rate control programs, as Lifecore Fitness's website used to say.
Magnetic resistance, which is what the R900 has, feels different from air or water resistance. Magnetic resistance doesn't change with the velocity at which you're pulling the bar, but air/water resistance increases with the velocity. That means that with air/water resistance you can kick off hard with your legs, getting a lot of resistance, and take it easy on your arms. So you can put out a lot of power, using the most powerful muscles in your body - getting your heart rate as high as you want - and burning a lot of calories. On the Concept 2 at the gym, which has air resistance, I can easily get my heart rate up to 170+. When I was snowed in the other day I tried working out on the R900 but I could only get my heart rate up to 141. Almost everybody I see rowing at the gym is not kicking off hard, though, and they could get the same workout on a magnetic rower.
The magnetic resistance is very gentle on your joints for this reason, so maybe it's actually better for people with joint problems.
Rowing machines aren't like other exercise machines, where you can just hop on and do it. Rowing technique is illustrated in the "Flip Luisi" video online. It's like a complicated dance step. Kicking off hard doesn't mean you have to go at a high strokes/minute, because with the right technique, the return stroke is controlled so you slow down somewhat.
Lifecore doesn't package things carefully enough for shipping. The first one I got wasn't working right in several ways. It had probably been damaged in shipping. So Lifecore sent replacement parts. When I got them I found one of the parts had also been damaged in shipping! It had been dropped and a metal piece was bent.
Large packages are all shipped Gorilla Freight apparently. (picture of gorillas throwing 100-pound boxes around). But I've gotten large appliances undamaged from other companies. They double-crate them and use huge amounts of bubblewrap, which Lifecore doesn't. And small things, when they're sent in a sea of packing pnuts, also arrive OK. Lifecore recently sent me a new monitor inadequately packaged which also got here trashed.
That the R900's monitor broke after 4 months of using it makes me wonder how well built the whole machine is.
The magnetic resistance isn't silent, as some advertising claims. It maxed at 56 dBA when I measured it. Mostly the strap makes noise going in and out.
Don't rely on the info at Mercantila's rowingmachines dot com website, anyway. That's what I did without realizing it and I really regretted it. Mercantila is just a marketing company. Try machines at the gym, talking to others who use them.
I got this one because I thought the bells and whistles, like the many programs with different patterns of resistance over the workout, might make it easier to forget about rowing and pay attention to something else, like music. That seemed like the best way to avoid getting bored using it.
So far, however, I've controlled the resistance manually, because I can't predict ahead of time what resistance I'll want. But I think some people would enjoy the resistance programs. The pre-set programs have the nice feature that if you press the up-arrow while the program is running, it ups the resistance for the whole program. Also the user can define their own resistance program, something you can't do with most rowing machines.
The heart rate feature, where it adjusts the resistance level to keep you at a certain heart rate, sounds neat but isn't useful. First, before I could use the heart rate feedback program, I had to get heart rate monitor electrode cream to get the heart rate monitor to work reliably.
But even with the heart rate program working as designed, it doesn't work well. It starts out at the lowest resistance, I'm hardly pulling at all, then it quickly steps up the load, much more quickly than my heart rate goes up. So if I don't manually correct the load, the machine loads me up with more resistance than I can keep up long term. So then I have to "sprint" with high resistance until my heart rate goes up to the target, then my heart rate goes higher than the target because I'm sprinting, and then it slowly lets up on the resistance. You get the picture ... The time scale of how fast the machine adjusts the load is out of whack with the time scale of how fast my heart rate goes up during exercise.
The heart rate feedback feature would be more useful if it just beeped when you got out of the range you want. So you could adjust your pace, or the resistance, as you like.
It IS useful to have a heart rate display. But I bought a wrist heart rate monitor and it's worked OK, mounted on rowing machine pullbars.
If you want to do other exercises besides rowing, the R900 may not be the best. The strap loops around the pull-bar, so it would rub a lot if you are doing anything that rotates the strap around the pull-bar. The Kettler Coach which is made for doing exercises besides rowing has a rope with a knot at the end attached to the pull-bar. If your upper body isn't used to it you might need to switch off rowing with something else like biceps curls.
The calorie display is completely wacko as other people have observed.
It's so hard to buy the right things. What's actually helped me relax and forget about rowing has not been resistance programs in the rowing machine, but books on CD. You might want a fairly quiet rowing machine so you can listen to a book or enjoy music. It's quiet enough for that. But I've heard the new Concept 2's are also quiet enough to listen to CD's.
It's the first Internet purchase I've made that was substantially misrepresented. Notwithstanding their friendliness, I don't trust a company that's so casual about wrong info on their web page, and I would not buy anything else from them.
It has not worked for me. I used to run and I wanted a low-impact workout as intense as trail-running, which I can do on the Concept 2, not on the R900. But I can see how other people might think the R900 is wonderful. The magnetic resistance is very smooth and quiet, and other people seem to enjoy preset resistance programs.

This is a very good quality machine especially for home puposes. I did not use the heart feature but the machine works very well. Its easy to install. The only thing you may want to take note is that the seat goes in from the back of the machine. ( its a bit unclear in the manual), otherwise the machine works well and is great for a workout for people who like a rowing machine.

It stores easily and even rolls on a hard floor, does not roll well on carpet. Its a nice model and they have good customer service. One thing I may point out, if you have hip arthritis, you might want to contact your Dr. first as when you lean forward your knees end up high above your waist line, which would be fine for most, but for someone with bad hip arthritis or someone with a hip replacement this may be something to consider. Enjoy your workout and I hope this helps in your decision.

Overall this is a very good rowing machine - quiet, takes up a small amount of space, and easy to use. My only complaint would be the LCD - the first order sent to me had a damaged computer, but Amazon was quick to send out a replacement rower which took care of the problem. Now every thing is great.

The display didn't work on the first rower we got, and one of the wheels on the front of it was broken. Amazon sent out a new one the day I reported the problem, and helped me get UPS to pick up the damaged one. The second rower arrived in good shape, and works fine. The different programs are nice, it's extremely quiet, and my wife likes it better than the air rower we use at the Y. The slightly padded seat is also a bonus. One of the most important features for us was the heart rate monitor. It comes with the chest strap, and displays heart rate on the LCD screen so you can vary your workout to stay in the target zone. The heart rate monitor is not available on inexpensive rowers, and with some of the more expensive ones, you still have to buy the chest transducer separately. Overall, quite satisfied with the rower, and because of their excellent customer service, extrememly satisfied with Amazon.

I purchased this rower 1 month ago. It arrived within a matter of days, unharmed and a bit heavy. Assembly wasn't too difficult. The machine in comfortable, sturdy, and well-built. I am very pleased with that. Like other reviewers have commented, the screen is a bit hard to see unless you are towards the back of the machine but so far it hasn't been an issue for me. One issue that I am having is the lack of information that came with the rower. The instruction manual was a matter of a few pages, mostly focusing on the assembly of the rower. It didn't even say how to turn the machine on. I did find and read through the manual here on Amazon.com, and that helped a little bit, but neither resource has told me how to change from miles to kilometers. If any one knows, please let me know. I am going to get in touch with the company and ask them. Also, and this is no one's issue, but when I bought this rower 1 month ago I paid $599. Now, its $499! Just my bad luck I guess. Happy rowing!

***Update: (10/27/08) I finally was able to talk to someone at Lifecore fitness this afternoon after calling all morning. I spoke to a gentleman named Ron concerning my question about kilometers vs. miles. He told me that there was no way to switch between the two measures of distance. I must say that I am pretty disappointed in this reality. What is even more confusing to me is why when I first starting using the rower, it was reading in kilometers and now it has switched over to miles. Ron could not answer this question for me.

This is a well-built machine and gives an excellent workout. It is very quiet (I can hear the TV at normal volume while rowing). The magnetic resistence is smooth and effective. The seat rolls very smoothly. The bar is comfortable in an overhand grip position (underhand is slightly uncomfortable, but I alternate my grip).

As others have noted, the digital readout sucks - you can't see the numbers; they often look like 8's; it's positioned at the wrong angle; the blue background makes it worse. I've unhooked the bottom of the readout panel and put a piece of foam under it, which positions it less vertical, and it helped a little, but I didn't expect to need to jury rig a $900 piece of exercise equipment.

The 10 bars of the graph divide evenly if you set the time (35 minutes = 3.5 minutes per bar). But if you don't set the time and only set the strokes, it defaults to 3 minutes per bar. So if you set 1200 strokes and that takes you about 45 minutes, the bars change every 3 minutes and the routine stops after 30 minutes. You have to set a time limit to get the workout pattern evenly distributed. This is a stupid design oversight.

However, after a week, you learn the time and strokes you like, set it to that and row, and the in-progress readout isn't so important.

The calorie calcultion seems way off. Maybe they determined that weight doesn't need to be entered for this equation for rowing (?), but it says I burn 1700 calories in 45 minutes. I have the resistance up high for most of it, but 2265 per hour?? I wish. I'd say it's exaggerated by a factor of 3.

The heart rate monitor seems to work OK, but I don't use it every day. The pickup is mounted on the underside of the rail, about mid-stroke, so it picks up the signal from the chest belt OK. To turn off the belt sensor, you have to open the little cover with a coin and pop the battery out, which isn't a big deal (I guess they wanted to save on a sealed switch?).

It's a solid machine and I like it way better than the elliptical machine I was using. Works your arms, shoulders, back and legs. I work up a good sweat, and can get my heart rate up if I row quite fast. I've also tried laying backwards on the rail and pulling the bar from overhead to my waist, and that gets at the triceps, chest and stomach -- a little awkward, but effective.

I ordered on a Thursday, and the Free Shipping said it would take 7-9 business days. I'm in New York, and the UPS guy tried to deliver it the NEXT day. I missed him on Friday, and they didn't leave it (I guess due to the price), but I got it on Monday. Nice. The manual is a bit cheesy, but it's easy enough to assemble. Took about 20 minutes.

They could (should) improve the computer readout, but overall it's a keeper.

This product is great! Whisper quiet....I was so glad because my son works graveyard shift and is sleeping in the next room when I row and he can't hear a thing. Also, VERY easy to put together. Gives you a great workout at all levels....with lots of room to advance to higher levels. Also the workout programs are great. I love it! Amazon was great with the shipping. It shipped in a week, and arrived in great shape. A little on the heavy side for wheeling away but all the rowers are. Does fold up for easy storage in a closet. Great for leaving out and putting away when company comes. I wouldn't recommend it if you want something you can put away every day, unless you really want a workout putting the thing away. Overall, I would highly recommend this product.

The rowing machine was easy to assemble, stores nicely, works smoothly and I can get an excellent workout WHEN I can set the exercise paramaters correctly in the programable box.

It's very quiet and a nice machine. Mine was also dropped(probably UPS) but only had a small dent in one of the metal end pieces so with a little tweaking, went together ok.
The display does look like all 8's when your knees are bent, and you are looking down at the display, but you can see the numbers just fine when you are in the extended, seat back position. Don't know what the bid deal is, you can't really expect to look straight down and see clearly with that type of display, so don't let it discourage you from this item.