Compare Treadmill Machines

Ohiyo!

As the Treadmill Sensei and knower of all things fitness related, a lot of readers email me here at the DOJO and ask, “Oh, great Sensei, where should I purchase my new treadmill or elliptical? Should I buy it at a local store or online? Which is better?”

While I don’t really like recommending specific stores or websites to purchase from, I can break down the pros and cons of placing an internet order versus going in to a local store and buying the unit from a brick and mortar location. I’m not going to get in to “how to choose” in this post because I’ve already done that in my “Treadmill Buyer’s Guide” and “Elliptical Buyer’s Guide” articles. Check them out if you haven’t already done so.

The single best way to start researching a treadmill, and the easiest, is to load up your favorite search engine and start poking around. The internet has more information on it than any sales rep at a brick and mortar store…more than any 10 sales reps combined into a super sales rep. Start with review sites like this one (the Treadmill Sensei, www.treadmillsensei.com). Take a look at multiple sites because a lot of them out there have personal agendas in regards to which treadmill or elliptical they are “prescribing.” I’d suggest checking with at least 3 sources.

Once you’ve got a decent handle on a few ellipticals or treadmills that meet your needs, I suggest trying to find a local store to go and try them out. This is a large purchase for most people and it is for a piece of equipment that you’re going to spend a lot of time sweating on. Make sure the unit feels good to you.

Once you’re completely convinced you’ve found the perfect treadmill for yourself or the perfect elliptical for your den, get back online and start doing some price comparison. There are a lot of places online that will give you some fantastic prices on equipment. You’ll also generally get free shipping and won’t have to pay sales tax. Shopping online can save you hundreds dollars on the “hidden costs” that will pop up when purchasing at a local fitness store.

Let’s go over some of the pros and cons for online stores versus local shops.

Local Stores — The Pros:

1) The best thing about a local store is that you’ll be able to try out the actual equipment you’ve been researching online. You can do a run on a treadmill or take a quick workout on that elliptical you’ve had your eyes on.

2) The other positive is that you’ll be able to walk out the door with the equipment right there. You see it, you like it, you buy it and you take it home. Instant gratification is a wonderful thing.

Local Stores — The Cons:

1) You may get instant gratification, but more than likely it’ll cost you. Even if the actual cost of the elliptical or treadmill is good at a local shop, don’t forget you’re going to be hit with taxes which can add up to a hundred dollars or more on a lot of the treadmills and ellipticals. You might save that $25 or $50 on the price of your dream treadmill but that gets eaten up by $80 in sales taxes!

2) From there, you’d better have a big truck or SUV to cart that unit home because once you buy it you’ll have to deliver it yourself! Or, for anywhere from $50-$200, that local store can deliver it for you.

3) Now, the biggest Con about brick and mortar stores in product knowledge. Unfortunately, in my experience, most brick and mortar sales cashiers have very little actual product knowledge. In fact, if you go to your local seller of sporting goods/fitness equipment you’ll find it very hard to even get someone to help you! Most of the reps you’ll encounter are going to be young kids who get paid a minimum wage for a minimum amount of work…which is a shame because that will be a turnoff for most people interested in actually buying a treadmill or elliptical.

4) The last major problem you’ll find at a local store is: pushy salesmen. There’s nothing I hate worse than a sales person who treats me like an idiot and pushes hard on whatever product will get them the best commission. I dislike the “used car” style sales people you’ll find at a lot of fitness specialty stores. There is a big company here in the LA area that is known for their hard-selling salesmen who bully customers in to some truly bad equipment. If a salesmen gets pushy with you just walk out and don’t go back. There are lots of other places to buy a treadmill or elliptical where you won’t have to put up with that sort of attitude.

Internet Stores — The Pros:

1) You’ll find the widest selection of product around. The big fitness sites will have hundred or thousands of products available for you to take a look at and compare.

2) With that extensive product selection you’ll also find a lot more product knowledge. If you’ve got a question or problem, you can generally call up or email an online rep and find them to be incredibly well-informed on everything they carry.

3) You will also find better pricing, free delivery in most cases and most of the time you won’t have to pay taxes. When you add it all up you’ll find yourself saving a lot of time and money when ordering online.

Internet Stores — The Cons:

1) No instant gratification — you will be waiting around 2-3 weeks to receive your order. Most of the units will be shipped out via a freight company which take 7-10 business days to travel across the country.

2) The big con for internet stores is that you don’t get to touch or test out their equipment. You’re having to deal with facts and opinions. Luckily, there are tons of sites out there and you’ll be able to get a good idea of what is a well-built machine and which ones are duds (Icon Fitness).

All-in-all, buying online is a lot easier and less painful. The brick and mortar shops have their place (say, for buying a floor model at a ridiculously low price), but for buying a new treadmill or elliptical I’d say check out online stores for a great deal and larger selection.

That’s it for today. Take care!

-The Treadmill Sensei

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Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/treadmills-and-ellipticals-online-buying-vs-offline-buying-140968.html

About the Author
The Treadmill Sensei: Treadmill and Elliptical Ratings and Reviews from the Master

Ohiyo!

Hello again from the Far East on the West Coast, and greetings from the DOJO. This week, before I get in to the nuts and bolts of the treadmills and the ellipticals I work on, I’m going to start with a quick guide to how to choose a treadmill — well, how to choose a residential / home grade treadmill. Choosing a commercial treadmill tends to be a bit easier — go Star Trac, Matrix, Landice or Life Fitness and, in spite of their great ellipticals, avoid Precor treadmills. Precor is a great company, they just don’t quite have treadmills down as well as the other companies. With the commercial treadmills it’s kind of like choosing between a BMW, a Mercedes and a Lexus. It’s all about bells and whistles more than performance…they’re all great machines and we’ll talk about them another time.

Home treadmills are a tough sea to navigate for most buyers — there are so many different brands and they all look alike to outsiders. Luckily, over the past 20 or so years, I’ve had to repair just about every treadmill ever made. In other words, my pain will be your salvation!

My first piece of advice is: avoid anything and everything from Icon Health and Fitness. They’re the manufacturer of the units you’ll find at places like Sears — nothing against Sears, but the treadmills they sell tend to be on the lower end of the quality scale. Their treadmills seem to have specs that are too good to be true for their cost and, truth be told, they are. The old proverb, “you get what you pay for” comes in to play with them. Small motors with high RPMs to give them a perceived higher horsepower (most of their motors should really be rated at under 1.5 HP regardless of what they tell you — a motor the size of a soda can should not be powering a full sized treadmill!), lots of plastic pieces, tiny rollers, and generally unstable machines are par for the course for the Icon brands like Proform, Weslo, Healthrider and Image. Just stay away from them! There are better treadmills even at the more affordable prices that Icon tempts the unlearned consumer with.

On with translating the arcane lore that is treadmill purchasing for the lay person.

Let’s start with the motor. The first thing you want to do is make sure the motor is rated with “Continuous Duty.” Any sales person or manufacturer who gives you a “Peak” rating is trying to sell you a bag of magic beans. Peak is best described as the maximum a motor will perform at before it breaks down. What’s more imporant is: how the heck is that motor going to perform when you’re actually using it? Another thing a shady salesperson might mention is that a common home circuit (120v/15amps) will only let you run about 2.5 HP and any motor larger than that is a waste of money. Technically that is true (about the amps vs. HP, not the waste of money), but the larger motors will tend to last longer as they are not running at the higher RPMs of a smaller motor. And, if nothing else, the larger the motor, the smoother the “ride.” A bigger motor will allow you to run or walk on it without slipping.

The next thing to look at is the size of a treadmill’s rollers. The bigger the rollers, the longer your belt will last and the better the running experience.

Next, and this is my favorite thing — especially when recommending cardio equipment to my in-laws — the warranty. Like anything else, the better the warranty the more piece of mind you will have. The 5 year parts warranty on Spirit treadmills, for example, is one of the best in the business. For me, the more faith a manufacturer has in its own product (i.e. the warranty), the more faith I have in that product. Of course, doing repairs I absolutely love the lower end warranties as it means more paying work for me!

What’s next? The weight and stability of the machine. There is nothing worse than getting on a treadmill and having it move back and forth, or shake, or, even worse, creak as you run on it. The heavier the unit the longer it will last. If you’re used to running on a treadmill at your local gym and then get on most home units, you’ll immediately notice the difference. You don’t want to be running around on something that feels like it is going to fall apart now do you? Don’t answer, that was a rhetorical treadmill question.

The tread and the deck are where most problems for treadmills happen. When the friction from your running builds up between the deck and the tread, the badness begins. Stick with the 4-ply belts/treads that help to reduce the amount of friction, and look at units with reversable, phenolic wax coated decks. Reversable decks let you flip over your running surface to use the opposite side when the original wears down. It’s like having a free second deck if you wear out the first one.

Programs. Don’t be fooled by this. Most people only wind up using 3-4 programs. If the treadmill has 20, that’s cool, but you’ll rarely use them. If you do heart rate training, then heart rate control is great. If not, it’s just an extra you’ll never use…like the clock you’ve never set on your VCR.

Speed and Incline are worth talking about. Most treadmills can go up to about 10 miles per hour and a 10 degree incline. Don’t let speed or incline become a deciding factor unless you’re doing a lot of high speed or high incline training. Obviously, electronically controlled speed and incline are the way to go. If those feature are manual just move on.

Finally, test out the shock absorbtion. You want to make sure you aren’t running on a hard surface. This is a “feel” thing more than a “scientific” one. If the deck is bouncy, move on. If the deck feels like running on concrete, move on. If the deck moves from side to side, move on. You want to find a deck that feels good, with just enough give and little to no lateral motion.

Beyond that fans, speakers, cup holders, magazine racks and even television sets on the treadmill’s console are all just icing on the cake. It’s better to get a good treadmill without a fan or TV and spend $50 to buy your own than to get a crappy, fully loaded treadmill which will eventually just become an expensive coat rack for dirty clothes.

Now, I know I alread typed “finally” but there is one last piece to consider: PRICE. You can only get what you can get but don’t be fooled into buying a lemon. There are decent (and some downright Great) treadmills at just about every price point. I’ll go over some of the best, at least in my experience, treadmills in the under $1000 range in the next week.

Don’t despair, there is a good treadmill out there you can actually afford

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Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/the-home-buyers-guide-to-choosing-a-treadmill-140989.html

About the Author
The Treadmill Sensei: Treadmill and Elliptical Ratings and Reviews from the Master