Looks super nice, but who would support and service these treadmills?

My price point for a home treadmill is $1000. Maybe I'm spoiled by my 18 year old home grade TM that is still going strong. But, I wouldn't pay more for "commercial quality".

I don't run on grade on the TM very much. But, 22 km per hour is nuts. Is that even safe?

All things I need to consider in pricing.

But good thing is the supplier has had no belts damaged thus far since shipping out a few thousand of this model.

But that’s a big hurdle I need to consider.

22 kph is about a 4:25 mile. I'm sure there are people running 66 second quarters or 33 second 200s in training, but probably on a track. The electrical load to keep a belt running at those speeds must be absurd. You'd probably have to unplug your dryer and plug this into the 220v outlet.

most commercial grade TM require a 20 amp dedicated circuit at 120v.

To the OP, i work for a major cardio equipment manufacturer and there are a lot other things to consider other than speed and belt. Belt life, deck materials, deck life, electric motor quality, motor control board quality, upper control board quality, software, software design, toggle/key life span, warranty, how to service and obtain parts, etc. There is always the problem of gray market parts overseas. Most commercial grade treadmills are more than most people are willing to pay for home use.

Basically all ^ things. Plus, I will NOT have a touch screen on a treadmill I own. When that thing breaks, and it the rest of the TM should outlast it, it'll be a fortune to replace.

I'm really stuck on a Sole at this point (getting ready to buy) because of the simplicity of the screen and controls. I don't need all of the fancy stuff, just ON, Speed, and Incline. Heck I could even care less about tracking my distance or time if that were to break.

What does intrigue me about the commercial grade machines though is the robustness of manufacture. I'm a bigger guy, and I need a motor and frame that can keep up. Hence the Sole TMs, built tough with a lifetime warranty.

I have a Sole F80. I'd recommend it. I'm not a big guy but I kept my Sole F80 in a high-condensation garage which accelerated electronics damage (fixed the condensation since, no problems.)

After 7.5 yrs though, I had to replace nearly the entire thing, so it's not completely userfree.

My experience-

- Customer service was very helpful, got a person to talk to easily who was helpful and sent parts free during warrantee, told me where and what to get after warrantee.
- The motor never gave out, even after 8 years of fairly solid use. He sent me a new one for free when I replaced my deck 2nd time just for fun.
- I replaced my deck twice. Once at the 4 yr mark, once at the 8 year mark. Honestly, I'm not sure it had to be replaced; I just noticed there were small crossmarks on the wood deck when I was lubing it for the first time after 4 years, and I called them just to check if that was a problem, and they sent me a new one. Same deal at 8yrs, this time I had to pay $200 for the deck.
- I replaced the belt and rollers at year 8. Had to pay for both, about $500 total. You might not have to; my rollers were rusting due to the condensation effect, hopefully won't happen again.

In summary, Sole gets thumbs up customer service, and has a good warrantee if anything goes wrong. The deck is the part most likely to need replacement. I'll bet a commercial TM would last a lot longer even in the conditions I subjected my Sole F80 to, but would cost a lot more.

Weirdly, the motor and frame are the LEAST likely to crap out on you (despite the fact Lionel sanders kills them.) I noticed that almost all the brands $1500 range have lifetime motor and frame warrantees, meaning they have high faith that they'll last for a really, really long time.

Thanks for the feedback. I keep trying to look elsewhere to make sure I'm not missing anything but always just come back to the Sole. Trying to decide between the F80 and S77. Is the extra .5hp worth $400 is the question I'm struggling with.

Another vote for the Sole F80. Mine has been fine. Though if I won the lottery, I'd get a Skillmill.

https://www.technogym.com/...illmill-connect.html

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I tried something that was a clone of that one in a local gym store. I liked it, but the inability to be able to add incline is def a limiter for me. The one I ran on was really soft, felt exactly like the surface of a spongy high school track.

One of the Ys near my workplace also just got Woodway Curve manual treadmills. As expected, nobody is using them, and there's even a 'caution, get training first' sign posted on them. This was also ok, but I was actually underwhelmed. Felt somewhat fake to me, in that run cadence got pushed up high due to the fastmoving belt, thought I'd love it but I def don't.

I'd actually stick with my trusty powered Sole F80 compared to those 2. I did feel those two TMs were designed for sprinters - the deal with those is that you can run as fast as you want, and the TM will keep up. If you actually try to run 'up' on the belt, you will end up sprinting - I just ran as fast as I wanted in place, and the belt matched my speed. I'd really miss hill training though.

My gym has these. I use it rarely for about 30 seconds and think "this thing is dumb" and quit

My wife and I have an Air Assault (manual) treadmill in the gym. We got a good deal on one from Rogue fitness (free shipping) right before Christmas and we love it. Smooth (and though it squeaks a little more than I'd like) it seems to be pretty heavy duty so far. Interesting to me, it also measures running power in watts. Though I confess I don't know the first thing about that (or if the metrics "translate" in any meaningful way), it does offer a metric I can use when doing intervals. So, for example,one of my mid-week workouts is 5 minute warm-up; 30 seconds at high output; 1:30 recovery X whatever number I'm up for; cool-down at 5 or 10 minutes. I am still an outside runner and prefer trails, but this was a good purchase and gets a lot of use in our house.

Having seen everything made with moving parts by Technogym break, I would avoid this company. Yes, it’s sexy and Italian, and it runs like a FIAT (fix it again Tony).

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DFL > DNF > DNS

Touch screens attached to treadmills are not a good idea. The treadmills at Lifetime (with 50+ high-end options in every club) were constant sources of complaints. Electronic TV’s not working, while the underlying mechanisms were fine, made for a poor impression.

Also, IMO, a commercial grade treadmill should have a decline option.

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DFL > DNF > DNS