Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I looked at a lot of products, even explored the wait listed rowers especially Concept2 at $950. Their factory tells me to expect a late March order window, and that estimate already retreated once. Some people on the local Craigslist are offering those machines "NIB" for $1150-1200, cash. Anyway, I was surprised by the number of "rower" machines are on the market. All price ranges. But looking more closely it seems that many of the search hits, and price point options, are basically knock-offs. I never rowed before but some research effort tells me that rowing is good for various muscle groups, low impact, and engages cardio pretty well. Water, air, magnetic and hydraulic. OK. This product looks good, and I need to shed some quarantine pounds. The box it came in was pretty big, a two person lift for most. 50x25x10 inches and around 70#, awkward, no handles. I missed the UPS delivery, so I don't know if one person dropped it off. I managed this one end over end up a flight of stairs by myself. I'm 6'2". Did not have to lift the entire weight once. The box has instructions on how to remove the machine. You open the top, indicated by arrows. Move all the flaps outward, invert the box to drop the contents out when you lift away the cardboard shell. Inverting the box was a little awkward I think. But it worked as described for me. The contents are tightly corralled with Styrofoam sections, all wrapped tight with plastic, so it drops out by weight pretty smoothly in one big piece. Assembly I gave 5 stars for "ease." That is all relative to me. See pics, the assembly is well-organized, so "easy." If you are not used to bolts and wrenches you might need help. But the instructions and hardware laid out in shrink wrap are well-organized. Cutting the pieces out of the plastic is easier than cutting those hard clamshell packs so common in retail. These parts are shrink wrapped with something more soft, which requires much less pressure to slice with a pocket knife. The assembly instructions are OK, the pics are somewhat tiny, but the text is clear and thoughtfully bold in reference to part numbers. I took my time, might have took 1 hour. I applied blue thread locker to bolt threads, except the hinge bolt at the front of the seat bar, since it occurred to me that I might want to remove that bolt to break the machine into 2 parts. The front foot, one side gave me a little trouble, the bolt wouldn't thread easily into the receiving capture nut welded inside the foot piece. Had to test repeatedly to avoid cross-threading that bolt into the nut. Finally, I concluded that the nut had some of the paint from the frame inside the thread area, and I could try to push with increased torque to drive it through the paint dribble that shouldn't be there. In hindsight, I should have reamed that nut out with a small wire brush/tool to remove the excess paint applied at the factory. The hardware packs include tools which I used for assembly. Nothing extra was used, except Loctite threadlocker. In my opinion, some people might not be able apply enough torque on the fasteners with the provided tools. The "spanner" wrench can hurt your hand maybe before you have pushed hard enough to properly secure the footpad bolts. I recommend using a piece of cloth in your hand as extra cushion when assembling/pushing on those bolts. There is a point, when pushing with a thin metal wrench, and judging how hard can you push, when the metal might just fail, either the bolt head or the wrench itself. If the bolts are not properly tight, when using the machine things will start to rattle and move after awhile, or sooner. I am familiar with bolts and such, and feel that I was able to wrench everything just about right. However, I think that the tools provided might hurt some users' hands before things are tight enough. The Phillips tool, used on the rear stop for the seat, has just enough "handle" purchase for those 2 screws if you have a strong hand. If you are inexperienced with tools, be aware that you might not get everything as tight as it should be, when using the tools provided. I looked inside the front case when I removed the electronic piece to install batteries. Everything looked good in there. The instructions refer to attaching wires but it seems that some units are now shipping with the wiring already complete. There were no connections necessary in my case. There was a velcro wrap around the battery holder, be careful fishing that back through if it slips apart from things, as mine did. It might snag on the way back under the battery holder. Be especially careful around the electronic part, it is a circuit board so don't want to press too hard on any particular component or wire. Once it was assembled, I tested the action. Seems solid. Will update later as new info arises. UPDATE_2/13/2021: 1- The seat wobbled just a little while gliding along the rail, but this was easily corrected. The roller that rides beneath the rail has an adjustment bolt on each side and one side needed just a wee bit of tightening. 2- If you need to fold the machine for storage (I do) it can be a little tricky. There are 2 parts that must be installed for use, and removed to fold. A straight pin that passes right through the rail from one side to the other, and a knob-handled bolt that screws down from the top. You have to lift the rail with one hand to get the pin holes to line up, and then pass the pin through. Sometimes it is hard to get the pin through the far side. The bolt then needs to be screwed in, and you need to be careful and avoid cross-threading. Lift up on the rail with one hand to get things to line up properly. I added some pics. 2/17/2021 When the rail is folded up, there is no lock or stop to keep it in place. And it seems easy to send it falling towards the floor. So I tied a length of paracord to the front foot, and made a loop on the other end that is just the right length to reach the rear foot when it is in upright position. I have not had the rail fall to the floor but it is quite heavy and would at least make a loud noise if not hurt somebody etc. 4/17/2021 Took me long enough, but I finally noticed that the locking pin serves to hold the frame in the upright (folded) position without need for my cord solution. After you move the frame rail into the upright position, just slide the pin through the holes behind it works as designed.