I find treadmills much more accurate than my watch. I don't use a footpod so can't speak to that but I workout at 3 different gyms depending on where I am working that day and use maybe 25 (I am guessing) different treadmills from about 5-7 different companies...and they are all pretty consistent with one another for pace/time/distance. No way all of them are off by the exact same amount - meaning its would appear they are reliable indicators of my time, distance, and pace (and most of what I have read says this same thing). This leads me to believe that most treadmills are probably more accurate than the 'treadmills are way off' comments I see a lot. But sure, if only use one you can't compare and see that difference like someone that uses multiple. Having said that, my workouts on my watch are always off on the treadmill and its so easy to trick the watch on the treadmill. I would assume pods are way more accurate but personally I just record the distance the treadmill says at the end and call it a day.