Can You Buy a Rowing Machine with an HSA or FSA?

The short answer is usually no, and the reason is a single word in the IRS rule: treatment. A rowing machine bought because you would like to be fitter is, in the publication’s own words, an expense that is “merely beneficial to general health” — and those are specifically excluded. A rowing machine bought as part of treatment for a disease a physician has diagnosed is a different question, and the answer to that one is decided by your plan administrator rather than by us.

We are not tax advisers and this is not tax advice. What follows is what the IRS publications say, quoted, so you can take the actual wording to the person who decides. Nothing on this page should be read as a promise that a particular purchase will be reimbursed, and a declined claim after the fact is an expensive way to find out.

What the rule actually is

HSA and FSA eligibility does not have its own list of approved products. Publication 969 defines qualified medical expenses for an HSA as amounts paid “for ‘medical care’ (as defined in Code section 213(d)) for the individual, the spouse of the individual, and any dependent of the individual,” and then only “to the extent the amounts are not compensated for by insurance or otherwise.” So the test is the same section 213(d) definition of medical care that governs the medical expense deduction, which Publication 502 explains at length.

Publication 502’s general rule is the sentence that decides most rowing machine questions: medical expenses “don’t include expenses that are merely beneficial to general health, such as vitamins or a vacation.” It is also explicit about the nearest comparable purchase, stating that you “can’t include membership dues in a gym, health club, or spa as medical expenses.” Buying your own machine instead of paying gym dues does not change the character of the expense.

Two places in Publication 502 leave a genuine door open. The first is weight loss: amounts paid “to lose weight if it is a treatment for a specific disease diagnosed by a physician” can be included, and the publication names obesity, hypertension and heart disease as examples. The second is capital expenses: you can include amounts paid for “special equipment installed in a home or for improvements if their main purpose is medical care.” Both hinge on the same thing — a diagnosis and a treatment purpose, not a wish to be healthier.

Note what the publication does not do: it never mentions exercise equipment at all. There is no line saying a rowing machine qualifies and no line saying it does not. Anyone telling you the IRS has ruled either way on rowing machines specifically is adding something to the document.

Who actually decides, and what they will ask for

In practice the decision is made by the administrator of your HSA or health FSA against their reading of section 213(d), and the paperwork is where this gets concrete. For a health FSA, Publication 969 states that “you must provide the health FSA with a written statement from an independent third party” — which is the mechanism behind the letter of medical necessity that administrators ask for. For an HSA the burden sits with you: “you must keep records sufficient to show” the expense qualified, kept “with your tax records.”

So the honest sequence, if you believe your case is a treatment case, is: ask your physician whether they will write the statement, then ask your administrator in writing whether they will accept it for this category of equipment, and only then buy. Doing it in that order costs a phone call. Doing it in the other order costs the price of the machine.

One more line worth knowing because it catches people out. Publication 502 is clear that you cannot double-dip: you cannot include as a deduction amounts paid with a tax-free HSA distribution, and you cannot include “amounts for which you are fully reimbursed by your flexible spending arrangement.” The pre-tax benefit and the deduction are alternatives, not a stack.

What a rowing machine actually costs, before any of this

Worth settling before you spend an afternoon on eligibility: the machines most people should buy are at the low end of this market, and the five-year figure is the one that matters. Prices below are live and carry their own date.

The subscription column is the one to read twice. A membership is the part of a connected machine that no benefits account will help you with, and it is the only cost on this page that keeps charging after the purchase is forgotten. Here is what these three actually cost to own over one, three and five years, at live prices.

The reason all three carry no monthly fee is deliberate. A subscription is the part of a connected machine that no benefits account will help you with and that keeps charging after the purchase is forgotten — the arithmetic is on subscription comparison and the subscription-free alternatives on rowing machines with no subscription. If the budget is the real constraint rather than the tax treatment, rowing machine financing and is a rowing machine worth it are the two pages to read instead of this one.

The three machines we would point you at

If the purchase is going ahead either way, these are the picks — chosen on published specifications and five-year cost, with no reference to any benefits account, because the machine that suits you does not change based on how you pay for it.

A closing note on honesty, since this page is about money and rules rather than specifications. We earn a commission if you buy through the links above, which is disclosed on every page of this site. That is also exactly why we are not going to tell you a rowing machine is HSA-eligible: we would be the last people you should take that from.