R100 Commercial Rowing Machine

Overall an excellent unit that I feel is worth its steep price. I've owned a couple rowers and a skier for years and after 3 weeks this is now my cardio workout device of choice. It's quiet, comfortable and the computer controlled workout options are nice. At first I thought things like "whitewater" rowing were a bit goofy but the variable resistance programs make a real difference. The fan does make a bit of noise but far less than my skier and I can easily watch TV over the top of the resistance unit.The stats and options in the computer unit are top notch. The only gripe I have here is at full extension it sometimes loses the signal of my heart monitor (new Polar unit) - I'm 6' 3" - I tested the Polar watch and it, too, tends to lose the signal at that range so I suppose it's to be expected. I just wear the watch on my wrist to keep track of my actual heart rate (which is normally pretty close on the rower computer anyway) and use the computer stats for tracking distance, speed etc...The Unit is very solid and sturdy and can give anyone a good workout. Yes, it's a tad on the expensive side but in my opinion it's worth it if you're going to use it often as I do.

I tried every rower I could find before buying one, and the Lifecore R100 is by far the best of the bunch. I only gave it 4 stars because there are little things that I think can and need to be improved, such as the screen tends to lower itself gradually when working out, to the point where you need to let go of the handle bar and raise it, yea I am sure it just needs to be tightened up, but on a brand new machine, one should not have to do anything. I also think they could have made a longer, and beefier cord to plug this thing in, the little short cord is just not long enough.The thing glides smooth, rows nice, and is a good rower. It goes together very easy, took me maybe 5 min to put together. I also spoke to the owner of Lifecore when researching these things, and the guy really knows a lot about rowing machines, and you can tell that he spent a lot of time refining this machine, and he cares about his product. Bottom line, good product, and this is defiantly on the top end of rowing machines.

I debated whether to buy a Concept 2 or the Lifecore R100. I made a terrible mistake and bought the Lifecore. First of all it arrived out of the box broken (although we did not appreciate this at first, being novices). The round portion of the rower enclosing the flywheel was in the box in two pieces, although the manual indicated it should have been preassembled. By the way the wrong manual was included. So we put it together by looking at the pictures as best we could. The result was horrible. The left round plastic side would not stay securely attached to the right side and just drooped down, securely attached with only one of the screws. We assumed we were just missing three of the phillips and so purchased some similar sized screws at Lowe's.This did not work, as the screws were already inside the grooves, something we just didn't notice. At this point we took the whole flywheel case back apart to figure out the problem. The round plastic cover encasing the flywheel is secured via three (cheap) small internal plastic arms.Two of these were broken in two, which is not something we could repair and after paying the hefty price for this product we decided to return it to Amazon. Fortunately Amazon's return policy is excellent and we do not blame them for the quality and condition of the Lifecore 100 Rower. BUYER BEWARE - buy the Concept 2. As another reviewer noted, it's the standard for a reason!

I am writing this review because I have never seen this problem mentioned. I purchased an R100 in 2006 and have used it regularly but no more than 2 or 3 times a week for a half hour or less per use (I'm a 6 ft 180 lb male and am the only user). The same problem has happened 3 times, namely, the bearings in the clutch have worn out. This causes the pulley to jerk out suddenly and severely about halfway through the pull, to the point that the machine is unusable. The first time this happened, about two years after purchase, the machine was still under warranty, and a repair service fixed it. The same thing happened again at the end of 2011, the repair service told me what part to order and they installed it. The same thing has now happened again (at the end of 2014). The repair service said they don't know if they can find the part anymore. I have otherwise been very satisfied with the rower for the reasons mentioned in many other reviews. However, this clutch bearing problem has happened way too frequently given what I consider to be fairly light use of the rower.