Sunny Health Fitness Flip Foldable Rowing Machine for Home w Extended Slide Rail Full-Body Workout Low-Impact Optional Extra

The most important thing I can think of to say is that if, like me, you are unfamiliar with rowing machines, you may think after 5 or 10 minutes, even on the highest resistance setting, that it's not much of a workout. That is deceptive. Since I'm willing to hike 2 or 3 hours on a nice weather day, I should be willing to row for at least one hour - I have to say that the last 5 minutes is very much different than the first 5. You are using a lot more muscles than you think, and you will tingle all over when you finally stop after even half an hour. Other ratings are pretty standard - arrived in very good time, assembles easily if you take your time and don't make foolish mistakes in excitement to use it. It's very quiet so no neighbor complaints even at 4am if you rise early. I suspect some of the screeching noises other reviewers mention might be coming from the strap rubbing on the plastic guide if you don't pull in and out in a narrow (proper rowing?) range of angles. The electronic screen gadget got such poor reviews I honestly never even put the batteries in - I have a kitchen timer, I don't need LCDs to watch while rowing. If they wanted to do something really clever, they would incorporate a small generator so you could charge your cellphone while you rowed - that would be more fun. Longevity of the hardware will be a mystery for a while, but I think the manufacturer has come a long way in responding to defects and failures and if I'm unlucky with some component I think they will make it good. Compared to a $900 rowing machine I think it's a very safe investment for my health, and I should be proud if I wear one out every few years. UPDATE: After months of experience my opinion hasn't changed, well worth the price (even tho it has gone up!) Only 2 complaints - the handlebar is too narrow for me (bangs my knuckles on my knees) so I extended it with PVC pipe and bicycle handlebar foam - perfect! Second - the infamous spring clicking noise - this developed over weeks and became MUCH more noticeable as the machine warmed up (>400 pulls) each day. Contrary to the incorrect assumptions of some reviews here, the spring does NOT provide the workout resistance, it just winds the strap back up as you pull yourself forward with your feet. I opened things up - grease was dripping out of the spring box. Disassembly is tricky, but if you clean the poor grade of grease out and replace it with some good, high temp, tacky grease, the noise (and possible damage leading to spring failure?) goes away immediately. See the tip below to really make this fix work well. UPDATE 10-24 one more important trick to make this really work perfectly - when you tighten the 4 nuts that hold the front shaft to the frame - first tighten the inner one so it rests LIGHTLY against the spring box cover, not against the frame. This provides a necessary seal to keep the spring action from pumping the lube out and eventually running dry and causing the whole problem. Then tighten the outer nut on that side. You can tell if you made the inner one too tight by giving the strap a test pull, it should retract the strap completely or you have to back the inner nut off until it does. Tighten the other inner nut lightly against the FRAME, and then tighten the last outer nut. This probably is (or should be) the proper assembly process where they build them and this (and thicker grease) would keep the noise and premature spring failures from happening. Enjoy!! It's a good product and an excellent maintenance workout! Read more

I’m 54 and in good shape but wanted to work on my cardiovascular fitness. I have been wanting to purchase a rower for quite some time and almost bought the Aviron for (2400.00). I didn’t really want to spend that much money. So I took to Amazon and checked out several rowers. I came across this one at 18,000+ reviews for a really cheap price (compared to 2400). It’s a good, solid machine and my husband said it was really easy to put together. It’s not as a good as a high end machine and it’s a bit difficult to explain why. First - the foot pedals move so it’s difficult to get a good push off from the heels. It works well enough but it’s lacking in that area. The machine is quiet for the most part (seat moving makes a bit of noise). The resistance is easy to change and I can see the display just fine. My other issue is the pull…it just feels off especially if you are following a video and they want you to pull high or do bicep curls. It’s minor but enough to notice. Like I said it’s difficult to explain. I’m not doing any major rowing on it…a few times a week for 20 minutes. And if I stop using it I’m not out 2,000 bucks. I’m happy with the purchase. EDIT: I keep having pain in my legs and butt and I don’t know why. I can’t adjust the seat or pedals. Read more

I've been using this rower for a couple of months now and I like it. I'm a senior looking to get some cardio and muscular improvement without killing myself in the process. Running in the summer time Florida heat was out of the question so I tried this rowing machine. The machine itself seems well built and functions smoothly when I use it. I've had no problems with it so far. It's very quiet; the only real noise is the seat sliding back and forth. Assembly was straight forward. I suggest moving the wheel section of the machine to its final location before starting assembly. This will require an assistant since it's somewhat cumbersome. If you're a young muscular guy you can probably handle it yourself. You can bring the remaining parts to the new location in batches as you assemble the machine. Or, tip the delivery guy to carry it to its destination on his dolly. Mine came by UPS. The machine itself has a few deficiencies. The first is the control panel. It's really basic and hard to read unless you have good light. The display itself is not self illuminated. There is no stroke rate indication which I think is very important since that's what indicates your level of effort. I set the panel to the stroke counter and use a separate stop watch on my phone to keep track of the time. I could probably use the timer on the control panel but frankly it's so cumbersome to cycle through the functions and hard to read (old eyes) that it's easier to use a separate device. When battery replacement time comes it's going to be really hard to get the panel out of its hole. The manual isn't too specific but there is a tab along the bottom of the bezel which you lift up to unlatch the panel and pull it out of the recess. The problem is that there is nowhere to grip the frame of the panel to pull it forward so a tool, like a screw driver is needed to get it started moving forward so you have something to grip. The second deficiency is the folding mechanism. The 2 major parts pivot on a long bolt and are locked in the functional position by a threaded hand knob for rigidity. This hand knob is unscrewed to allow the long section to pivot up for storage. In the up position you insert a pin which prevents the long section from falling by accident. I found the alignment of the holes for this pin don't allow for easy insertion of the pin. In my case I really don't need to fold the machine but you might feel differently. I don't feel like these deficiencies are that significant on a machine at this price level. All in all these problems are minor and the basic functioning of the machine is sturdy, smooth, quiet and so far reliable. For the price I think this is a very good buy especially when you consider the price included shipping which can't be trivial. My aim was to get a reasonably good but inexpensive machine to try rowing and if I felt like I had a future with a rower I could move up later after I learned enough to make an informed purchase. So far so good. I use it on a fairly low resistance setting (3 of 8) which, for now seems like a good level. I've had no expert advice about how to exercise so my information is from on line reading. I set my exercise time by the number of strokes. I started with 50 strokes, admittedly not much but enough to see what was going to hurt the next day - my shoulders, which still limit how fast I increase my exercise time. Every few days I add some strokes until now I'm up to 250 which takes about 10+ minutes. Still not enough but I've observed a few things as I proceeded. First, heart rate doesn't increase the longer you exercise. After the first 50 strokes or so your heart has adjusted to the new level of exertion and will maintain that rate as long as you maintain the stroke rate and resistance setting. This rate (about 23 spm) is comfortable for me and my heart rate is into the "vigorous exercise" range for my age recommended by the American Heart Assoc. So my goal now it to increase the time until I get to their recommended duration. There's a little bit of technique to rowing that you can get information about from several sources on line. But the one thing that helped me a lot wasn't mentioned anywhere and that is to synchronize your breathing with the stroke. I find it much easier to breath in on the stroke and breath out on the recovery. My comfortable stroke rate is about 23 spm but when starting your breathing rate is less than that so it takes a conscious effort to sync the breath and stroke. As I start to breath harder it's easier to sync the two after about 50 strokes and then I get into a rhythm that works for me at this level of effort. If you're out of sync and try to breath in on the recovery your knees will compress your diaphragm and prevent you from getting a good breath. If you're a senior like me who has moved to a more sedentary retirement lifestyle take it easy at first and move to more strenuous levels slowly. You won't find out what you're stressing until the next morning. I still find it interesting because I'm keeping all the numbers in a spreadsheet but I'll soon need some kind of entertainment while rowing to keep boredom at bay. 6/14/19 A few months ago the foot straps gave out. The metal oblong rings kept slipping to one side and that would effectively lengthen the strap so it didn't hold my foot firmly any more. This problem came on slowly but finally became a real nuisance. I bought some straps (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ATL97U8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) from Amazon to replace the originals and they worked fine. In all other respects the machine still works fine with no problems, just clean the seat track occasionally. I'm up to 375 strokes at tension 4 and continue to work on my technique. I noticed the price of the machine is even lower than when I bought mine so I consider it an even better bargain at this price. 5/25/20 The new foot straps mentioned above allowed me to pull the straps tighter than the original Velcro straps and as a result I have broken the plastic of both the foot pads on the inside where the strap comes up from beneath. I repaired it by hot gluing a piece of strap metal to the bottom of the foot pad that spans the break. This seems to work fine so far. The metal part takes the load that caused the plastic to break. No big deal. I don't think this was a defect in the product and I'm not changing my opinion that this is a good value for a beginner machine. My mistake was using much more tension on the foot straps after I replaced the originals with a different type of strap that allowed for pulling them much tighter. Obviously I didn't need to pull them as tight as I did so this problem is on me. There have been no other problems with the machine other than replacing the battery in the control panel and cleaning the seat track occasionally. Read more