Hydrow Wave Rowing Machine

There is absolutely nothing negative I can say about my new rowing machine! I've now had it for 2 months. I use it as a supplement to my exercise routine, as I prefer to be outdoors but weather and time don't always allow for that. BUY THIS MACHINE! The instructors and rowing programs are cannot be beat. The fluidity of the seat and "oars" are seamless. I assembled it quickly and easily by myself. A bit of advice; do the intro to rowing sessions, then stick with it. If it feels too easy, you are doing something wrong. Get a coaching session that they offer. GAME CHANGER!! These workouts are full body and can be as easy or brutal as you want once you learn how to do it properly. Again, BUY THIS MACHINE!

Assembly was relatively simple if you first watch the assembly video. The seat made a scraping sound while in motion but Hydrow sent me a new seat that corrected the problem. Other than that, the rower is quiet and smooth and the extensive videos well done and very motivating to get me to frequently row. When ordering, I was hesitant about whether the screen would be large enough for an immersive experience versus the more expensive rower but in using it I am very pleased with the smaller screen size.

The computer program is poorly planned, the support service is woefully inept, and the annual subscription cost is a third of the purchase price. Frankly the delivery is late and if you do not open and assemble quickly the return limit easily expires. If you do not pay the the very expensive subscription fee you can not find out any of the benefits of the subscription and the machine is practably worthless, for the touch screen, speakers, and computer program does not work. That makes the ease of use, functionality, and quality of program un decipherable. The value for the money is worthless. Never should have bought this machine in the first place. You can row on the machine but without subscribing for $500.00 per year the computer program will not work. Gave it one star because you have to. They should have black or negative stars for this machine. So basically the machine is at best a money pit.

I never thought I could fit a high quality rowing machine in my apartment, but the Hydrow Wave is my answer! It has a sleek compact design plus a large screen for guided workouts with absolutely gorgeous scenery. It was delivered right to my door and was super easy to assemble. Rowing on the Wave is top notch with a quiet, smooth pull and comfortable grip. Plus, I can store it upright whenever I’m not using it. Although you can use the machine without it, the subscription opens up so many workout possibilities, from rowing in beautiful destinations around the world to finding your yoga flow. This is the perfect at-home alternative to a gym membership and much more convenient!

My family and I couldn’t be happier with the Hydrow Wave! The smooth rowing experience is a perfect full-body workout without stressing my joints – the quality of workout I can get in 20 minutes beats any home-gym equipment we have tried. The instructors are motivating and knowledgeable. With limited real-world rowing experience, I got a lot out the intro class, it is a great way to get the right technique and maximize the quality of my workout. The rowing locations are also stunning – getting to row through exotic locations from our basement makes the experience that much more engaging. With limited space in our home, the Wave tucks neatly in the corner with the mounting kit. Other pieces of exercise equipment we have tried don’t fold or are a pain to move. Within a few seconds we can pull down the Wave and get going – very helpful for tight areas. The Hydrow Wave has become the favorite piece of gym equipment in our home, very highly recommended!

I've been debating buying a rower for a long time and finally pulled the trigger on the Hydrow Wave after looking at many alternatives. My home gym is pretty full already, so I chose the Wave over the Hydrow to save space. It came really well packaged, with simple to follow instructions (both video and a paper guide). Took me about 20 min to assemble then another 5 or 10 to get my profile set up, etc. The outdoor rowing content is great - I've never been on the water so it's all pretty novel. The seat and pulleys are quiet and smooth. It's so much quieter and smoother than the Concept2 rowers I've tried at CrossFit gyms. Highly recommend - a really sturdy, quality piece of equipment with great content.

I ordered this a little over a month ago, and my wife and I love it! We've both been looking for a guided workout routine that would keep us motivated to stick with it. This has done the trick for us, because we're both a month in and actively look for reasons to do it. I have desk job where I'm on the computer all day doing IT support, and the stress and posture aggravate my lower back and cause my shoulders to tense up. This has helped alleviate that tension and pain. I'm starting to notice my gut getting a little more tone as well which is a plus. For the Mrs, she's looking to tone her stomach as well, but she's also looking to stay heart healthy, and so far it is helping. Although we could use this strictly as a rower, we find the subscription too be worth it since it's cheaper and more convenient than both of us going to a gym, and more effective than self guiding through a workout simply listening to music. One subscription works for both of us, so that's a plus. I particularly Nick and Aquil as instructors. They make the workouts fun.

To be fair, I will start here - the machine itself is a quality rowing machine, for sure. Quality craftsmanship, well engineered, very quiet and smooth. That being said, it is overpriced - I would value the machine at $1K - $1200 or so. It is somewhat manageable when it comes to storage as standing it upright makes it fairly feasible to place in a corner of a room… but it still has a footprint, this isn't going to fold up neatly under your bed or be completely unnoticeable to company in the living room, mind you. I was not impressed with their stow away kit and returned it, it actually felt like the machine was taking up more space than without it. Where this product really falls flat though is with the tech and the subscription service. The tech aspect… the screen is ok, it doesn't knock my socks off, the resolution for this day and age is ok but rather underwhelming. The speakers in the unit are less than impressive, they sound very tinny and lack depth. Connectivity with Apple Watch and workout tracking also sucks hard. I sometimes struggle to make a connection with the watch for BPM tracking, and it sometimes drops out during a workout. It creates Apple Fitness workouts for you, but it is a mystery when it will decide to sync the workout with Apple and sometimes takes a while for it to appear in your Fitness app. They don't make it easy to make adjustments on the fly while working out. One of the key adjustments I often make is lowering or raising the volume. You have to use a button on the side of the screen that is waaaay out in front of you during the workout, and it opens a modal window while you are raising the volume with the physical buttons which blocks the ongoing workout video and only goes away if you tap outside of it on the screen. SOOOO ANNOYING! They promote the subscription service heavily, and even try to warn you away from purchasing the machine if you are not interested in subscribing as they claim the experience is not complete without it. Let me tell you, this is a wildly overpriced and overhyped service. They claim to have a huge library of "workouts", but they aren't all rowing workouts… sorry, I don't need a menagerie of octogenarian workouts doing elementary things with 15lb weights. It's trying to be a complete fitness solution, but I don't need that and don't want that - I just want to focus on the rowing, because… I bought a freaking rowing machine. The instructors themselves are just so so. They often lack focus on the actual rowing during the workout… why am I listening to this guy go on about the challenges of parenthood? JUST SHUT UP AND ROW, MAN! I find myself now these days muting the instructors and setting my own pace, they are just there as (expensive) wallpaper while I do my workout now. Not only is the library and the instructors disappointing, but the whole concept of being able to compete and track your performance relative to others is a demoralizing sham. In each rowing workout there is an average of maybe 4K users listed who rowed previously, and you can see where you fall in the pecking order of relative performance while you row. Problem is - I row hard and fast at a sustained pitch like 39 s/m with elevated drag and I can never seem to crack the ~50% mark. I'm a pretty fit dude, and I'm rowing faster than I can imagine is physically possible while still doing legit rowing correctly, and I can never do better than average after weeks of doing this nearly every day! It's amazing I haven't quit yet. The subscription service is probably worth about half of the asking price. It is the same price as the Peloton service, which is higher quality and can be used across multiple fitness machines/devices, whereas with Hydrow it's the one machine and that's it, unless you are a rowing freak and have multiple Hydrow rowing machines. To cap it all off, I worked hard to reach my 100K meter achievement milestone for the free water bottle, but find I have to pay $12 for shipping via USPS' cheapest and slowest shipping service… geez, if I want a water bottle I guess I'll just go to the store and buy one of my choice to pat myself on the back then. Thanks for nothing.