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Setting drag factor

Posted: March 10th, 2024, 7:15 pm
by donaldarrant
Hi all - I had a difficult time setting the drag factor today at the gym I go to. Despite trying every draft level,I could not get the drag factor over 80. Am I doing something wrong here? I have only been rowing for a month so it could easily be chalked up to inexperience. Thanks in advance for any help.

Re: Setting drag factor

Posted: March 11th, 2024, 6:44 am
by Citroen
Three options:
  1. Next time take a screwdriver. Open the fan cage and remove all of the dust and cruft from within there. A drag of 80 means that machine is about as fully clogged up as it's ever possible to achieve.
  2. Complain to the gym owner that they're not maintaining their machines.
  3. Change to a new gym that do actually care about safety, consistency and maintenance.

Re: Setting drag factor

Posted: March 11th, 2024, 6:46 am
by Sakly
Hi, probably the housing of the flywheel is full of dust, so no air can go through. This reduces drag to a very low value, as it is measuring the air flowing through the housing.
A proper cleaning of the housing/cage should give you back decent values from 70-210 when setting the damper from 1 to 10.

Re: Setting drag factor

Posted: March 11th, 2024, 6:17 pm
by mict450
Probably on par with the great majority of commercial gyms. Best of luck on finding one that actually performs rountine maintenance on any of their equipment.

Re: Setting drag factor

Posted: March 12th, 2024, 3:38 am
by Willy.VdW

Re: Setting drag factor

Posted: March 13th, 2024, 10:41 am
by franksmissing
Citroen wrote:
March 11th, 2024, 6:44 am
Three options:
  1. Next time take a screwdriver. Open the fan cage and remove all of the dust and cruft from within there. A drag of 80 means that machine is about as fully clogged up as it's ever possible to achieve.
  2. Complain to the gym owner that they're not maintaining their machines.
  3. Change to a new gym that do actually care about safety, consistency and maintenance.
I had the same thing and cleaning it helped)))

Re: Setting drag factor

Posted: March 14th, 2024, 4:52 am
by jamesg
If the drag on maximum aperture (10) is less than about 150 the fan blades are blocked so need cleaning. The more air the fan moves, the more power it takes from us.

I've had a filter over the air inlet for the last five years. DF range without the filter is now 90-200. With the filter, 97 at setting 10, which suits me fine, having no strength: a pull takes 0.6s according to ergdata.