This is really more of an erg room hack, but for folks about to spend a few good weeks of winter in a stuffy, less-than-optimally-ventilated pain cave filled with erging athletes, maybe grab some duct tape and give this hack a go: The Filtered Fan. Coach Eric Catalano sent this one in last summer, when his ARION athletes were looking for some relief from the poor air quality caused by wildfire smoke wafting across upstate New York at the time. He tells us the idea came from Jack Lowery, one of the rowers at the Saratoga Rowing Association. They just took five off-the-shelf air filters (there is a fifth on the bottom), then taped them to each other and a standard box fan to make a cube. The four wooden dowels keep the whole contraption up off the ground to maximize the airflow--and in a jiffy the Saratoga boathouse had a super cheap way to get cleaner air circulating in the erg room. While fans are a staple in any well-equipped erg space, the best you can usually hope for from them is the chance to blow the same musty and dank air around...and there is usually one athlete at the end of the row hogging most of that breeze anyhow. This hack pushes the air up to get better flow around the whole room and the filters do help clean the air in the process. They might not filter out every cough and sneeze during a long erg session with a full team, but it sure can't hurt to try and catch any germs you can--especially since you can make these Filtered Fans pretty easily. Plus, as they found during the wildfires last summer, this hack can really help when the air quality in general is impacting your workouts. Catalano does recommend changing the filters when they start to look grungy, but they are not expensive, and neither--of course--is another roll of tape. Do you have a cool trick for making your team's erg time more pleasant or productive? If so, share your ideas--and hacks--in the comments below. If you have a great rowing hack to suggest for future inclusion, then please send it to us like Eric did and we will feature your idea in a future column. SUPPORT ROW2K If you enjoy and rely on row2k, we need your help to be able to keep doing all this. Though row2k sometimes looks like a big, outside-funded operation, it mainly runs on enthusiasm and grit. Help us keep it coming, thank you! Learn more. Related Stories Rowing Hack: The Erg Race Fan Erg Hack: The Handle Height Helper Rowing Hack Redux: Rigging up Your Ergs The Erg Sanitizer-Bottle Cage CommentsLog in to comment Posting... Post Cancel blowery 01/18/2024 1:59:47 PM 1 people like this If you're looking to build some of these yourself, you can find instructions here: https://engineering.ucdavis.edu/news/science-action-how-build-corsi-rosenthal-box. We hacked it a bit and added the fifth filter at the bottom and the dowels. They're not strictly necessary, but can be nice. We also used 1" filters instead of 2", since they're much easier to find locally. For the filters, we found HD has a great bulk discount. Half price when you buy 4 or more filters. report abuse ejcat3 01/18/2024 10:03:43 AM 1 people like this Actually this idea belongs to an SRA rower named Jack Lowery! report abuse row2k 01/18/2024 11:57:47 AM Edit made now--thanks for a great hack, Jack. report abuse Rowing Features How the End of the PAC-12 Impacts Rowing January 30, 2024 40-Sport NCAA-ESPN Deal Will Not Include Rowing January 30, 2024 NCAA May Discontinue D2 Women's Championship per New Legislation January 29, 2024 US Dept of Justice Joins Lawsuit Opposing NCAA Transfer Restrictions January 29, 2024 Rowing Headlines World Rowing suspends Serbian Rowing Federation over financial debts January 23, 2024 National Rowing Hall of Fame ® Class of 2023 Announced October 5, 2023 Junior Worlds Update - All Sunday Finals Moved to Saturday August 3, 2023 Junior World Championships Delayed to Thursday Start August 1, 2023
This is really more of an erg room hack, but for folks about to spend a few good weeks of winter in a stuffy, less-than-optimally-ventilated pain cave filled with erging athletes, maybe grab some duct tape and give this hack a go: The Filtered Fan. X bike
Coach Eric Catalano sent this one in last summer, when his ARION athletes were looking for some relief from the poor air quality caused by wildfire smoke wafting across upstate New York at the time.
He tells us the idea came from Jack Lowery, one of the rowers at the Saratoga Rowing Association. They just took five off-the-shelf air filters (there is a fifth on the bottom), then taped them to each other and a standard box fan to make a cube. The four wooden dowels keep the whole contraption up off the ground to maximize the airflow--and in a jiffy the Saratoga boathouse had a super cheap way to get cleaner air circulating in the erg room.
While fans are a staple in any well-equipped erg space, the best you can usually hope for from them is the chance to blow the same musty and dank air around...and there is usually one athlete at the end of the row hogging most of that breeze anyhow.
This hack pushes the air up to get better flow around the whole room and the filters do help clean the air in the process. They might not filter out every cough and sneeze during a long erg session with a full team, but it sure can't hurt to try and catch any germs you can--especially since you can make these Filtered Fans pretty easily. Plus, as they found during the wildfires last summer, this hack can really help when the air quality in general is impacting your workouts.
Catalano does recommend changing the filters when they start to look grungy, but they are not expensive, and neither--of course--is another roll of tape.
Do you have a cool trick for making your team's erg time more pleasant or productive? If so, share your ideas--and hacks--in the comments below.
If you have a great rowing hack to suggest for future inclusion, then please send it to us like Eric did and we will feature your idea in a future column.
Rowing Hack: The Erg Race Fan
Erg Hack: The Handle Height Helper
Rowing Hack Redux: Rigging up Your Ergs
We hacked it a bit and added the fifth filter at the bottom and the dowels. They're not strictly necessary, but can be nice. We also used 1" filters instead of 2", since they're much easier to find locally.
Squatrack For the filters, we found HD has a great bulk discount. Half price when you buy 4 or more filters.