Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm an engineer by trade and bought a second hand used model WaterRower III serial number in the 10,000 range with the SIII V2 monitor, however this review applies to all the newer WaterRower models as the mechanical parts are mostly unchanged for the new S4 model. I'm a recreational athlete and have completed a few marathons and Ironman triathlons. All the comments on other reviews are pertinent, it is a quiet machine, nice aesthetics, good feel, smooth, I like the belt action instead of the Concept 2 chain. The foot boards could use improvement for my size ~13 shoes, but it is usable. However, it has a serious design flaw that is evident after the rower ages or has high use: the water tank leaks and cracks. The hemispherical water tank seal will debond from the top and bottom tank halves, and also the top half of the tank is prone to fatigue cracking at the water fill hole and the center spindle hole. Photos attached. It will leak at the tank split when you row or prop the rower up. There's a reason they sell a tank reseal kit and a replacement tank folks! I've written to the manufacturer more than a month ago and sent them detailed photos of the cracking. I was curious to see if their S4 model has an updated tank design that has solved these issues, and they have not responded. From what I can tell there has been NO upgrade to the S4 model, so my suggestion is that if you purchase ANY WaterRower brand model please treat the tank assembly like a wear item that you will need to replace regularly. I'm not sure what 'regularly' means, it may be 10 yrs, it may be 5, it may be 1yr, likely it depends on how hard you row it and how many times you prop it on its end (bad). FYI the tank assembly currently lists for $175 on their site - add to that shipping, 1-4 hours of figuring out how to drain, disassemble, reassemble, and refill. And then, against the marketing hype, never prop your rower on end because most of the structural loads and the water weight are supported by the top tank half around the spindle seal and filler holes - if you do you will accelerate the cracking and hemispherical debonding. So... this is a classic example of a manufacturer not consumer use testing their product for sufficient cycles or enough time. I've seen another cracked example on my local Craigslist, so mine is not an isolated fault. Rating would be a 4 or above if it wasn't for that poor tank structural and sealing design. As such my rating is a 1 star. I can't recommend this product as a long term exercise investment until the tank design is improved.