Sounds to me like you already replaced the treadmill! I mean...what's left?

Seriously, I was in that boat last year with my TM...but, I got away with a lot less expense. I also attributed the series of failures to all be a cascade of a single problem. In my case, I had a bad deck and an old belt. That caused excessive current draw which eventually killed a transistor in the controller board. I replaced the TM belt, flipped the deck, and de-soldered the failed transistor and replaced it.

So, I stuck with the current TM. So far so good over a year later. At the time I mentally "drew a line in the sand" saying "if the motor goes, I'm done."

With all things like this, I tend to make the assessment based on whether I think the root cause is "age" or some specific failure. Ie, how likely do I think it is that I will CONTINUE to experience random failures of greater and greater expense.

My concern with your story is the storage conditions basically caused accelerated aging. So, your failures all sound potentially "age related". Granted it also sounds like you've replaced nearly everything, except the bearings. If that's the case, and you've moved it to better conditions...then I'd probably wait it out and see if things stabilize. But, my inclination would be to cut bait at the next major expense.

I seriously replaced the entire treadmill sans the frame and rollers. Not even joking despite your pink font!

I definitely am planning on letting this bad boy go the next time something goes down, but hopefully it won't be for awhile since nearly everything has been replaced!

When the TM inclined to max on its own on every run for a couple of weeks. It was > 20 years old and the OEM was no longer in business.

In terms of your comment "At the time I mentally "drew a line in the sand" saying "if the motor goes, I'm done." -


I did notice that MOST treadmills now, including ones at the $1000-$2000 pricepoint, have lifetime warranties on the motor. This is how mine was replaced for free - they just threw it in as I was clearly changing a lot of other parts. The motor, which I thought would be a big failure point, is actually the most warrantteed-covered part other than the frame (also lifetime in most cases)!

So you have a "brand new" $1500 TM for: $890. It lasted 7 years the first time around in hostile conditions. Mine's 10 years older than that (different brand), and lived indoors the entire time. The guy's above lasted 20 years before it began to do hill reps---just remarket that as a "feature".

So yeah....it might be a while.

I was joking above...But, if the roller's are the only thing left from the original....if one of those started to go, I might be tempted to replace it assuming I've got 7+ years left on the rest of the "new stuff". Sometimes, "the devil that you know"....

I'm a notorious DIY'er. I rebuild/repair most everything---perhaps to my wife's occasional chagrin (there might be a wall oven in my kitchen in need of repair...going on 2 years now). The only thing I've ever truly given up on was a Matag Washing Machine. After I replaced the control panel board for the third time and the motor for the second, I called it quits, and bought a new LG front loading matched set.

So, maybe my algorithm is more "once I start replacing the same things again...."

I was just given a 2010 SOLE F60 treadmill because my friend had barely used it. I had to disassemble it to get in my office, but when I tried to use it, the belt wouldn't move if I was standing on it. I already tighten the belt a bit. Someone suggested that I just clean the deck and re-lube it, but it seems to me that it might be more in-depth, i.e. the motor.

Any suggestions? Seems like you might have some experience with this type of treadmill.

Hah hah - I can't believe I can actually troubleshoot this, but yeah, I ran directly into this unexpectedly when dealing with the reassembly of the deck/rollers/belt. They make it look SOOO easy on the video, and then all unexpected hell of problems start breaking loose....

Several possibilities:

1. Rear roller screws are set so the running belt is overtensioned. You can easily adjust this by using a hex wrench to turn the screws on the back of the treadmill (one on each side) - you will see the screw move forward and thus, the rear roller/belt will get more lax. I'll bet this is your problem.

2. Deck and rear roller installed wrong. If the rear roller isn't in the right place, the belt feels too tight, almost like it's too small. The roller should slightly drop downwards into its mount - I actually have to push it and the belt down with my hand to 'clunk' it in - if you don't do that, the belt is too tight.

3. Front roller is set too far forward. Similar problem as above, but with the front roller - there's a single screw on the right to adjust this, but you probably shouldn't mess with that one - it should be 'middle' positioned, not extremely set in or out.


I'll bet highly it's #1 or #2. Lube shouldn't make a belt go from nearly immovable to smoothly moving.

It's definitely NOT the motor. The running belt tightness on the Sole treadmill has nothing to do with the motor other than if the belt is too tight, you're straining the motor and generating too much heat, or if it's too loose, you'll feel the belt slipping on each step.