WaterRower Club Rowing Machine
The rower your designer friend will approve of. Real water tank, ash wood frame, genuinely stunning. Stroke feel is smoother than air, tracking is less precise than Concept2.
Gym Score breakdown
Composite of build quality, durability, value, performance, and owner satisfaction. Calibrated per category.
- Buyers who want their rower to look like furniture in a living room
- Rowers who prefer the smoother feel of water resistance over air
- Tall users up to 6 foot 5 who fit the longer ash hardwood rail
- Households where quiet, wave-like resistance noise is preferred over fan whoosh
- You need PM5-level data precision for serious competitive training
- You will not maintain the water tank with chlorine tabs to prevent algae
- You want the absolute cheapest rower with the longest service life
- You have hardwood floors and worry about water sloshing during transport
About 84 inches long by 22 inches wide in use. Stores vertically at 84 inches tall by 22 inches wide, occupying about 22 by 22 inches of floor footprint. 8-foot ceiling required for vertical storage.
moderate — Plan 60 to 90 minutes. The ash frame is pre-finished and the tank ships dry, so you fill it with the provided pump after assembly. Two-person job for tipping the assembled machine upright.
A premium rower is a furniture-grade purchase that should follow your decision on strength setup, since it commits visible floor space in a living room and competes with seating for the room budget.
Strengths
- + Beautiful hand-finished wood
- + Water resistance is quiet & smooth
- + Stores vertically
Weaknesses
- − Less precise tracking than PM5
- − Water tank can grow algae without tabs
- − More expensive than Concept2
What owners actually complain about
Synthesized from owner reviews and community threads. Paraphrased, not quoted.
- Water tank grows algae within months if chlorine tabs are not added every 6 months
- Monitor is more basic than the Concept2 PM5 and does not produce comparable watts data
- Wood frame can creak with humidity swings, particularly in unheated basements
- Heavier than a Concept2 when filled with water, making moving between rooms awkward
- Price premium over Concept2 is for aesthetics, not training quality, which surprises some buyers
Who this is for
The WaterRower Club is the rower you buy when you want a rower that does not look like a piece of gym equipment. The ash hardwood frame, the visible water tank, and the vertical storage profile make it furniture-grade. It is the rower that ends up in a living room or den rather than a basement or garage, and that placement is the entire point of the price premium over a Concept2.
The buyer who fits best is someone who values aesthetics roughly as much as function and has the space to display the machine. Rowers who prefer the smoother feel of water resistance over the air-driven Concept2 are the second strong fit. Tall users up to 6 foot 5 also benefit from the longer ash rail, which accommodates longer strides than the standard Concept2 monorail.
Build quality
The frame is hand-finished ash hardwood, sealed against humidity but not waterproof. The water tank is polycarbonate with internal paddles that catch resistance as you pull. The monorail is part of the wood frame, which gives the seat travel a slightly different feel than the aluminum Concept2 rail. Owners report the seat slides smoothly but with a hint more friction than the Concept2 rollers.
The S4 monitor is mounted on an arm above the tank. It is functional but feels dated next to the Concept2 PM5. It tracks distance, time, strokes per minute, intensity, and heart rate from a connected strap. The calorie and watts numbers are calculated from stroke rate and intensity rather than measured directly, which is why competitive rowers prefer the PM5 for benchmarking.
The water tank is the most-discussed maintenance item. Owners who add chlorine tablets every 6 months report clear water indefinitely. Owners who skip this report algae blooms or cloudy water within a year. Tank capacity is about 4.5 gallons, so the machine weighs roughly 40 pounds more when filled than when dry.
Real-world use
The stroke feels different from a Concept2 in a way that is hard to describe and obvious in the first 30 seconds. The water resistance scales linearly with effort but the recovery phase feels more flowing. Rowers who have spent time on actual boats often prefer this feel; rowers who have only used Concept2s often need a few sessions to adapt.
Noise is the recurring point of comparison. The water tank produces a wave-like sound that is softer and lower-pitched than the Concept2 fan whoosh. Total decibel levels at hard strokes are similar but the WaterRower sound carries less through walls. Apartment dwellers above neighbors still report impact through the floor, but the sound itself is more tolerable.
Vertical storage is genuinely useful. The machine stands at 84 inches tall when stored and occupies about 22 by 22 inches of floor footprint. The wood frame against a wall in a living room looks intentional rather than out of place, which is exactly what the buyer is paying for.
The case against
The price premium over a Concept2 is the largest single objection. The WaterRower Club typically retails around $1,200 to $1,500, versus about $990 for a Concept2 RowErg. The mechanical performance difference does not justify this gap; the aesthetic and feel differences do, for the right buyer.
The S4 monitor is the second concern. It works fine for general fitness tracking but lacks the watts standardization that makes Concept2 splits comparable across the global rowing community. Buyers who want to benchmark themselves against published 2K times should buy a Concept2.
Maintenance is a real ongoing requirement. The chlorine tablets and the occasional tank cleaning are not optional if you want the machine to look good five years in. Owners who treat it like a fire-and-forget purchase end up with cloudy or green water and a degraded experience.
Bottom line
For the buyer who wants their rower to look like furniture and feel like rowing on water, the WaterRower Club is the only real choice. The price premium over a Concept2 is paying for aesthetics and feel, not for training performance, and that trade is right for the right buyer. Competitive rowers and data-precision users should choose the Concept2 instead. Quiet apartment users gain a small but real noise advantage with the WaterRower.
Full specs
- Resistance Type
- Water
- Frame
- Ash hardwood
- Stores
- Vertically
Common questions
Is the WaterRower quieter than a Concept2?
Yes, the water tank produces a softer wave-like sound versus the Concept2 fan whoosh. Both register similar overall decibels at hard strokes, but the WaterRower sound is lower-pitched and tends to carry less through walls. Apartment dwellers still report it is audible to downstairs neighbors at hard splits.
Do I need to add anything to the water?
Yes, the included chlorine tablets should go in every 6 months to prevent algae and bacterial growth. Owners who skip this report cloudy or green water within a year. Tap water is fine; distilled is unnecessary.
How does training data compare to Concept2?
The S4 monitor on the WaterRower is functional but less precise than the PM5. Strokes per minute, distance, and time are all tracked, but the calorie and watts calculations are derivative rather than measured. Competitive rowers prefer the Concept2 for this reason.
Can the wood frame handle a basement environment?
Owners in dehumidified basements report no issues over many years. Damp basements with humidity above 70 percent can cause the ash to creak or develop minor splits at joints. A dehumidifier addresses this completely.
How does the stroke feel compared to a Concept2?
The water resistance scales linearly with effort, similar to air, but the recovery feels smoother and more flowing. Owners describe it as the closest indoor approximation of rowing on water. Concept2 feels more mechanical; WaterRower feels more organic.