Lifecore R900 Rowing Machine

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.

Rowing machines are a bit of a personal fit item, not all are created equal, and if you end up with one that just does not quite work right for you, you might end up miserable using it. Or worse, hurt. Having said that, I tried this one out, and liked it quite a bit. It is VERY quiet, smooth, and mostly comfortable. However, I found the motion to be kind of odd, and it could not get a natural stroke on it (I am an ex-competitive rower). After a few tries, and my shoulders aching, I returned it and tried the next one. I think it was the slight upward slope of the seat rail that did it for me. A friend of mine who is still competitive loves his though, so like I said, its personal. The Concept is probably (undisputedly?) the top choice, if there is a rowing club that does not use these, I have yet to see it. Actually, that's not quite true, but the ones that don't have it seem to want it. Unfortunately its LOUD, so not great for home use. I ended up with a Water Rower, which I find to be... Read more

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.

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 minu... Read more

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. Lifecore has fixed their website after a lot of pressure from me. 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 1... Read more