Adjustable Fluid Resistance
FDF Patented Technology
At the core of all FDF machines is our patented Twin Tank technology, providing a series of distinct adjustment levels to cater for where you are at and provide a challenge so you can achieve your fitness or training goals. There are two main tank formats a horizontal tank and a vertical tank. The fluid dynamics of the two tank types is different but the patented adjustment mechanism works in the same way.
The patented technology comprises twin tanks, the inner passive or holding tank and the outer active or resistance tank.
When you select a high level, water will flow from the passive holding tank to the active resistance tank as you begin to exercise and you will experience the smooth fluid resistance, no matter what your speed.
Conversely, when you select a low level, the water will be transferred away from the active resistance tank back into the passive holding tank, lowering the resistance. You can even make adjustments on the fly to find a load that is just right for your training needs.
VERTICAL TANK CONFIGURATION
HORIZONTAL TANK CONFIGURATION
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FDF’s patented adjustable Fluid Resistance technology creates a challenging rowing workout for any fitness level. It allows the user to change the rowing resistance by a simple adjustment of the lever to your desired level, even mid-workout.
The level of resistance can vary from feather light to Olympic challenge. Whether you are just starting your fitness journey or you are a professional athlete, our fluid resistance rowers have been designed and engineered to provide a challenging, smooth, full body workout that can be adjusted to suit your training requirements.
semi isokinetic resistance provided by fluid resistance
The water in our active resistance tank acts as a brake to hold back the multi-bladed impeller, the more water in the active resistance tank the higher the braking effect. The water in the active tank isn’t all staying in the active tank during the exercise (at any level), some of it is always being cycled through the passive holding tank. As you attempt to generate more power by increasing your speed, the water cycles faster between the Twin Tanks at a greater and greater rate to maintain a consistent amount of water in the tanks. This creates such a unique smooth action and at virtually any speed.
Air resistance works in a similar way, however the variation in the load that is possible by restricting air flow to an impeller does not create distinctly different levels of resistance, this is very obvious at low speeds.
At high speeds, the two mediums, water and air, start to feel similar except for one very crucial difference that makes adjustable Fluid Resistance so unique. When rowing, the drive phase is followed by a recovery phase, during the recovery phase air does not provide the braking force that the water in our tanks does. At the catch or beginning of the next drive phase, the air machine impeller has higher momentum and that creates the soft or no load pick up that you feel at the catch.
Essentially the resistance on an air machine can not be felt again until your speed catches up to the flywheel and you start to apply a greater force against which the air will resist. These differences are so easy for you to test for yourself, compare an FDF product against any air or water based rowing machine and you will quickly see why our patented Twin Tank Fluid Resistance system is so different; the firm catch, the smooth stroke and the consistent load, that all come together in FDF products.
Smooth Resistance at Any Speed
To have an exercise machine without a good range of resistance is like having a treadmill that only goes one speed.
The patented FDF Twin tank system offers a discernible range of resistance independent of speed of use. Everybody recognises that the easiest way to make progressive improvements at nearly everything in life is to create small incremental changes to facilitate adaptation. In fitness this is obvious, add a little more weight, do a few more reps, add an additional set; these small increments trigger an adaptation that is your increase in strength, increase in stamina, increase in speed, or loss of excess weight and so on.
To create an incremental load to improve your fitness or strength on any particular activity you are generally able to manipulate your speed of activity, your range of motion, your work time, your rest time, and the number of work/rest cycles you complete. The most obvious is altering the load setting, the weight or the resistance.
Suprisingly there are many fitness machines using water or air as “resistance” that do not let you adjust that resistance. Some have adjustment but it only works as you increase your speed. In the indoor rowing market, where we manufacture some 20 or so models (see FluidRower), all our machines have adjustable resistance, and the load variation can be felt even at slow speeds.
As our Fluid Resistance Twin Tank system is so smooth, reliable, efficient and effective it has been adapted to other exercise machines, see our unique range of concentric fluid power training machines at FluidPowerZone and our range of upper body ergometers at FluidExercise.
There is a lot of science behind why our patented Twin Tank system works so well but the result is that you can train at any speed with a resistance that will allow you to reach your fitness goals. To have an exercise machine with-out a good range of variable resistance is like having a treadmill stuck at one incline level.