The only way fitness equipment manufacturers can make a profit on cheap treadmills is by loading them with poorly made parts and motors. Limiting your shopping to cheap treadmills will doom you to finding, in a matter of months, that your machine’s motor or electronic console is failing. Given the short duration of the warranties on most cheap treadmills, you could end up with a useless and very large fitness machine hogging your living space until you can find someone to take it off your hands.
The only good reason for considering cheap treadmills is that you might not know exactly how dedicated you will remain to your workouts. The idea of spending two or three thousand on a commercial quality machine which you may get tired of in a couple of months does not make much sense.
If you’ve only invested five hundred in a machine, on the other hand, you won’t feel as foolish if you decide treadmill workouts aren’t for you. Buying a more expensive machine, however, may give you the incentive you need to stick with the program!
You can expect a minimum of features, which are one of the biggest factors in determining the price of a Treadmill. Adjustable inclines, voice coaches, and heart rate monitors are all very nice, but expensive. You don’t really need them unless you are a serious athlete training for competition.
Make sure that the controls on your treadmill are easy to use and understand. If you’re running or walking at a certain pace and you get tired and want to slow the pace down you don’t want to have to try to figure out how to do that or you try to do it and the machine doesn’t respond, that can be very dangerous.
Cheap treadmills may be the best way or the only way for you to get into exercising, but it does you no good if your treadmill is not safe.