Going to buy a treadmill

[Lean L]

I'm going to buy a treadmill soon so I was looking at treadmills today. I am used to the industrial ones at the gym, the giant ones. Now obviously I'd be buying a cheaper, non-industrial one but a few things caught my attention.

First off, what are the belt dimentions on the professional treadmills? Based on what I saw today, I'd say 60L x 20W ? When I go to the gym, it feels like there isn't much room to spare in terms of length, when going at slightly higher speeds, my legs actually span the entire length (My toes end up at the edge of the belt at the end of the stride). Would I have problems running on a 50" or 55" belt?

Are there any other things that I should keep an eye out for?

 

[Atrail]

I ended up getting a commercial Life Fitness (91T) refurbished off craigslist.org
You really want something that is built to take the pounding, the commercial models are really the only ones that are built to take it

 

[StageLeft]

I can't speak directly to your question, but I bought a $550 gold's gym one from walmart last year. So far it's ok, though I don't use it a lot (I go to the gym or outside mostly). It can take runs at a decent speed (I am under 190). Possible to buy an extended warranty, too. Generally these cheaper treadmills have much shorter lives, but I don't believe you need to go $1500+ to get one that's worth using.

 

[Lean L]

Yeah, I noticed a lot of the cheaper treadmills were designed for walking in the reviews.... This kinda defeats the purpose of a treadmill imo. My gym membership expired and I don't feel like renewing it since I won't have time to go a lot. I've been looking at this one: http://www.horizonfitness.com/...cts/treadmill/t92.aspx

It seems like a reasonably priced machine with respectable stats. Again my main concern is the belt length, from the pics of this treadmill it looks like I won't be able to do its max speed of 10mph without stepping off the belt, or it could be my imagination as this is only 5" shorter than commercial treadmills.

 

[nervegrind3r]

Do your homework, you really get what you pay for when it comes to treadmills. I got maybe 3 years out of my last treadmill which was $700, and then it started crapping out. I used it for incline walking, and running up to 6mph only. I only use it for walking now otherwise its trouble, and the parts and labor to fix treadmills add up. I love having the convenience, but would rather use a commercial treadmill at the gym any day.

 

[skywhr]

info / ratings

 

[Lean L]

Going to buy this one: http://www.treadmillscentral.c...k_c2255_treadmill.html

Got a pretty good deal. It doesn't seem to be heavy duty based on reviews but hope jogging won't be a problem (7.5mph).

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: nervegrind3r
Do your homework, you really get what you pay for when it comes to treadmills. I got maybe 3 years out of my last treadmill which was $700, and then it started crapping out. I used it for incline walking, and running up to 6mph only. I only use it for walking now otherwise its trouble, and the parts and labor to fix treadmills add up. I love having the convenience, but would rather use a commercial treadmill at the gym any day.

Three years for $700 is not bad, though.

My $550 one has a decently powerful motor and I think this kind of price range buys a lot more than it did a decade ago. It can definitely take a 7 mph run without going hot wild at my bodyweight.

treadmilldoctor in the past I've always found to be highly elitist and simply ridiculous, like they'll consider the best $1500 treadmill almost not even worth bothering with. They must somehow make money on people spending a lot on treadmills.

EDIT: Link It appears I don't have a gold's gym 550, but rather a 450 and we paid $399 for it indeed. So, it was their top rated bottom of the line one I do run fairly often and run on high end treadmills, but I can say this one really is quite usable. Nice thing about it is when you start the machine at 1 mph and hit the up and hold up it goes by .5 mph increments. The nice ones at my gym go by .1 and then they will hold every mph so you're constantly scrambling it up at the beginning of the run, except for some there that have a quick start and you can bump it immediately to 6 mph, which is nice.