I'm curious why you're critical of NordicTrack (Icon Fitness) treadmills but then go on to recommend three Icon made machines in the link you provide. I've worked in the fitness and rehab equipment industry for several years as a service provider and have found *ALL* Icon made equipment to be sub-par at best. Most of the Chinese made stuff you recommend (Sole, Smooth, etc) isn't a whole lot better considering the price.

If it says NordicTrack, Pro-form, Image, Weslo, Healthrider, Weider, Freemotion, Epic, Reebok, Golds Gym or you see iFit.com anywhere on it, it's made by Icon Fitness and it's far from the best quality out there.

Why no tests or comments on Precor, Pacemaster, Life Fitness, Trimline, Landice, etc, machines? You seem to ignore *A LOT* of decent to good quality machines to favor Icon and Chinese made stuff.

Bob

Bob, I'm fully aware of how deep and wide the tentacles of Icon fitness extend into the treadmill and elliptical trainer market. The reason I don't recommend the Nordictrack Treadmills is there are a lot of better machines in the low to mid-level treadmill market (from $900 - $2000). As far as your comments on why I recommend some Icon Fitness treadmills but not Nordictrack, is a simple matter of Icon controlling about 70% of the brands in this price range. Some cheaper treadmills are better than others, but as I've stated many times on the website and in the blog, you get what you pay for. I wouldn't even consider buying a treadmill for under $1500 unless you're only going to walk on it a couple times a week and you weigh 150 pounds or under, but to some degree it's a matter of opinion. I also have to disagree with you about the Smooth and Sole teradmills in the $900 - $2000 range, for the money their about as good of a machine as you'll find, beating the competition in price, features and warranty. As to why I don't review a ton of the high end treadmills like Precor, Life Fitness, Landice and Pace Master (I own a Pace Master Gold Elite Fold Up that I bought on clearance by the way and It's a piece of crap that I'll be sending back) is that 99% of the population isn't shopping in the $3000 plus price range - I'm trying to help the average consumer get a good machine for their money. With that said, I am working hard on getting more of the expensive treadmills reviewed in time for the holidays.

[[[ Bob wrote me this response back to my personal email address - read below]]]

Bret,

Thanks for your well reasoned response.

It's interesting to read opinions from a different perspective. I tend to overlook features and other "fluff" and focus on quality of parts/workmanship and of course ease of service. Logical since I see these things as objects to tinker with. Heaven forbid I actually workout on one… LOL.

I sympathize with your effort to help guide users to the best, inexpensive equipment. It's not easy! I'm not sure there's anything under $1,500 that I'd be able recommend other than a used commercial machine. And while used "pro" stuff can be a bargain if you find the right deal it's not for everyone. I typically tell my customers that anything significantly less than $2,000 will be of questionable quality, particularly if they plan to run instead of just walk. Anything made by Icon should be avoided no matter the price. I've seen some truly putrid (and scary) build quality on even the most expensive Icon stuff. And their tech hotline staff is useless for all but the most basic questions. But they'll send box after box of warranty parts though. About %25 are wrong parts, don't work, or are just plain broken. As long as I make my $150 per call I guess I don't mind all *that* much.

I probably haven't seen a large enough sample of Smooth and Sole machines to draw completely accurate conclusions. They're not all than common here in CT. From what I've seen I rate their treadmills about the same, maybe a little better than, the Horizon stuff and their ellipticals just barely above Icon quality (think Yugo cars). So much stuff from China/Taiwan is hit or miss but it's the reality of doing business these days. Most of the True Fitness installs I do are all Taiwanese made and I've been regularly doing warranty fixes/upgrades to Precor machines with dying Chinese motors (Precor rep: "It's not Chinese, it's made in Taiwan" Me: "Sigh… What's R.O.C. stand for?".) Some of the newer Life Fitness stuff seems to think it's Chinese (ie: ct95xi). And the Italian made TechnoGym stuff is… well, Italian: Pretty to look at, iffy reliability and the worst software ever written (I worked in the software world for 12 years and I've written some really bad stuff so I know <grin>).

I'm a little surprised to hear of your trouble with a PaceMaster machine. The owners I meet seem to like them as a rule. Common failures are motor controllers and console cables cut by RPM sensor disks. I've seen one deck fail in three years and that was user abuse (and they still covered it under warranty). I typically recommend the Bronze model as a decent $1,500 machine. Would never recommend their high end stuff as it's too flimsy to justify the $3K price.

I've started running into a few Vision T9500's in the field and expect they'll hold up to home use quite well since they're based on the old vertical market T86/8700's. We'll see how well the Cambridge motors and incline assembly hold up. Not a bad rig and the Simple model starts at $2k.

Well I've rambled on far too long already. Thanks again for the reply. I enjoy your site and will be sure to visit on a regular basis.

Take care,
Bob

(When did I become a treadmill geek?)