SmartRow

I’ve been sitting in my rower for 8 minutes trying to connect and reconnect … and reconnect. Still no luck. The “just row” is very glitchy which should be the easiest mode to operate in.

Each new version is like a step forward and a step back. This time, the Apple Watch app cannot be “quitted”. It stays the active/dominant face of your watch even after you’re done working out.

I’ve had the app randomly lock up and the only solution is to delete the app and reinstall which wipes out my custom workouts. Given the infrequency of updates the app is a clear afterthought and makes me regret buying into the whole thing in the first place.

Software sometimes needs a hard reboot. Heart-rate tracking is implemented very lazily. When a signal is lost during training, which is always possible, the software will not attempt to retry. This makes for blind training sessions unfortunately. And I’m using a top of the line bluetooth sensor. No attention was put into the UX at all, it is just a list of lazy tables and graphs with no obvious information hierarchy.

I got the SmartRow this past Christmas and have been using it for a bit now. Overall I’m a bit disappointed in the app it’s lacking a bunch features that I feel Should just be there at this point. I see a few from a few years ago where people thought some more functionality would be coming but I think they are probably still waiting. - Calorie count seems way off compared to every other piece of exercise equipment and heart rate monitoring app I have ever used. - No way to adjust heart rate zones. How they determine them I have no idea - No way to pause a work out if you wanted to Distance does not It appear to be exported to Apple health if you do a just row. - Very little adjustments to the top display of you wanted to tweak anything. - At the end of a just row I have to “quit” and then make sure to save. I would prefer to be “done” or pause my work out and have it save it automatically. Then my workout data isn’t accidentally lost if I get distracted or click the wrong thing. At this point I feel let down and feel like the pulley coupled with the app isn’t really worth the price. I’m just about at the point where I’m going back to my old heart rate tracking app and just using the S4 monitor.

This software coupled with the SmartRow pulley modernizes the WaterRower is a no brainer to bypass the original Series 4 Performance Monitor. This modern approach on phone directly measures force dynamically, graphs it and calculates multiple indices of performance, work and totals. The software talks to multiple 3rd party programs if want. As a lone rower and a fan of numbers, Smart adds entertainment and utility. Love it. Wish I had discovered it sooner. Also the mechanical conversion- swapping the original dumb pulley for the smart one is easy if you use the Hansen video (15 minutes) - better than written instructions.

iOS app and Apple Watch app are great. However the calculation for energy(kcal) is way off. Just rowed 29:21 minutes, 4763km, avg HR 131, peak 156. However only 142kcal reported. Should be double this. I am heavy Apple fitness user with all my devices connected to. This forces me not to use this app.

Smartrow has amazing hardware and the overall experience is good. Thumbs up on connecting to apps like Kinomap or EXR. However, after the recent update the Apple Watch app struggle to send HR data to the phone app, and I could hardly use it as my heart rate monitor in the past a few days. As a result many good workouts in the app cannot be used for the lack of a HR monitor. I downloaded again the phone and watch app but the issue persisted. Hope this part can be improved.

I purchased my SmartRow unit when I saw rumors of Zwift adding rowing to their features. Although Zwift shelved actually rowing, I still am pleased with the Smartrow app. Thumbs up for the power curve overlay. I find it useful for improving stroke consistency. Also glad to see the new broadcast feature. I enjoyed the EXR free trial and contemplating a subscription and hope Zwift changes their mind and adds actual on water rowing. I would hope in future updates we could link directly to our Garmin accounts for uploading. When I rowed a set distance of a 1000 meters on the smartrow app broadcast to Zwift, Zwift recorded the session as 1400 meters.

Please just auto save sessions. They can be deleted from the list in “insights” later if you really don’t want them, and the right side button (where “next” would usually be) deletes your session. At least make it an option.