Drag Factor After Cleaning

[jumpsturdy]

I am a little perplexed as I just did a very complete cleaning; vacuumed and wiped down the flywheel and still with setting at 10 the drag factor is only 179 and at 1 it is 61. What is up with that? Sitting in and open 20' by 20' room and about 100 feet above sea level.

[Carl Watts]

The cage grille round the outside of the fan is still partially blocked. It needs to go in a sink with soap and water if its a model D and scrubbed clean. The holes in it are still not clear and something is impeeding the airflow still.

[jumpsturdy]

Thanks for the reply. Will remove and wash with brush. Will post the results later.

[jumpsturdy]

After washing with soap and brush the drag factor at 10 went up to 201 and at 1 to 76. Is this within normal parameters?
Thanks

[Citroen]

After washing with soap and brush the drag factor at 10 went up to 201 and at 1 to 76. Is this within normal parameters?
Thanks

Looks about right.

[sekitori]

The cage grille round the outside of the fan is still partially blocked. It needs to go in a sink with soap and water if its a model D and scrubbed clean. The holes in it are still not clear and something is impeeding the airflow still.

The max drag factor for my eleven year old Model D has gradually been decreasing. It recently reached the high 160's but that was no problem because I usually use the rower in the 130 range. I understand the most common reason for this decrease is the accumulation of dirt inside the flywheel housing. That was not true in my case because I regularly keep it clean and the cleaning had no effect. But I was still curious as to why this was happening and I contacted C2. They said since a dirty housing wasn't the cause, it was probably due to the age of the rower. They told me that the peak drag factor can decrease over the years. They said that as long as I used the rower well below its maximum amount of drag and it was operating well, there was cause for concern.

When I clean the flywheel housing, I also clean the grille with Windex. But I have never used soap and water. Doing that was never recommended by anyone at C2 either in print or from any personal technical help I received. After looking at the post above, I washed it thoroughly with dish detergent, water, and a fairly stiff brush. The drag factor at 10 went up to 185--not bad for an eleven year old rower.

As good as the technical advice is from techs at C2 (and it's very good), people in this forum sometimes have ideas that they don't. This is one of those instances where someone came up with a better idea than anyone at C2 could. Carl, thank you for the advice. I appreciate it very much.

[sekitori]

I stated in my previous message, "They said that as long as I used the rower well below its maximum amount of drag and it was operating well, there was cause for concern."

Of course, that should have read, "They said that as long as I used the rower well below its maximum amount of drag and it was operating well, there was NO cause for concern."