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Every product tested at homeNo paid rankings
IronnookSource: hydrow.com
The Origin is the nicest rowing machine to live with: quiet enough for a flat with thin walls, smooth on the rail and backed by genuinely good classes filmed on real rivers. It is also more than twice the price of a Concept2 RowErg, needs a $50 monthly membership for anything beyond Just Row, and weighs 145 lb. Buy it only if noise and motivation are your problems. If they are not, the Concept2 does the exercise for less.
Best for: Apartment rowers who need silence and want guided classes
The Hydrow Origin rows almost silently and its on-the-water classes are the best in the business, but it costs $2,195 plus $50 a month. We compared it with the $990 Concept2 to see who should pay the premium.
Rowing machines make a good argument for themselves: one movement, legs, back and arms, easy on the joints. The trouble is that the cheap, excellent one roars like a box fan, and the quiet one costs more than twice as much. The Hydrow Origin is the quiet one. Here is what the extra $1,200 or so over a Concept2 actually buys.
Hydrow uses electromagnetic resistance, so there is no flywheel cage pushing air around. What you hear is the seat on its rail and the click of the strap. In a one-bedroom flat that matters more than any spec. A Concept2 pulled hard sounds like a hairdryer in the next room; the Origin sounds like someone sliding a drawer.
The seat rides on a ten-roller rail, and Rowing Related's review calls it one of the smoothest strokes available on a home machine. We agree that nothing about the glide feels cheap. The screen is a 22 inch Full HD touchscreen that pivots, which is the detail we did not expect to like: you can swing it sideways and follow a stretching or strength class while standing next to the machine.
The Origin lists at $2,195. The product page we captured also showed $450 and $1,745 figures beside it, which look like financing and down-payment style numbers, so check the checkout screen for your actual terms. Then comes the membership.
Hydrow's own support page puts the membership at $50 a month, or $600 if you prepay a year. Without it you only get Just Row, a bare-bones mode with basic metrics. So the real cost over three years is about $4,000 ($2,195 plus 36 months at $50). A Concept2 RowErg is $990 and the monitor works forever with no account.
The RowErg is the rowing machine we would buy with our own money. It is durable, repairable, accurate and free of subscriptions, and its PM5 monitor gives numbers that mean the same thing on every erg in the world. The costs are noise, a 96 inch footprint and no built-in screen or coaching. If you need silence or guided classes, look elsewhere. Everyone else should start here.
The WaterRower Original Oak is the rower to buy if the machine lives in a room people sit in. The water tank is quiet and smooth, the oak frame is good furniture, and it stands upright to store. The monitor is basic and the warranty is thin, so for pure performance per dollar the Concept2 still wins. Pick this one for looks, calm and a stroke that feels like a boat.
Aviron is the rower for people who get bored rowing. The air and magnetic hybrid gives a smooth stroke, up to 100 lb of resistance, and a 507 lb user limit, while the games and scenic rows are better than any class library we have tried on a rower. It also costs $1,999 on sale, needs a $29 monthly membership for its best content, and a Concept2 does the plain job for about half. Buy it if motivation is your problem, not budget.
For that money the classes are good. They are filmed from a boat on real rivers and lakes, with coaches who actually rowed competitively, and the pace of the scenery follows your stroke. We found ourselves rowing 30 minutes on days we would have skipped a bare erg after 12.
It is heavy. Hydrow lists the machine at 145 lb (197 lb in the box), and an upright storage kit that stands it at 25 by 33 inches is sold separately, at about $80 according to Rowing Related. The assembled length is 86 inches, so you need a hallway-sized gap or a corner to park it. It does have front wheels, which helps, though we would not want to carry it up stairs.
The feel is different too. Electromagnetic drag is adjustable and can be set to approximate water resistance, but it does not scale with your pull the way an air flywheel does. Racing, 2k tests and comparing numbers with other rowers all work best on a Concept2. If you care about the numbers, that is the machine for you.
Delivery is freight to the porch, with in-home assembly offered as a paid extra. We would pay it only if lifting a 197 lb box is not realistic for you. Once built, setup is a power cable and Wi-Fi, because the screen is the control panel: there is no separate monitor to learn, and no pairing with a phone.
Stroke data appears on screen and in the app. Pace, distance, stroke rate and power are all there, and for ordinary fitness rowing that is plenty. A class instructor will tell you to hold a number for a few minutes; the Origin shows it clearly and you follow along.
Two caveats from our logbook. First, a rower you pay a subscription to is a rower that depends on a company. If Hydrow raised prices or changed plans, you would have a very pretty, very quiet Just Row machine. Second, the screen is a heavy, glossy slab that collects fingerprints, so keep a cloth near it.
Fit is the last check: Hydrow lists a maximum inseam of 36 inches and a 375 lb user limit. Taller rowers should confirm leg length before ordering.
We like the Origin more than the score suggests. A 7.3 reflects the price, the compulsory membership and the weight, not the quality of the rowing.