I also saw that site when I was searching. But, my budget was about $5,000 or less and I was targeting lightly used Woodways on craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. I got to know the Woodway regional salesperson, and would feed him the serial number of the one I was looking at and he could look up service history, age, etc and tell me if the electronics were still supported and things like that, which are important if a repair is needed.

I ended up finding a 2008 Desmo with under 1,000 miles on it for $3700, but it was an 8 hour drive each way! The Desmo has been everything I had hoped and there's not a single thing I'd change except for how heavy it was to get it into my basement with 4 guys!

One key item the sale rep told me always look for was how hard it was to read "Woodway" on the slats. At 960 miles, it was barely worn down at all. The slats are expensive to replace, as you know. Mine had also just had a Woodway tech go through the whole unit, so I knew it was going to be a safe purchase.

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Blog: https://davidkoppeltriathlon.blogspot.com/
Coaching: https://dkendurance.com/

I would not buy a high end treadmill from Fitness Superstore. We bought a Technogym from them several years ago to match another one we already had. Their refurbishing was questionable. Within a year whatever they used to refurbish the deck failed and we had to buy OEM and deck. The next year the main controller failed and we had to replace that as well. Doubled the cost and offset all potential refurb savings. Never received a single reply from fitness superstore regarding the problems or our treadmill tech calling for info on the parts they used. Not sure how they maintain their ratings and assume they have someone dedicated to gaming that interface.

The other Technogym was also refurb from Technogym and has only require minor maintenance in 10 years of heavy use.

Desmo refurbs from Woodway are great. The only difference between a Desmo and the 4Front after refurb is the side panels on the Desmo are plastic while they are metal on the 4Fronts. My Desmo refurb even had the '4Front' stamp on the treads. Woodway switched to the metal sides due to the most common use for that tm was in a commercial environment. The plastic sides of the Desmo are fine for home use. Buy it you won't regret it. I've had mine 4 months and love it.

I bought a used Desmo that was on sale from a fitness club bankruptcy from fitnessdepot.ca. It was "as is" for $2500 CAD installed in my basement and I was told it was "working" when the gear was sold by to fitness depot. So I just got it for that price and fitnessdepot said that if it broke down they had all the skills to repair it for me for a price. Since 2017, I had two slats broken on me that figured out how to fix. Between my son and I it gets used daily. Prior to us owning it, the fitness club would have had it being used several hours per day, so given that it is now 11 years old, I am pretty impressed all around.

I would go with the refurbished Desmo.

I picked up a used Desmo on craigslist in mid-2020 in lieu of buying a refurbished unit directly from Woodway. For the money that was saved I figured it was worth the risk in the event something catastrophic happened and I needed to deal with replacing a major part (so far so good after 1000s of miles of use). I did replace the display with a newer one from Woodway. I'm pretty sure the slats are never going to get worn down enough to need replacement. I did have to deal with a few squeaks but some lithium grease took care of those issues.

If I were to do it over again I'd probably wait until I came across a used 4Front but only because it would be slightly never. I'm completely satisfied with the Desmo. The only thing I would change would be to pay someone to move it. The treadmills are ridiculously heavy and incredibly difficult to move...the Desmo lives in my garage instead of downstairs where it was initially going to go. Even with three people it was a pain to unload and get set up in the garage. I would not want to take it down any stairs.

There is no way I would have been able to move my Desmo. I had four people from Fitness Depot deliver it and set it up to my basement. Subsequently I wanted to rearrange my pain cave set up and I have moved other equipment down them, but the location of the treadmill may as well be cast in cement.

When I sell my house, I am leaving it with the new owner or selling it to whomever arranges to have it moved out of there. When we move we're downsizing and I won't have room for that tank as awesome as it is.

Agreed. I bought a Desmo refurb from someone who bought it refurb'd from Woodway.

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<The Dew Abides>

I have a Desmo coming in June.
Cost to delivery to garage $400
Cost to delivery to my basement $650.

Are you saying pay the $250 ? It’s worth it. Does it have wheels on it ? Can you put two Dollie’s under it ?

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Technique will always last longer then energy production. Improve biomechanics, improve performance.
http://Www.anthonytoth.ca, triathletetoth@twitter

Thanks for your warning. I was recently considering buying from them. I was amazed how high their Yelp ratings were (almost all 5 stars, even the ones hidden by default). Are you aware of any negative reviews about them (by you or anyone else) which have been suppressed?

Did they refuse to fix any of your problems even during the first year (which presumably should have been covered under a minimum of 1 year parts & labor warranty)? What was the model of these 2 Technogym treadmills?

Are there any other companies that you believe are trustworthy sources for refurbished or remanufactured treadmills?

Did you buy the other “refurb from Technogym” directly from Technogym? Do you know if it’s still possible to buy refurbished products from them directly?

I have a 4Front made in 2018. It has four square female tubes (two on each end below the belt) that are designed to assist moving the unit. Woodway sells square metal insertions that allow you to roll the unit or tip it on its side. With a dolly and two people I haven’t had issues re-positioning mine.

You can also lift the unit with the incline feet, then put a dolly under the fixed feet, then lower it back down on the dolly. That gets the front end on wheels, and you can just muscle up the rear feet onto a dolly.

I didn’t buy the woodway handles, I just used some steel pipe that I cut up to make handles for the square tubes.

The best advice I can give to woodway owners is read the manual.

Just curious - were Mercury or Path available in refurbished?

My Desmo/4Front refurb also has the slots for inserting poles to lift the treadmill from the ends. I have not had problems moving the unit a few feet left or right by myself. I use the poles to lift two legs of the treadmill at a time, and I slide furniture-moving pads underneath the feet and slide the unit around. There's a little effort involved, but you're only lifting a small percentage of the machine's total weight, and the poles give you nice leverage. It's doable for an age-grouper.

As to Endosch's idea of using the incline legs to lift the front? I wish I'd thought of that!

But when I first bought it and had to get it in the house and up stairs? I hired four professional movers and stayed the heck out of the way.

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<The Dew Abides>