Customer Reviews

Life Fitness F3 Folding Treadmill with Advanced Console

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I bought this item a year ago. I liked the sturdy design and the advanced console. We use it mainly for morning excercise for approx 2 hours every day (6 - 8 miles a day). I have no problem with the actual treadmill itself but the "advanced" console is becoming a real issue. I called Life Fitness and had to replace the console. Reason: HR was going on and off and sometimes showing 50 HR a minute while running? I am not that fit to have such a low HR. This can potentially be very dangerous as you will be running and the HR is showing 120 while in fact you are at 170 HR per minute. The service person came, aknowledged the problem and requested a new console which was installed 3 months ago. This one seemed to be more reliable for a while but I have now the same issues as a few months ago. HR going on and off. I am walking at 3.5 miles an hours with an incline of 4 and after while my HR disappears and appers again every few seconds and showing the incorrect HR. So if I touch with my hands the sensors I am seeing the correct HR but I cannot reply on the wireless strap. By the way the batteries in the strap are new. The service person game me 3 straps and they all have the same issue so it must be the console. Since this is happening constantly I cannot use the Cardio exercise program. This treadmill is almost US$ 3000 and the console itself is US$ 700. I believe the console has definitively a design flaw with probably some cheap wireless sensors in it. I hope Life Fitness will finally acknowledge the problem and resolve it once for all.

December 2010
Well, 2 years later after having used the unit for a few thousands of miles (6000) I must say we are happy with this unit but we gave up on the hear rate monitor. We had it changed 3 times and eventually they told me that could be many reasons why it is showing 42 bpm when in fact I was running. Eventiually it resets and goes back to under 100 bpm again. I have decided to turn off the hear rate monitor wireless feature since completely unreliable and useless. at this point. It is disappointing that I am charged US$ 700 for for the "special high tech" consol and does not work.
Now I need to touch the front handles to measure my heartbeat however in the folding model (F3) it is not easy to reach the handled, if is quite uncomfortable and you can hit with your feet the front protection because of the angle that this treadmill has. onsequently the heart rate monitor is seldom used.