The Concept2 RowErg rowing machine is built to last a lifetime. In order to keep your RowErg running in top shape, below are some cleaning tips for cleaning your Concept2 RowErg that you should perform at least once a week, and every 50 and 250 hours of use (or approx every 3 and 6 months).
Note: If you are looking for replacement parts check out Concept2’s website for parts
Every workout or once a week
Things you’ll need:
- Cloth
- Water (plain or soapy)
1. With a slightly damp cloth wipe right around the flywheel mesh cage as dust can sit on it and get into the flywheel. This can limit the amount of air going in and decrease the resistance of your machine.
2. Then with your slightly damp cloth, wipe down the top of the mono rail (the stainless steel track the seat slides along) moving the seat backwards until it is completely clean.
3. Take a look at your seat rollers and inspect if they are clean. If not, push your cloth against the roller and slide the seat backward with the cloth pushed against the roller in order to clean them. Repeat this process also on the other side of the seat moving forward to clean the second roller.
4. You will really know if your monorail and seat rollers are dirty as you will notice the increase in noise when the seat moves along the monorail and it will also not be as smooth but rather the seat will feel rocky or bumpy as it slides back and forth.
Every 50 hours | 3 months
Things you’ll need:
- Cloth
- Water (plain or soapy)
- Chain Oil (3 in 1 oil)
1. Wipe down your rower completely
With a dry cloth wipe down the monitor including the buttons. Apply water or soapy water to your cloth so it is damp. Wipe down the rest of the rower along with the handle, seat, footrests, buckles and straps. This is also great time to make sure that the foot rest screws are not loose whilst cleaning your concept2 RowErg rowing machine.
2. Clean and oil the chain
1. Check that the handle swivel moves freely where the handle connects to the chain.
2. Get assistance from a friend to help you pull the handle the whole way out. Or use something like a kettlebell to loop the handle through to keep the chain fully extended out.
3. Grab a dry rag and give the chain a quick wipe to remove any dust or old grease.
4. Put some chain or 3 in 1 oil on a clean rag (make sure to not put too much oil on the cloth as you don’t want to soak the chain in oil)
5. Give it a light oil by sliding the chain through the lightly oiled cloth.
6. Check the chain to make sure that there are no locked/kinked links in the chain. If there are, apply more oil to the chain lock and with a bit of tension, see if you can get it loose. If not you may want to look at replacing your chain.
7. Return handle to retracted position and lightly row for half a minute or so to distribute the oil across the chain and to the pulley’s underneath the rower.
3. Check the front leg bolts are secure
- Check the bolts securing the legs are tight using the star screwdriver provided with your Concept2 RowErg Rowing Machine.
- Check all 8 bolts on the front leg are screwed tight. This includes 2 bolts on each side at the top of the front leg and 4 bolts at the base where it connects to the foot.
- Check the 4 back leg screws
4. Check Monitor Arm
Check Monitor arm bolts are secure and tighten if necessary.
Every 250 hours | 6 months
Things you’ll need:
- Cloth
- Water (plain or soapy)
- Vacuum cleaner
- Phillips screwdriver
- 9/16 Spanner
Cleaning the flywheel
Cleaning your Concept2 RowErg flywheel and keeping it clean will ensure your machine keeps good resistance as dust buildup in the flywheel will limit the amount of airflow and decrease the resistance of each stroke you make when rowing.
You can check your damper / resistance settings on your PM5 monitor by selecting “More Options” > Display Drag Factor
The acceptable range is around 90 for damper setting 1 and 210 for damper setting 10.
Set the damper setting to 1 and move the handle as if you were rowing to check the drag factor. Then set damper to setting 10 and repeat to check your RowErg’s drag factor.
Steps for cleaning your Concept2 RowErg flywheel:
1. Loosen the 4 flywheel housing bolts until they are about half way out
2. Loosen the flywheel mesh cage screw and slide it up, then remove the flywheel mesh cage
3. Vacuum the flywheel mesh cage and then wipe it down with a damp cloth
4. Remove face plate from flywheel by fully unscrewing the flywheel housing bolts (make sure you do not lose the nuts for the flywheel bolts).
5. Carefully vacuum the flywheel
6. Dampen your cloth and carefully clean each flywheel blade
7. Wipe the flywheel cover with your damp cloth
8. Put the flywheel cover back on and tighten bolts half way
9. Feed the flywheel mesh cage back through the flywheel
10. Tighten the flywheel mesh cage screw
11. Re-tighten flywheel screws (make sure you do not over tighten them)
Click here to download the visual picture guide for cleaning your flywheel from Concept2
Conclusion
As you can see cleaning your Concept2 RowErg doesn’t need to be a difficult or time consuming task and keeping it running in top shape is a fairly easy process and with this guide ‘cleaning your Concept2 RowErg’ you will have everything you need to achieve this. I hope you found this guide useful and remember to schedule your next cleaning and maintenance of your Concept2 RowErg rowing machine.