Best treadmill to buy?

[Johnny Smiles]

is there a special brand better than other ones. i want one thats affordable but tough.
thanks for any suggestions and input. i never paid attention to what kind of treadmills i use at the gym so can't even think of a brand... -JS

 

[HUMALOG]

well if your the biggest/leanest on this site like phil says stay away from anything store bought ie. not commercial grade as they all have a 250lb weight limit

 

[HOTROCKS]

Treadmill are one of those thing that you get what you pay for.
I have had some cheep ones and they will hunt you if not careful.
I just got a mill off the craigslist it is an Epic View 550.
I got it for $500. It isn't top of the line, but it has a very strong motor and long and wide belt.

 

[triathloncoach]

What is your budget?

I'm a triathlete who once owned a gym. I know a bit about treadmills.

How much do you weigh? How many miles a week are you going to run? At what speed? Is it just for your use? Good residential treadmills start around $1500. Commercial treads can be multiples of that. Do you really need to buy one?

 

[fade]

My parents have owned a fitness equipment store for the last 20 years.. Stay away from anything under $1500 if you want it to last. TRUE usually makes a good treadmill with few services problems (i do a lot of the service for our store).. Also the ps300 also has a light commercial warranty on it, so it is fit for an apartment complex, a high school, or something similar.. around $3000

Vision fitness makes great treadmills as well. The 9500 has a weight capacity of 300 lbs and that's 300lbs running full speed capacity, not a walking capacity. Few problems with the brand in general, and good customer service. usually around $2200 or so..

Life fitness also makes a good line of treadmills, don't know a whole lot about them..

Precor has a pretty shitty belt and deck system, you'll be replacing this pretty soon..

Lamon, lamar, st fitness.. all suck pretty bad.

anything from a sporting good store, walmart, etc.. is not going to make it a full year if you actually use it.

spend more now, save more later.

I see treadmills running strong with their first problem in them that are 17 years old.. yeah, 17 years and no problems. They were probably $3000 back then, but that's a lot better than $1000 every 3 years... (these are TRUE treadmills by the way)..


Feel free to PM me man.

 

[Flex2019]

I sell treadmills everyday as the fitness manager of a bicycle/fitness equipment shop. As stated before, you get what you pay for with this stuff, and the 1500 dollar estimate is right on. I've seen a lot of shit treadmills over the years, and I can tell you this-pay attention to warranty when you're buying this stuff.

My best selling treadmill right now is a Spirit Fitness XT285. Retails at $1500 and has a 2.75 HP continuos duty motor (most companies 2.5hp at this price point), 12mph, 15% incline. Not to mention a capacity of 350lbs. The warranty is awesome-Motor/frame/deck is lifetime and 10yrs on parts. Other good companies to look into are Bodycraft, Horizon, and Vision (if you're looking for similarly expensive), or Landice (a ton of coin but nicest treadmill on the market, and completely warrantied for life).

Stay away from anything from a department store, Sport's Authority, Dick's, etc. I get a ridiculous number of repair calls on these treadmills, often after people have only owned them for a few months to a year. Spend a couple hundred bucks more and you'll save yourself huge headaches down the road.

Good luck, hope this helps.

 

[fade]

I sell treadmills everyday as the fitness manager of a bicycle/fitness equipment shop. As stated before, you get what you pay for with this stuff, and the 1500 dollar estimate is right on. I've seen a lot of shit treadmills over the years, and I can tell you this-pay attention to warranty when you're buying this stuff.

My best selling treadmill right now is a Spirit Fitness XT285. Retails at $1500 and has a 2.75 HP continuos duty motor (most companies 2.5hp at this price point), 12mph, 15% incline. Not to mention a capacity of 350lbs. The warranty is awesome-Motor/frame/deck is lifetime and 10yrs on parts. Other good companies to look into are Bodycraft, Horizon, and Vision (if you're looking for similarly expensive), or Landice (a ton of coin but nicest treadmill on the market, and completely warrantied for life).

Stay away from anything from a department store, Sport's Authority, Dick's, etc. I get a ridiculous number of repair calls on these treadmills, often after people have only owned them for a few months to a year. Spend a couple hundred bucks more and you'll save yourself huge headaches down the road.

Good luck, hope this helps.

I'll just take a second to say we've been in this industry for awhile and we can bring any line we want to into our store since we're an independent dealer. There is not a chance in hell we would bring in Spirit as it's one of the shittier brands out there. Now I know you sell these, so you're going to think they're the best thing out there.

On the other side of the fence, we get to choose if we want spirit or not (trust me we're the big guys in town, and can get any line we really want).. In the past it's been nothing but problems from spirit, and i get calls constantly saying "do you do service for spirit treadmills?" I don't touch them.

I don't know about bodycraft, so i won't touch on that one, but horizon is pretty shitty as well - just another brand we won't bring in because at the tradeshows and the research we've done on them it's just problem after problem and it really is the cheap treadmills for the cheaper retail stores. We're a high end retail store and only sell the quality equipment.. if something is giving us problems, we drop the line because it's not worth it and our name is behind the product.

For example, we used to carry landice treadmills but dropped them because it was service issue after service issue.. The guy that picked up the line here in town has said the same thing and really only has the line because no one else wants it.

The fact of the matter is that a frame on a treadmill is never going to go bad.. The motor is very rarely the problem. On top of that, if they cover the deck and not the belt - you'll be paying a nice amount for the belt because they're covering the deck.

The common problems are going to be belt/deck (after lots of use), lower electronics, front/rear roller problems, and a problem with the electronics.. I've NEVER seen a problem with a frame, and if you're replacing the deck, you need a new belt as well..

 

[mature muscle]

take their advice. i bought a cheapo from dicks a couple of years ago. i,m always tightening the drive belt up because of slipping. i have had to build a new handle to hold on to because the cheap plastic shit broke all to hell. differently would spend more next time. i do 20+ miles walking a wk incline the thing is still going for now.

 

[mental1]

I got a buddy who owns a really big gym. He purchased 25 Star Trac treadmills after his rep convinced him to get them. After he bought these---he realized it was a HUGE MISTAKE--always having programs with the Star Trac. He had all Life Fitness treadmills before and loved them. When its time to get new ones again---probably in a year or so---will go back to Life Fitness. I personally owned a couple of True treadmills. I haven't had only 1 problem with the True Treadmill in over 6 years. I have some Matrix treadmills now---I would say they are ok---it really depends on how much they are used. The high traffic gyms are the true test of all equipment. Most of the people treat the equipment like shit so you can tell whats made really good and whats not. Good luck

 

[cmhdeadlift]

my golds gym walmart treadmill works just fine


im not about to run though, 3mph is as fast as that bad boy will ever do

 

[HOTROCKS]

Just check out the Epic 550 like I just got .
It has a 3 hp motor and can handle 350 pounds.
Like I said I got it for $500 on the craigslist.
Can't go wrong at that price.

**broken link removed**

 

[triathloncoach]

Craig List or ebay

When I owned my gym I bought what is now my "home" treadmill on ebay. It was a brand new, in the box Precor commercial Tread. It listed for about $7,000. I paid around 3. Not one problem in 4 years. I'm not recommending spending $3,000, I am recommending buying new or refurbished from a well established e-bay seller. Refurbished could be great, just buy it from a seller who's been around for a long time with lots of positive feedback.

 

[doug1]

my golds gym walmart treadmill works just fine


im not about to run though, 3mph is as fast as that bad boy will ever do

haha, mine too, not a gold's gym brand, some cheap sportcraft thing, bought it years ago, just use for walking also. got a 2x4 on the front to give a little more incline. paid under $200, all i need is a belt to move under my feet.

 

[njpooldude]

My parents have owned a fitness equipment store for the last 20 years.. Stay away from anything under $1500 if you want it to last. TRUE usually makes a good treadmill with few services problems (i do a lot of the service for our store).. Also the ps300 also has a light commercial warranty on it, so it is fit for an apartment complex, a high school, or something similar.. around $3000

Vision fitness makes great treadmills as well. The 9500 has a weight capacity of 300 lbs and that's 300lbs running full speed capacity, not a walking capacity. Few problems with the brand in general, and good customer service. usually around $2200 or so..

Life fitness also makes a good line of treadmills, don't know a whole lot about them..

Precor has a pretty shitty belt and deck system, you'll be replacing this pretty soon..

Lamon, lamar, st fitness.. all suck pretty bad.

anything from a sporting good store, walmart, etc.. is not going to make it a full year if you actually use it.

spend more now, save more later.

I see treadmills running strong with their first problem in them that are 17 years old.. yeah, 17 years and no problems. They were probably $3000 back then, but that's a lot better than $1000 every 3 years... (these are TRUE treadmills by the way)..


Feel free to PM me man.

yes, the gym i use has life fitness tredmills and 95% of the other equipment in the gym is also life fitness. I really like their stuff... it is very rare for the gym owner to have any of the treadmills out of order... and those things are being used non stop 7 days a week.. id buy one in a heart beat.. im sure they arent cheap though!!

 

[Ashop]

is there a special brand better than other ones. i want one thats affordable but tough.
thanks for any suggestions and input. i never paid attention to what kind of treadmills i use at the gym so can't even think of a brand... -JS

If you can afford it buy a commercial gym type treadmill.
Alot of the home units are cheap that just dont last over time.

 

[NPCS FINEST]

I have two of them. I am not 100% sure off the top of my head the brands of the two...Life fitness rings a bell for the more expensive one I have which was bought about 2-3 years ago as a gift from my girlfriend.I am not 100% sure how much she paid for it but it is really good quality and hasn't given me any probs what so ever and it's used alot.

And I have a cheaper one..which was around 600-700 bucks...I cant remember the brand of this one either but honestly I have beat the hell out of this tred mil and it hasn't given me any probs at all either. I know everyone is sayin you get what you pay for and I'm not disagreeing at all but for $600 bucks I can honestly say that I have no complaints at all after beating it up for the past 8-10 years.

If anyone is interested I can look and see what the models and brands are of each.

 

[Ness]

is there a special brand better than other ones. i want one thats affordable but tough.
thanks for any suggestions and input. i never paid attention to what kind of treadmills i use at the gym so can't even think of a brand... -JS

What the hell do you need one those for???? Dont tell me you've gone cardio

 

[Johnny Smiles]

NEVER!!!!

What the hell do you need one those for???? Dont tell me you've gone cardio

Nah bro,
actually a freind at work asked and i started this thread for him. he wants to buy one for his girlfriend.

fuck cardio -JS

 

[Ness]

Nah bro,
actually a freind at work asked and i started this thread for him. he wants to buy one for his girlfriend.

fuck cardio -JS

Haha, you had me worried...I should have known.

 

[njpooldude]

to be honest man, walmart is the way to go.. they let u return ANYTHING! if it breaks u bring it back and get a new one. Ive never been turned down trying to return something from walmart.. no matter how long ive had it..