Wow, this thing came well packaged in a HUGE, Heavy box, have the delivery people put it where you want it because there's no way you will be moving it again unless you have a couple of weightlifters with STRONG backs! So have a large place cleared when you are expecting the delivery. As to the putting together of it, my 12 year old son & husband had no problem, it took them several hours though, if it had been me putting it together it would have taken much longer. Two people makes a big difference and of course your ability in assembling things in general.
It says to have a professional put it together IF you do it yourself, as we did, the screws are very TIGHT to screw in, they do this so they will fit snug & not come out. You cannot use power tools as they might strip the screws, so be prepared for a workout!My husband is STRONG and It took him 3 hours to put it together.
Once it was assembled, I realized that where I had placed it I could not see the 36" TV screen on my dresser, (I am 5'5" tall) the control panel blocked it from my view, my 6'3" son could see the TV with no problem though!
Then the next feature came in sooooo handy....... I picked up the tread and pushed it to its new location (It has wheels!) on the other side of the room, now I could see the TV fine but discovered I did not have enough clearance between the wall & the back of the treadmill, you need about 8 feet so if you lose your balance & accidentally fall you won't be smashed into the wall where the treadmill will deposit you! (They do have a magnetic "key" on a string with a clip on the end, that you can clip onto you, so IF you fall, it will automatically shut the treadmill off!)
Now back to the repositioning of the treadmill!
We moved it again, effortlessly I might add, this time I had a new problem! The cord would not reach the outlet! The cord is only about 6 feet long and comes out at the front of the machine towards the wall. There is no room to run it under the machine and behind it or enough length to run it along the side to plug into the wall behind it & have any clearance between you and the wall! It is really designed to be plugged in FACING a wall no more than 6 feet away in front of you! So unless you are tall or have a higher wall mounted TV to view, you will be listening to music looking out a window or at a wall unless you use an extension cord or are fortunate enough to have a side wall outlet that lines up with the front of the machine EXACTLY where you want to place it!
Now for my profile info: I have mild scoliosis, I have been diagnosed with osteopenia (that means I'm pre-osteoporosis) I am 53 years old, 5'5" tall and weigh about 115 pound. I go to the gym regularly, rotate weights with cardio, & own a mid price range elliptical that was a Consumer Reports Best Buy about 6+ years ago. I have an 18 year old, weight lifting, "Navy Seal Workouts" type of son who also uses this, he is extremely fit, 6'3", and weighs about 220 pounds. I will be telling you both our perspectives on this treadmill.
My elliptical at home was bothering my knees when I did more than 4 miles on it, where I could do a 10 miles on a treadmill at the gym at a speed of 4.1 with no pain! So I really wanted a home treadmill, while researching various models this one was independently rated a Best Buy for medium price range model as my elliptical was, so I was pretty confident it would work well for my needs.
This treadmill is AWESOME!! I know there are more expensive models that are uber cool but are out of my price range so for what this has for the price it is sweet! I LOVE the ipod dock with the speakers! NO more ear buds!
There are 12 programs to select from where you can input the calories you want to burn & it will automatically adjust the speed/incline/time to what you want! It has a nice variety & you can set it for 200 to 750 calories!
The tread belt is 20" x 55" which suits me fine, my son however wishes it was a bit larger but it still does fit his gait, he just is about at the max for it we think. So IF you are tall like him or maybe even shorter but with longer legs you might want to go to a gym or fitness store and compare treadmills with similar tread belts to see if they are big enough for your gait. For us it is sufficient.
It also has the iFit Card Technology that you can get for it but are NOT included! It would have been neat if they had thrown at least 1 in with it. After we get done playing with the feature it already has we will be getting some and will update this review.
While the machine itself has a limited one year warranty on parts and labor, it also has a 2.25 Continuous Duty HP Motor that comes with a 25 year warranty! That gives us a sense of peace that we can go to town and not worry about burning it out as there is no one in our family that exceeds the weight guidelines (300 pounds max)
It is reasonably quiet, there are no noticeable "squeaks" or noises that make listening to TV or music difficult.
The LCD display is backlit, there is Dual-Grip EKG Heart Rate Monitor, it can incline from 0%-10%, it has 12 different Quick Calorie-Burn Workouts to select from along with what they call "ProTech Cushioning" that reduce impact on your joints by 15% as opposed to running on the pavement/road! It also EASILY folds up, which is wonderful if floor space is a premium in your house, it is not an issue where I have it place in my home.
This is the baseline model for this line, IF you can afford it or are Taller OR heavier I would definitely recommend looking into their higher end models! But for our wallet & needs this is the one that we recommend our friends with similar budget buy!
If there are ANY issues that arise I WILL update, I so appreciate it when other reviewers do updates!
5/23/2011~ update!
We discovered today that when you burn 1,000 calories it resets itself back to zero & restarts itself!
It's a good thing we caught this as IF we did not see it reset & looked at the cumulative amount of calories burned at the end of the run, we would have thought it was defective!!