Damper settings

[Daddy-O]

Hello,

I've rowed indoors on and off for several years, but only recently discovered that others actually compete at this so I'm excited to try out the Denver Indoor Championships. Unfortunately, I only have a few weeks to prepare, so I'm cramming as best as I can in my limited time to figure out what sort of paces and distances I plan to attempt, but most likely will do the 500, 2000 and 10k.

I'm still struggling about what damper setting I should use to have my ideal race, I really can't seem to notice much difference between 7 and 10, but anything else feels like the SPM have to be too high for me. For the 500m, would it make sense to set it at 9-10 if my goal time is around 1:35? I know everyone has a different preference, but I thought maybe at least for a sprint, there might be sort of consistency to the range of damper settings.

Thanks

[Carl Watts]

The damper is used to set the Drag Factor that is on the monitor display. This is the important setting.

Depending how much dust is in the fan housing the damper position is irelavant it is adjusted to give the Drag Factor you want on the monitor.

It could be a "3" on a clean machine and a "10" on another due to the amount of dust and yet the actual Drag Factor on the monitor can be the same on both machines.

It would probably pay to clean out your Erg and it will then have a very similar damper setting to the macine at the competition to acheive the same drag Factor.

The Drag Factor of my machine for example is currently 131 with the damper at 6 and would keep it here for anything other than the 500m where it needs to go to about 165.

[Daddy-O]

Thanks, that helps and is part of the equation I was missing.

So would there be an approximate drag range that is common for the 500m in general or maybe by predicted times?

[Citroen]

So would there be an approximate drag range that is common for the 500m in general or maybe by predicted times?

Most folks shift the damper lever up by a couple of notches for the short sprints.

So if you row on 120 drag normally you'd likely go to 135-140 drag for a 500m. It's harder to get the flywheel spinning but the race is short enough that the benefits of higher drag outweigh the difficulty.

[javelot]

What would be the best damper setting for the 2K?

[Citroen]

You can set it wherever you like. There are no prescriptions.

The best setting is, of course, the one where your rowing stroke gets your best result with the least pain and exhaustion. If you're in the last weeks of training before a competition don't change it, simply find the drag factor number so you can set your race machine to the same value.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=dampe ... ompany.com gets 1,320 hits
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=dampe ... 2forum.com gets 1,380 hits
so there's plenty of opinion available.

[Ergmeister]

What would be the best damper setting for the 2K?

That's really a matter of personal preference and depends on your level of fitness, body type, and, age. The question is not so much damper setting as it is what it is the drag factor setting which is the real number relative to the damper. As Ergs age and get plugged with dust on the flywheel and cage, the drag factor will drop on the same damper setting and continues to drop over time as the erg gets more used and the air pathways become more restricted which drops the drag factor.

I am a 60 yr old heavyweight and I use 115-118 drag factor. That is my personal preference. I keep my Erg, flywheel and cage clean and that is typically a damper 3-4ish setting to maintain a 115-118 drag factor. If you are a beast, you might be happy with 180 or higher. If you are a cross fit person, then its likely damper setting 10 because that is what CrossFit advocates for performance; right or wrong. (Not here to debate that misconception) What is not widely understood is that the damper is only as a good as the machine is kept cleaned and open. The higher the number the more open the damper to allow more airflow. More air is harder to pull and a higher drag factor.

To view drag factor on the PM: On the Main Menu, select More Options. Select Display Drag Factor. Begin pulling the Erg. The PM will display the drag factor after a few seconds as a number. As you move the damper up and down, that will change. A brand new indoor rower will have a drag factor of about 90–100 at a damper setting of 1 and about 210–220 at a damper setting of 10. A plugged up Erg can be hard pressed to get 110 at damper 10. Dust in the machine is the major component of drag factor reduction when the damper is unchanged.

You should play around with varying the damper to determine which drag factor is a sustainable 2k drag factor you.

[Cyclist2]

All good discussion about DF, but my experience is to put the damper where the stroke feels good for you. It has no effect (other than how you feel) on how fast you go, the monitor factors all that in. I fall back to the bicycle analogy; you can get up the hill in any gear, but how it feels depends on the how fast or slow the pedals are going around. As discussed, most rowers like the DF around 120-130 because it feels similar to boats, but Crossfitters and others with no rowing background feel good with higher DF and all kinds of unorthodox styles. If you want a very high stroke rate, go with a lower DF - I do that to work on my form at high rates so I can go hard in the final sprints without losing techinque. If you want a "weight" workout, go with damper at 10 (and raise the back end of the erg, as I saw someone suggested). It's all about "feel".