This treadmill buying guide was written to help educate people who are looking to purchase a treadmill for home use. Unlike other resources, this document comes from an industry leader. In the interest of full disclosure, Smooth Fitness is the industry's largest direct-to-consumer treadmill manufacturer and we're in the business of making and selling treadmills. We believe that the best customer is a knowledgeable one, and it's our goal to help educate you as a buyer so that you are better equipped to avoid the industry tricks and traps and end up purchasing a treadmill that fits your workout needs for the right price.
First, you'll be happy to know that treadmills have been the largest selling category of cardio products for the past 20 years. Treadmills allow for a natural running/walking motion that the human body is well suited for. Motorized treadmills automatically pace the user. For this reason, treadmills enjoy a significantly lower drop-off rate than any other workout machine. Once you get into a routine, you're more likely to stay with it. But you already know you want a treadmill, so let's dig into what to look for.
Before exploring how to research various manufacturers, makes and models, let's go over a few DOs and DON'Ts:
DON'T make your decision based on just one person's opinion.
DO look at many sources available online such as About.com (owned by the New York Times), Epinions, Bizrate and Consumer Guide online (which is now part of www.howstuffworks.com).
DON'Tget too hung up on the specs and horsepower ratings (we'll explain in more detail below).
Frame: The frame is the foundation of the treadmill and it is an important and often overlooked component. There are two types of frames: steel and aluminum. We prefer steel because steel frames feel more spring-like when your foot strikes the deck, and generally speaking, steel frames lend themselves to a tighter, quieter treadmill. Aluminum frames are strong and last just as long as steel, but aluminum treadmills have a deadpan feel which is really bad for runners. This is because aluminum treadmill manufactures use rivets to hold the frames together, and that is just not as good as a uni-body steel-welded frame. As a rule of thumb, look at the specs of the treadmills you are considering. For the price point of $1,000 or less, look for a treadmill that’s over 200 lbs. and for a treadmill that’s $1,500 or more, look for at least 250 lb.
Motor:Unfortunately, there are no motor horsepower police, so you can’t compare the motors of each treadmill manufacturer on an apples-to-apples basis. The actual HP rating—believe it or not—is solely determined by the treadmill manufacturer itself. There is no industry standard as to how to rate your DC motors. Manufacturer “A” may call their motor a 2 HP continuous duty motor rated at 2,000 rpm and 15 amps. Meanwhile, Manufacturer “B” may buy that very same motor and label it as a 3 HP commercial grade continuous duty motor. You might ask how this is possible, well, it’s quite simple Manufacturer “B” just rates their motor at a very high rpm speed (around 5,000 rpm) in order to achieve a higher horsepower number for marketing purposes. As you can imagine, with more than a million treadmills sold in sporting goods and big box stores annually across the US, many consumers just look for the highest HP rating at the lowest price.
Our experience is that the top brands of treadmills are all using good quality motors. Generally, they last a long time. You should look at the motor warranty to separate the high quality ones from the junk. Don’t consider any motor that comes with less than a ten-year warranty. The good news is that there are a dozen or so brands that fall into the high-quality bucket. Now that you know what to look for in a motor you also need to know what to look for in a flywheel. The flywheel helps to regulate the speed and consistency of the belt; with out it the belt would not move at a constant speed and would jerk with every foot impact. At Smooth, we “tune” each flywheel until the motor is running perfectly smooth. To do this, we put each motor on a balancing machine and run it at a high speed while a technician drills small holes into the cast aluminum flywheel. It is this balancing that allows the motor to run at peak efficiently and improves the inertia of the flywheel resulting in a smooth-as-glass feel