New RowErg Concerns

[Ombrax]

The seat doesn’t roll and return to the front, not that it bothers me.

This isn't a huge deal, but if you have a level you can check - the flywheel end of the rail should be a teeny bit lower than the "back" end, which of course is why in a perfect world it settles at the front. In either direction it shouldn't take much force at all to push the seat along. (as you found out, they're easy enough to replace, but generally they last a long, long time)

Both on the Model E at the gym at work and on my Model C at home I wipe down the rail before every use (using window cleaner and paper towels at home and the antibiotic hand wipes at the gym) and if the rollers are dirty press the towel or wipe against the roller and move the seat back a forth a bit to clean it off. A few months ago I replaced the rollers in the gym erg because they had somehow gotten some bits of metal embedded in the plastic. (the machine shop isn't far from the gym, and somehow someone must have tracked some bits of metal shavings in)

Have fun!

[ArjenL]

2. The seat doesn’t roll and return to the front, not that it bothers me. There’s also much less seat wobble and just a little lateral play, which feels normal.

The seat on mine also didn't roll to the front by itself when it was brand new. After a couple of months of use everything is broken in nicely and the seat moves smoothly from back to front on its own.

Arjen

[dabatey]

I've found with dirt on the seat rollers you either need to accept a few bumps for a bit whilst it builds up, or alternatively wipe down the slide and check/clean the rollers for black bits before every row.

I now keep a roll of kit-chen towel and a bottle of spray beside the machine permanently and clean every time. Only takes a few seconds, but took me a while to build the habit and not forget. I find nothing worse than starting a row and get that little bump every stroke that a bit of dirt can give.

[WayHand]

I changed the bearings in the ends of the rollers to fully sealed bearings that are used on bicycles. Think I had got some sweat or debris in the originals after about 2m metres. However, on refitting I found the seat ran smoother by not fully tightening the nuts. It’s a while ago but I seem to remember that tightening too much gave some misalignment. Just a thought.

[stevegaspars]

First, the PM5. I’ve figured out that I have hardware version 906, which works with the 215 software branch. I also have the USB-B connection which seems very antiquated!

As far as I know, that is the latest HW version. No USB-C version has been released yet.

I'm pretty sure there are 2 HW versions after this. The 215 branch is for v3 PM5's, 260 for v5 and 457 for the v6?. Maybe Carl knows what happened to the v4 HW revision.