I think iFit is a great programme but unfortunately NordicTracks products aren’t fit for purpose.

Fair play for the video and thanks for all the people in the comments. For me, I couldn’t get the flywheel off but I managed to take the spring loaded brake pad off. Placed a spacer on it so that it was just touching the flywheel and this seems to have solved my problem. Absolutely horrendous manufacturing though that so many of these machines don’t work properly after assembly. I was using mine for about 18 months without realising that the resistance was far too high and wondering why I couldn’t feel any change in resistance from either the magnetic resistance or even the air resistance.

Thank you for the video! I too called tech support, and they sent me your video. I hope they paid you! I did what you did to my machine. It is much better but not as I would expect they wanted to it be going to market. Thank you again! BTW, my machine was purchased by me used. It had 11 hours on it. I will now go row!

4 years ago wow. I am just beginning a similar project with the exact module. Thanks!

I'm blown away that Nordictrack think it's acceptable to sell equipment that simply doesn't work as intended and instead of taking responsibility for fixing the issue, send a bunch of non related parts. I suspect the underlying issue is the fly wheel is not being seated consistently and close enough down the spindle to reach the magnet mechanism. It looks like the design is not intended to have any adjustment, or to need any, but does rely on accurate assembly during manufacture.

Thanks for posting. My main issue was the brake pad exerting too much force on the wheel. I cut a few coils from the brake pad spring and it fixed it for me. The majority of the resistance comes from this brake pad. It's really a scam rower. The magnet offers little to no resistance in the overall rowing

I bought this 1.5 years ago, and it's never really worked like I thought it should, but structurally, it looks great, so I never took it back, I have other equipment I use so it doesn't get used all the time, but this is exactly what's wrong with mine, I've been using it on 26 the entire time thinking that was just the way it was supposed to be " my first ever rower" I hope I can get mine fixed like you have with yours 😢 I'm soo upset with how much money I feel I wasted

SHOW 😊

If I can fix my Nordic track I would be the happiest girl on earth….. Edit: it has been fixed!! Just need to mess around with the reed switch to correct the meters

I'm not mechanically literate, I'm having issues just getting the cover off to fix the magnetic issues. Does anyone have a video for that. I don't want to break anything.

Great video Greg ! In my 200 Rower, left fan touches and grinds against bearing bracket screw heads (71), making noise. Left side of axle has no groove/snap ring, to keep left fan away from screws. Right side fan sits against snap ring(25) in a groove, so doesn’t touch the screw heads. Any suggestions ? Thanks. Solved my problem, left side snap ring broke, axle shifted slightly to the right, snap ring groove was hidden under the bearing, replaced snap ring, put everything back together.

This process worked great! I ran the two screws through compression springs also to help keep everything tight.

Great video Greg, thank you so much. It’s too bad that NordicTrack does not understand their own equipment, leaving their customers to fix the product themselves.

Great video but I can not get the flywheel off. I see nowhere to attach a puller? HELP

Wear gloves when repairing your machine! My machine was very tight and I cut my hand up really good on the fan blades when trying to get it off the machine. Be careful and protect your hands!

You should put a piece of foam under your new magnet adjustment so it has a cushion and is not moving and widening the holes over time. But it's understandable that the flywheel would warp over time. I agree there's no benefit to the wind adjustment. I though it was just to set how much air is blowing on you. 😂

I don't have a magnet system on my rw200. How do I fix mine? 😭

Well, I wish I watched this video first before I fixed mine. My magnet was too close. So I bent the metal fulcrum back slightly and it no longer rubs.

Hi Greg, thanks for the video. I am going to step this very same fix on my nordictrack rw700, I bought it second hand for a great price but found it had the same issue with the resistance staying the same, just like on your video the magnet is miles away from the metal plate, I just wanted to know if you do video showing the fix in action? I wondered if moving the magnet closer allowed the resistance to get easier as well as harder??? As I am already finding it tough on the setting it is stuck on! 😂

I am a technician in NYC I was on a service call with the same problem and have to go back. After watching your video I decided to remove the screws from the magnet and just add washers as spacers behind the complete magnet enough to bring the magnet closer to the wheel. This would eliminate the drilling and the hardware plus be a lot quicker. I believe this should work.

How do I get the fan wheel off. I removed the nut but it won't budge.

Wife and I purchased an RW500 at the beginning of the pandemic. We had both used the rowers at our gym occasionally in the past and thought that a rower would be the best choice for a home workout - better than a treadmill or bike. I didn't use the rower much in the beginning, but when I did start using it I found two surprises: 1) the force required to pull even when set at resistance 1 was surprisingly high (especially compared to the air rower at the gym) and 2) the fact that there was little to no perceived difference between resistance 1 and resistance 26. This video has allowed me to fix #2, though I didn't follow it exactly. Upon disassembly, I found that the distance between the magnet and the wheel was even greater than in the video - closer to 3/8 of an inch. After examining all the components, I went to Home Depot and picked up a package of twelve #8 flat washers and another package of #6 x 1" long round head sheet metal screws. I removed the magnet, stacked five of the washers above each screw hole, and then used the new screws to hold everything together. The washers are 0.040" (1mm) thick, so the stack of five had the effect of moving the magnet 0.200" closer to the wheel. Thankfully, both of the fan wheels on my rower run very true. With this change, I can finally perceive the difference between the lowest and highest resistance levels. What has not changed significantly is #1 - the force required to get the belt moving at all. I have read some owners complain that the force is so great that they are simply unable to use the machine at all. I don't have that problem, but I would like it to be much less than it is currently. I see in the earlier comments that this may be caused by poor brake design? I'll have to remove the casing again when I have time to do so and see if there is a practical solution. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I would be very happy to read them.

You are da man! EXACTLY my issue and the perfect solution! Many thanks!

You’ve reached out through time and space to save my sanity, thank you! I didn’t realise those clips came off and I’d been trying to solder the bare wire to these tabs and tearing my non existent hair out 😅

Gregs advice is spot on. I used simplified version. Removed the right side and fly wheel. Removed the screws of the magnet. Added 2 washers behind the front screw and 3 in de back one the magnets are parallel to the fly wheel. Gap is big enough to clear the runout of the fly wheel

Oh my goodness. Thank you! I have the same problem on mine. But of course 2000$ waisted on a rower that won't change resistance. Magnet is actually so close to the wheel that it was grinding down against each other. Nordic track sent me new interior pieces that are not apart of the problem. Thanks for your detailed help.

this is very informative video, i learned a lot about how it setup, how to take it apart and make adjustments. based on your video i can see that my magnet on the lowest setting (not aligned with the wheel) but resistance is too high. i have 2 issues: 1. resistance too high (while magnet off the wheel). 2. my resistance motor is not moving (they sent me a new one and once replaced it's not doing anything either). any ideas on what could be wrong or how to troubleshoot?

This unit is a piece of junk. I have the same issue of the resistance being the same throughout all settings. I would have hoped they would be willing to make things right with so many customers complaining. Thanks for making the video. I was going crazy over this issue for months now

a lot of design and theory opinions offered here. however i agree this design is flawed. modifying the magnet mounts is a lot of work to do on something you already paid good money for. on my RW200 the unadjustable dampening resistance (drag) provided by the felt pad seems to be the critical reason the two-component magnetic resistance adjustment system doesn't work well. my elliptical has about a dozen magnets positioned on the outer rim resulting in a much better range of resistance.

What tool did you use to remove the 'wheel' to get to the motor?

Did you ever try it without the fan blade and if so what was your experience with that?

A huge thank you for this video and fix. I picked up an RW500 for free as the previous owner was going to throw it out because of the resistance issue. A $1.50 for longer screws and washers and it works great thanks to you! The wheels/fans are trued up and everything has been cleaned and greased and is good for another 100 miles of rowing. Thank you so much. Dave

Thanks for the video Greg. I set out to fix this issue tonight after watching your video and made some additional discoveries. You are headed in the right direction to solve the non-working digital/magnetic resistance but nothing here will solve the issue of the lowest setting being too heavy. For the digital adjust/magnetic resistance the actual issue is that the mount/fulcrum for the magnets is not welded on straight. If you remove the arm with the magnets you can put a simple adjustable/crescent wrench on the face of the pin/pivot/fulcrum and the back of the mount and bend it so that the pin/pivot/fulcrum is square to the flywheel on that side. No need for any shims or spacers. With my unit the bracket was bent enough that even with the correct spacers the magnets still sat at an angle to the flywheel such that you would need tapered spacers to correct it. Just bend it straight and away you go. However, there is still a chance that it's welded on complete wrong and you need spacers anyway but straightening it is the best way to correct any off-angle. If your unit is just too hard to workout on even on the lowest setting the issue is that the brake is causing too much friction. My unit only has one brake pad and I re-applied the lubricant that was on it already and spread it out over the braking surface and found that it was still just too much resistance. In the end what I did was just removed the brake mechanism all-together. You can hold it around the outside of the pad mount with a channel locks and take the nut off the back. The pad is there to reduce the spin at the end of the stroke so that momentum doesn't help you on the next pull. You could alternatively put a lighter spring into the pad mechanism but I found that the wind drag on the flywheels is enough for my (and my wifes) tastes.

With mine, the pulley was just slipping, so a different problem. Somehow I don't know how to stop the pulley slipping and keep it connected to the magnetic wheel.

Just wanted to say that this modification works 100%. I found an rw200 series locally from a lady that never used it for 200 dollars. The resistance was honestly a joke and it was pretty much worthless as is. I just shimmed the bottom of the magnet with aluminum tape instead of making it adjustable but I may go back and do this in the future if the machine holds up. It now has just as much if not more resistance than a concept rower set on 10. I don’t know about the durability of the rower because I haven’t had it long enough but if it holds up it would be a sound investment if you can find one cheap and secondhand.

What’s the 4mm screw length?

Excelso. Gracias

I have the rw500 and the larger issue for me was that the little spring loaded “brake pad” that makes direct contact with the right hand side flywheel was applying more resistance than the highest magnetic setting could even apply, so on the lowest setting it was too hard and on the highest it felt exactly the same. My solution was to remove it entirely and that allows for the magnetic resistance to be the primary resistance and the mechanism now gives at least some perceptible difference between the levels.

Thank you for the video- we sadly bought a rw900 rower and it has too much resistance all the time. We had their repairman come out and he thought he could fix it. He ordered a part but then when he opened the rower up to install it, he was pretty sure he couldn’t fix it. A part is welded on crooked. But he installed the part anyway to try. It didn’t work. He reported it back to Nordic track. But they are giving us the run around! Talk about a company that knows their rower has issues yet they don’t want to take responsibility for their product. My advice, stay away from Nordic Track!!!

What distance do you recommend between magnets and wheel? you probably said it in video, can't find it now 😀

Where did you get the rotor puller from please

Thanks so much for this, I have the same issue with an RW500. Will give your fix a try and let you know how it goes. How is it that NordicTrack couldn't figure this out? Haha 😀

Thanks, this is all great information. However, there is an easier way I fixed mine. It's true the fan wheel with the metal bracket doesn't track true. That is part of the issue. It doesn't have to track perfect but needs to be within a few thousands of an inch tracking. I rotated mine and took a pry bar between the frame and fan wheel to gently adjust the tracking. After that, I removed the cam-type mechanism holding the magnets as you described. One of my magnets wasn't as close as the other one so I shimmed that up with a .037 washer on one side under the metal magnet bracket. That made both magnets parallel to the metal plate on the fan wheel. My gap between the magnet and fan wheel was now about.050-.060 of an inch. That did not solve the problem of the lack of adjustment of feel force when rowing. There is a white nylon bracket that attaches to the cam-type black plastic bracket that holds the magnets. That white nylon bracket is adjustable with a nut on both sides. There is a threaded rod running through the white nylon bracket. When you change the resistance via the 1-26 level, a motor attached to that threaded rod changes the position of the magnets up and down via the black plastic cam-type magnet holder. I had to adjust the white bracket to the left, via the two locking nuts, to change more of the magnet location away from the metal plate on the inside of the fan wheel. My feel force originally was too great. By adjusting this white nylon bracket, you can change the amount of resistance. Now, my rower works great! Hopefully, my description of this fix of my problem helps others. BTW, the 22 mm fan wheel remover is available on Amazon. Here's the description: CyclingDeal Bike Crank Extractor Puller Remover for Square Threaded Taper Crankset or ISIS & Octalink - Easy Bicycle Crank Arm Remover Removal Tool

Thanks Greg! I have a question, if the screen display don’t work, if is possible to adjust the 26 resistance option, or in this case is only possible to adjust the air 5option air system? Thank for your time !

Greg, what is the acceptable runout tolerance of the left flywheel (i.e., the one with the magnets)? Mine wobbles at least 1/4" (circa 6mm). When I removed the flywheel cover, I was shocked to discover that much wobble given that the other flywheel appeared to run true. Because of that large wobble, I can only position the reed switch close to one magnet. The other magnets are quite far away. Obviously, I'm getting no data on the screen as to my stroke pace, distance, speed, etc. -- only the timer works.

As to the price of the commercial 3M version being >$1000, alas you're right. I have one made when it was sold under the "Racal" brand -- which tells you're it's really, really long-of-tooth. Mine has the integrated bright yellow hardhat, which makes it a bit uncomfortable for long term wear.

I think the fan was to imitate the Concept 2 type rowers. I wonder if this explains why the RW 900 for 2022 has undergone a radical redesign? I enjoy the slight breeze, or apparent breeze, I got from my club-owned Concept 2 rower. I would miss it from the NordicTrack, but I understand it's now gone.

Nice video! How do you switch this concept from rainbow color to your own preferred color in case 1?

I need some help to get the wheel off in one side.

Very helpful video. Thanks. Was there are reason you didn't put the screw heads on the side nearest the metal track, and just use lock nuts on the side you adjust?