So, the deck on my trusty old treadmill is cracked and a foot amputation is eminent if I continue to use it. It was never a great treadmill, but it hung in there for 10+ years so I can’t complain.
I have the Nordictrack 1750 treadmill in the online shopping cart and was going through the checkout process and I have three choices to subscribe to iFit Coach Plus.
At first I though, oh, I’ll just cancel it. I won’t use it. Then I chatted with a sales person who told me it is a 1 year commitment to iFit - so it costs $468 on top of the treadmill.
Seriously? Is this for real?
I asked for a $468 discount on the treadmill because I don’t want iFit, I don’t want a wearable, and I don’t need adjustable weights valued at $399 - I just want a damned treadmill - and the sales guy said he could give me $50 off and a free mat. Woohoo. No. Then he refers me to the Proform 5000, which is the same model (made by sister company) and only requires a $15 on month iFit subscription, which I can cancel. So, if I buy a Nordictrack, I’m getting married to iFit for a year at my expense. WTF?
This must be a new requirement or the sales guy didn’t know what he was talking about. I bought a 750c a few years ago and it’s been awesome. It has ifit on it, but I’m not required to subscribe. I always just do my own thing, which right now is running on zwift.
I see this happening more and more as businesses move toward a “subscription” based revenue model. I wouldn’t have guessed it would extend to treadmills but here we are. Thanks for the heads up!
I just got a ProForm 2000 a couple months ago and it’s great. No iFit. You could use Zwift if you want tho. I already pay for that anyway.
That’s encouraging. Does Zwift control the incline/speed of the treadmill? Or are you pushing the buttons to keep up with Zwift? Is Zwift showing on the onboard screen, or on your iPad/PC? This intrigues me a bit…
This must be a new requirement or the sales guy didn’t know what he was talking about. I bought a 750c a few years ago and it’s been awesome. It has ifit on it, but I’m not required to subscribe. I always just do my own thing, which right now is running on zwift.
I think it is new. I went through 2 different salespeople to get to the bottom of this. I told both that I was ready to buy this second but iFit was a deal killer. Both could do nothing about iFit. I don’t know many salespeople who don’t want to get the sale done so it seems legit. Some googling and fine-print reading confirmed this. Which made me even more frustrated. Lame.
So, f*** Nordictrack. Unless you like iFit and want to pay $39/month (that is stupid expensive!). So TrainingPeaks + Zwift or TrainerRoad + iFit? Nope. No thanks.
Doesn’t adjust the incline or the pace. From my internets reading (mostly dcrainmaker) it sounds like treadmill companies would be open to let 3rd party apps control incline but not speed.
I use a milestone foot pod to broadcast speed and pace to Zwift. I’ve only done it a few times because it’s been nice out. I expect I’ll use it more once winter rolls around New England again.
My wife uses the treadmill 3-4 times per week but just watches tv on it. She loves the treadmill though. I have an iPad plugged into a 27 inch monitor that’s mounted on the wall in front of the treadmill. Everything is mirrored or displayed on it. Some video apps are smart enough to output the video to the monitor but leave the controls on the iPad. Pretty cool actually.
