FEIERDUN Foldable Hydraulic Rowing Machine for Home, Compact Adjustable Rower with 12 Resistance

Same rowing action, less money
You can spend 20 times as much and get a rowing machine that’s got a video screen and a lot of other bells and whistles, or you can buy this one and get pretty much the same exercise. Your choice. If you wanted to watch something on video while you row, you could just set this machine in front of the TV.Assembly takes about 20 minutes. They say in the product description that you can do it in 5 minutes. I think you would need a speedway pit crew to get it together that quickly. But the instructions are clear and well-illustrated, and all needed tools are included. When I first got on it and tried it out, I was astonished at how quiet it is. I’ve had a couple of these rowing machines with hydraulic cylinders in the past and they were a lot noisier. I like the fact that there is one cylinder rather than two because when I had machines that had two hydraulic cylinders it always felt like one side had more resistance than the other and you could never get it adjusted quite right. Maybe that was just my imagination, but still.Seems solidly built, and everything moves smoothly. I wanted this rowing machine because I am trying to recover from a knee injury, and rowing is often said to be a good low-impact activity to build strength. And, the adjustable resistance on this machine will allow me to crank up the difficulty slowly as I’m able to do more. I just started using it yesterday on setting number 3, and it goes up to 12. I tried it on 12 and there is a whole lot of resistance, so this machine gives you plenty of room to grow as you get stronger and develop better endurance. (7/25 Update – I’ve had the machine for about seven weeks now and I’m up to 20,000 rows total. It’s still working great and I have moved the resistance up to 8. My knee continues to get stronger.)There’s a multifunction display that tells you the number of rowing actions you’ve taken, approximate calories used, elapsed time, etc. – a nice extra that makes it unnecessary to use a separate stopwatch or count the rows yourself. The only bad thing about the calorie display is when you get off the rowing machine and eat a chocolate chip cookie, you feel like you just rowed 20 minutes for nothing.I don’t think you can beat this machine for the price. It does what it’s supposed to do and seems like it will hold up. I mentioned earlier having had other rowing machines in the past, and yes, something ultimately broke on them. In one case it was a plastic part that held the handle on, and on the other one a metal part bent. Will this machine one day suffer the same fate? I don’t know, but looking at the trouble spots of those other machines I had years ago, it doesn’t seem like this one could fail in the same way those did. It’s a simple and robust design. If you’re looking for an inexpensive and convenient way to row, I don’t think you can go wrong with this.

Great for seniors and non “gym rats”
I was completely surprised by the quality and effectiveness of this machine. I am a 76-year-old woman who feared I would find it too heavy to move around but wouldn’t give me the kind of workout I am still able to do. I was surprised on both counts. It’s easy to put together (without instructions), is adjustable enough to give a normally strong, smaller person a great workout. I don’t know how accurate the readouts are on any of these machines since there are so many variables involved with each person, but they at least give you some kind of information about your workout, even if it’s a bit of a guess. I was able to get to my workout heart rate quickly and easily. The motion is very smooth and nearly totally quiet. The only thing I would criticize is the seat: It tends to be a bit hard and, if it would have something slightly more shaped, like a bicycle seat, would be easier to stay seated on. Otherwise, a great buy!

Easy to assemble and fun to use.
This home rowing machine is perfect for my small space. I assembled it myself in no time at all. It has multiple tension levels to suit your strength. Very good value for the price.

Pretty good
This is pretty good and works well for beginners. Does not take up too much space and was relatively easy to assemble alone. Resistance is really good. The seat can definitely cause soreness but you get used to it. 7/10 would recommend.