JLL® R200 Luxury Home Rowing Machine, 2025 Model Rowing Machine Fitness Cardio Workout with Adjustable Resistance, Advanced Driving Belt System, 12-Month Warranty, Black and Silver Colour

I want this to be a very helpful review so bear with me while I set the background. I'm 65. It's years since I set foot in a gym and I have no experience of other machines in decades. I am 5'9 and was 12 st. Always 12st - for years. It didn't matter what I ate much to the chagrin of other people trying to cut the calories. I would have said I was fit and most of my friends would have agreed with me. They'd have called me slim. I was pretty damned complacent. Until I checked my own blood pressure in a machine at the surgery. At which point I had to hit the alarm button. The doctor put me on the lowest dose of blood pressure tablet but I wanted to not just rely on medication. I'd used a rowing machine a long time ago and I was sure it was the most complete exercise machine. So I bought the JLL after seeing a fitness website make it their "surprising recommendation". At this price I could try it out and not worrry about the outlay.Assembly is pretty easy if you take your time and one person can do it just about. Packaging was excellent and the components felt heavy and well-engineered. None of those not-quite-properly-threaded holes or bolts that didn't quite turn freely. You know the Chinese junk I'm talking about. This felt solid and well-made.I found it hard work to start with, I was tired after 1/2 a kilometre on no4 resistance and I had to overcome discouragement. I'm 65 remember. After 4 months I'm doing 4 kilometres neraly every day at maximum resistance and I could do more if I wanted to. My blood pressure is down to normal, although obviously the meds have played their part. Here's the thing, though. I've lost 10lb even though that wasn't an objective. Where's it gone from? That stomach that I was a little bit in denial about. My trousers are loose on my waist! My biceps and forearms are like iron. Ditto my leg muscles. If you are not using the machine as a surrogate for real rowing - you know, with water involved! - then this machine WILL get you fit - and without the impact injuries you can get from jogging. I haven't felt fitter in twenty years. What I took to be the inevitable pains of aging have gone. At £166 this can be a life and health-changing purchase. So what's not like?Well. rowing's boring. So do what I've done. Stick a TV nearby and plough through a boxed set! Keep your eys of those dials. My sessions are taking half an hour and I do it nearly every day (say 11 days in every 14). So it takes time. You don't have to do as much as that, though, and if you're younger you could try a higher pace than my 22-23 strokes/min to shorten the time. It's darned satisfying - and motivating - to see 180-200 calories on the read out day after day, even if the readings are as inaccurate as everyone says. So my strong advice is to use the readouts just for comparison purposes day on day. Feel your body, That's the only readout you really need. The only truly negative thing I have to say is that my bum aches after a while! That seat could be more padded. Get a cushion!So there you are. A man his 60s can use one of these - but for God's sake build up from a low base of short sessions at lower resistance. You will lose weight - you can't help it, believe me! You blood pressure will fall. You will feel better about yourself. Your girlfriend/wife will like the improvement to your body. You will improve your life expectancy. Just take it steady to start with. Getting fit is a marathon not a sprint.I'm not saying other machines won't do just as well. but this one feels like a bargain to me. It's changing my life. Really. If you're thinking about it - just do it. And please - get your blood pressure checked out. Don't taek it all for granted as I did.Twleve Month Update: After nearly twelve months my enthusiasm for this machine is undimmed and I can't believe much fitter I feel. However, just before the warranty ran out there was a failure in the main base unit. The rowing action started to produce a grinding sound and the tension fluctuated. At their request I sent JLL a video clip. They sent me a whole new machine so I could replace the base unit. At my request they also allowed me to replace the seat unit. A bolt had worked its way out its seat, although it made no difference to the its operation. I simply packed up the dodgy bits and they arranged for the box to be colllected. So the warranty was fulfilled politely and efficiently in less than a week. Should you be worried about this failure? My own view is that if you have to buy one every year it's probably still an decent deal. You should bear in mind that my machine had about 750 "miles" and thousands of strokes on the clock by the time it failed. That's pretty intensive use and at full tension. Let's be honest with ourselves: many of you will soon get fed up and others will use it spasmodically. I maintain this is still an ideal machine that doesn't involve you in huge investment in order to get yourself fit. And the warranty is taken seriously by JLL.UPDATE: May 2023. Today the recoil unit failed again. So it's time for the last rites. The first recoil unit (is that what it is called?) failed in less than 12 months. The second one lasted 5 years. That points to a little bit of hit and miss with quality control. The seat unit has also been fine since it was replaced, indicating again that the first one was substandard. I need a new machine and, dammit, the websites are still recommending this one as the best buy for amateur use. It's a darned sight dearer - over £100 dearer - but still looks like good value. I note that competitor machines also have various componenet failure issues. What to do? Watch this space....

Been using for a month and for a budget rowing machine it’s adequate , and is a shorter length to accommodate than some.I am 5’8” female , 62 years of age and purchased to try to obtain overall workout on a machine which doesn’t play havoc with my dodgy knees!I had wrangled with the decision whether to buy this one or the much more expensive Concept 2 of which I have experience using at the gym as it had very good reviews.To be honest I couldn’t justify spending that much for the concept one, plus , it was too big for my box room. I decided any exercise is better than none and the JLT one is adequate for my needs.I use 5 x per week and it gives me that kick start energy-wise in the mornings before work.I do find it a little low to the ground which is an effort getting up and down to it .It’s sturdy enough though and was easy enough assembling it myself .I only awarded it 1* for the ease of folding as it folds right in the area where the wire which is very flimsy, connects to the screen readout . I think it could very easily damage the wire and render the screen useless in no time. In that respect the design hasn’t been thought through. Other than that is ok.

Had the rower for just a few days but already very impressed with it. It's a very sturdy piece of kit. Easy to assemble out of the box - says two people required but apart from a slight struggle to extract it from the box (which I didn't want to damage in case I needed to return it), I managed to put it together myself in 25 minutes with the included tools.The rower has a very smooth action and is quiet enough to exercise whilst watching the TV, albeit with the sound turned up a tad (much quieter than the air rower at the gym).The tension settings are perfectly adequate for a good range of abilities, though if you are a serious rower or extreme fitness fanatic the highest setting might not cut it for you. The lower 4 or 5 settings are also a little weak but useful if you haven't done any serious exercise in a while and want to start off gently.The seat is comfortable at first but can make your btm ache after a little while so I just put a small memory foam pad on it and it's fine. I'm 5' 10 1/2" and there is plenty of travel on the seat for me. I've read some people saying that the foot pedals are too big and their feet fall out - this can be remedied by threading the pedal straps through the lower slots in the pedals (they are in the higher slots out of the box).The display takes a bit of mastering as the instructions are a little vague but with a bit of trial and error you can soon work it out. I'm not sure how accurate the calorie counter or distance measure are but I'll only use them for comparison from session to session anyway.To sum up: for the price this is a really solid machine and I expect it to go the distance. If you're serious about your rowing you'll probably want something a bit higher up the league but if you're looking for a rower for general fitness purposes at beginner/intermediate level, buy with confidence.