SmartRow 4+

Great data, good customisation and workouts, poor integration with Apple health

When the SmartRow first became available I was really excited. I think the design of it is great. Having the power measured directly at the first pulley makes it pretty accurate and independent of water levels etc.

I also like the way the app can be customised, especially in the iPad where you have a lot more screen real estate so you can have most of the numbers you care about right there.

Now for my gripes. The biggest one is the poor integration with Apple health. You’ve got a power meter and the ability to measure heart rate, yet somehow the calories count is stuck on the apple estimates which is basically the equivalent of taking a walk.

Also, on a couple of occasions, though not lately I should add, the app just went crazy after about 14k of a 1/2 marathon effort. I’ve not really had any problems with crashes, but that was getting. However, it hasn’t happened in my last 4 1/2 marathons, so touch wood...

So far so good...

Bought the WaterRower SmartRow Performance Erg and have to say pleasantly surprised just how easy it is to connect to the iOS app via Bluetooth, and to seamlessly integrate with Strava.

As a complete beginner the stats/data tracked seems to be more than enough. Would be good to understand better the “efficiency” of my rowing and understanding the main graph and what this data means.

Would like to to have seen an integration with Training Peaks as it’s a popular tool for triathletes (would think integration relatively simple as assuming TP has an API you only need to be pushing in a few simple data points: time, distance, distance per 500m, average HR, max HR). Alternatively would be great to see workouts being available to save / export as a .gpx as that would allow workouts to be uploaded into pretty much any mainstream activity app; e.g. Garmin Connect.

Really neat addition would be some kind of saved workouts that you can load up; similar to WattBikes / WattBike Hubb.

Developer Response ,

Hi James, thank you for your feedback! In the near future, your workouts will be available on our internet portal and we are working on interval workouts as well. Please keep sending us your feedback.

Easy to install, good data but needs more to be great.

I bought SmartRow for my WaterRower to introduce the same discipline of power meter training, as I have on my bikes.

The SmartRow device installs easily & connected faultlessly to the app. The data is good but a little basic compared to the wealth of data that I am used to from my cycling related Garmin data.

To make this a serious training tool there needs to be more power related data including provision to measure an FTP and to then allocate power zones. We also need the app to deliver the analysis of this data into a graph showing time spent in each power zone (1-7) based on the individual’s FTP.

This is key to targeted power zonal training & especially its analysis - the key to effective training.

I hope that the app’s developers will look into this - it would immediately elevate what is a good, basic app to the level of a serious training tool.