What Is a Used Rowing Machine Worth?

Start from what the machine costs new today, because that is the only number in this transaction that anybody publishes. Every figure on this site for a new machine is pulled live from the retailer and stamped with the date it was read; a used price, by contrast, is whatever two people agreed in a car park. So the method is: find the live new price, then work down through four things you can check on the actual machine in front of you.

What we are not going to do is tell you a used rowing machine is worth sixty per cent of new, or any other percentage. No manufacturer, trade body or retailer publishes a resale index for this category. Every percentage you will read in a forum thread or a buying guide is somebody’s impression of a market they watched for a while, and repeating it here with a confident tone would make it look like data. It is not data, and this site does not print numbers it cannot source.

The four things that set the discount

1. Which monitor generation it has. On a Concept2 this is the single biggest swing, because the machine outlives its electronics by a wide margin and the monitor is what you interact with. Concept2 has shipped several monitor generations across its model history, and the practical question for a buyer is simply whether the one on this machine still does what you need: a live 500 m split, stored sessions, and a radio that pairs with what you own. The current PM5 is documented as supporting ANT+ and Bluetooth Smart for heart rate and as storing completed work. An older monitor on an otherwise sound frame is a discount you should ask for, not a reason to walk away — and Concept2 sells monitors separately, so you can price the upgrade before you negotiate.

2. What the consumables have left in them. A rower has a handful of parts that wear and are meant to be replaced: on a chain-drive air machine the chain, the sprockets and the shock cord; on any machine the seat rollers. Concept2’s own position is unambiguous — it states that using the machine with a worn or weakened part “such as the chain, sprockets, swivel connector or shock cord” may result in injury, and that “when in doubt about the condition of any part, Concept2 strongly advises that you replace the part immediately.” Price the parts you will need to fit, and subtract that from the asking price rather than hoping. What to look at and in what order is in buying a used rowing machine.

3. Where it has been living. A machine from a spare bedroom and a machine from an unheated garage are not the same machine, and the difference shows up on the rail and the chain. Concept2 publishes that its Performance Monitor “should not be stored where there are vast fluctuations in temperature or in damp environments,” and that indoor rowers “should not be stored outside in the elements, even with the Concept2 dust cover.” Ask where it has been kept, then look at the metal rather than taking the answer. Our own read on what cold and damp actually do is on best rowing machines for an unheated garage.

4. Whether it is still sold new at all. This is the one most people miss, and it cuts both ways. A machine still on sale has a published price you can anchor to and parts you can buy, which makes a used one easy to value. A discontinued machine, or one from a brand that sells direct only and has no retailer listing, has neither — so a used one is worth whatever you are willing to risk, and a broken part may end the machine. Four of the machines we track have no live retail listing at all, which is exactly the situation to be careful in.

The test that decides it

Here is the arithmetic that settles most of these decisions. Take the live new price, and subtract the parts you can see will need replacing and the value of the warranty you are giving up. If the asking price is not comfortably below that figure, buy new — because new comes with a known history, a full warranty and no drive home with a 100 lb object in the back of a car.

Warranty is the part people undervalue. Concept2 publishes a 5-year frame and 2-year parts warranty on the RowErg; XTERRA publishes 5 years on the ERG750W frame; most budget machines publish one year, and several publish nothing at all. Whether any of those transfer to a second owner is not something we found published, so treat a used machine as unwarranted unless the seller can show you otherwise in writing.

Read the first column as the thing you are handing back. A five-year frame warranty is worth a real amount of money on a machine you intend to keep for a decade; a one-year warranty that has already expired is worth nothing, which is why used budget machines should be a great deal cheaper than new ones to be worth the trip.

Where used genuinely pays, and where it does not

Used makes most sense at the top of the market and least at the bottom, and the reason is arithmetic rather than snobbery. A Concept2 holds its value because the frame lasts, the parts are available and the monitor can be upgraded — so a used one is a route into a machine you would otherwise not buy, and that is a genuinely good trade. A budget magnetic machine, by contrast, is new for not much more than a used one will cost you, comes with a warranty and a box, and does not require you to inspect a stranger’s seat rollers in the rain.

The decision between the two routes, with the cost of ownership worked through, is on buying used vs new, and if you are weighing a machine against a gym membership instead, cost per workoutis the page that settles it. Below are the prices that give you your anchor — live, dated, and the number any used asking price should be measured against.

One last thing we will not pretend to know: what your own machine will fetch when you sell it. Our five-year cost tables deliberately exclude resale value, for the same reason this page refuses to print a percentage — it would need an assumption we cannot source, and adding it would make the number look more precise while making it less true.