LifeCORE Fitness R100 Commercial Rowing Machine

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've had it since June 2017. It worked great until last week. Now it sometimes turns on, sometimes doesn't. It's plugged in and switched to the on position, but the screen remains dark. I'm getting batteries to see if it's hopefully just an issue with the power cord...UPDATE: The power cord stopped working, but the machine is fine. I purchased a warranty on this, but apparently neither that warranty, nor the manufacturer's warranty covers the replacement of the power cord. Hmm. Not thrilled with LifeCore, the company. Still, the machine itself is great.

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 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 have rowed for many years now and have been able to try many different rowers. This is one of the most well built and smooth rowing rowers on the market today. It is a professional level piece of gym hardware that will last most home users a lifetime.Hits:1. Smooth operation.2. Directionally adjustable fan that actually blows air on you.3. Relatively maintenance free. All you really need to do is wipe it down.4. Easy to read display with a good number of programs.5. Included heart rate monitor.6. Solid piece of equipment. Will stay put while rowing.Misses:1. A more interactive display would have been nice. I mounted a tablet to mine in order to virtually row anywhere in the world.2. Heart rate monitor can misread your heart rate at times. I still have the batteries in mine that came with it, so who knows how long they've been there. Changing them out will hopefully fix the issue. Heart rate monitor will also only work with the rower, it will not connect to a smart device.3. Wish the seat was a bit more contoured and padded, but it is a great seat compared to other rowers. This is also easily fixable by purchasing a gel seat cushion, or the like to suit your particular needs.

When I bought the R100 rower, it was a close decision between this one and of course, the Concept 2. I decided to go with the lifecore because it seemed better built, easily foldable and less expensive.I was pleased to see how easy it was to assemble, especially with the screws already in the right spots. Good idea.But as for people, it seems not all rowers are good with numbers. There are 2 types of stats you need to know for any training: current and average.Unfortunately, this rower doesnt provide any reliable stats for CURRENT effort.VI. TIME/500M: Is the measurement of speed generally known as the "split time" or the amount of time in minutes and seconds required to travel 500 meters at the current pace.VII. WATTS: Displays the estimated watts per stroke during a workout.The Time/500 is supposed to be at the current pace, but its not. Its the average pace through the workout. I did a quick test. I did the first 60sec slowly and did 150m, and then did the next 60 sec faster to do 200m. The pace showed during the first half was 3:20 and in the second half, it never went under 2:50. But to do 200m in 60sec, i had to reach a speed faster than 2:30/500m.I like the rower, but not having any indication of my current level of effort is really annoying.The watts arent useful either. Even when rowing at a regular pace, the numbers are changing from 70 to 200.So if you started to row at 3:00/500m but you now want to row at 2:00/500m, good luck! You can row faster and see the 3:00 pace slowly down, but there is no way to know if you are rowing at 2:00 or 2:30.The display is nice with the dual colors, but its a "static" display. You cant switch between displays like on a Concept2 monitor.So if you want to row for fun you might like this rower, but if you like to understand your effort and improve, this might not be for you.

Very good quality product, I am satisfied it. However, I believe that for the amount of money I payed for it, the vendor should have included a wireless heart rate transmitter!

Very quiet machine and easy to use!