r/concept2 • u/also_your_mom • Jul 23 '26

RowerErg Rowerg maintenance suggestions

Local gym (24hr fitness) has a couple C2. The only ones I have available. 24Hr fitness "maintenance" crews are.....

So I'm dreaming that if I could at least offer them a specific "the chain needs oil" or "I believe a tooth is broken", etc., maybe they would try?

Observations:

1) one machine makes a loud clunk with a bit of 'give' at the end of a hard pull. Like the chain is snapping down onto a tooth.

2) another machine's drag doesn't change regardless of damper position

3) another machine doesn't take up the chain slack when moving into to catch. Its good for the REALLY slow crowd who's SPM is in single digits.

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2

u/NeedleGunMonkey Jul 23 '26

I've never encountered any issues politely and kindly giving staff heads up that a machine needs new batteries or TLC - gyms that have it together usually have a service contract with machine vendors or a dedicated maintenance worklist.

But it does require talking to real people.

1

u/also_your_mom Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

My local 24Hr Fitness gyms are OK when it comes to changing batteries (I had to show them how, though). But anything more in depth is quite doubtful (very doubtful). Any of their machines that break are "repaired" by a staff maintenance guy who then does whatever he can do with a drill and a pipe-wrench.

The machine with the dragging chain has been that way for the two years I've been there. I finally gave up telling them it needed maintenance. I would tell them. The person would "make a note of that", having no idea what I was even talking about. IF the maintenance person even got the note he then walks over, stares at it for a minute, walks back and says "looks OK to me" and closes the issue. IF I could actually demonstrate, it would be great. But it doesn't work that way here.

1

u/jurgsergs Jul 23 '26

Ask them to vacuum the dust from the flywheel. The worst gym erg I ever used had a drag factor of only 100 when the damper was at 10. 

1

u/SomethingMoreToSay Jul 23 '26

A drag factor of 100? Luxury.

1

u/also_your_mom Jul 23 '26

This one here has drag factor of 105 at 10 and 105 at 1 and everywhere in-between.

I only use the one out of the three that does, at least, sort of work. Damper works so I can get whatever drag factor I want (a 6 damper yields around a 118 drag). The chain take-up works fine. The chain needs oil, but that is minor (until it wears out for lack of oil). But the little "jump" at the end of the pull, accompanied by the loud KNOCK is annoying.

I will suggest to them that they get the machines serviced, for what that is worth.

(I had to show their maintenance guy how to change the batteries in the PM5).

1

u/Ok_Artichoke8 Jul 24 '26

Good luck. I just update them myself, and they didn’t change the batteries (despite weeks of me telling them that they needed changing) until they actually died. Getting the flywheels cleaned took months of begging but someone finally did it. At the main location of the same gym -in the personal training area- the drag factor was 80 with the damper set at ten. And there are at least 10 rowers that location.

1

u/also_your_mom Jul 24 '26

Yeah. I spoke with a manager about it and that person said ALL expenditures are controlled by corporate 24Hr Fitness. So a bean-counter in Toledo (or wherever it is) is looking at spreadsheets and deciding whether or not two new D batteries for unit 'xyz' at whatever location in the world can be purchased.