How to know what features you are paying through the nose for on a treadmill
If you are treadmill shopping, you will notice that some treadmills that seem similar have wildly different prices. What is it that makes one treadmill cost $1000 more than another treadmill? Some features you have to pay through the nose for. Decide if these features are important to you.
Shock absorption-one feature that is guaranteed to inflate the price of your treadmill is a shock-absorbing deck. Treadmills with shock absorption in the deck are engineered differently than standard treadmills and use different, more expensive materials. As a rule, most treadmills that cost more than about $1500 feature shock absorbing decks and those under $1500 don't. You might want shock absorption for both comfort and safety. It puts less stress on your body to run on a shock absorbing treadmill, think about the different between running on cement or grass. Less stress on the body makes the run feel better and it also prevents overuse injuries such as plantar fasciitis and stress fractures. The heavier you are and the more you plan on running, the more important it is for you to buy a treadmill with shock absorption.
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Built in comforts-some treadmills offer some distinctly non-running features, such as built in TVs or DVD players or built in fans. While this might seem smart, it probably isn't. The extra money that you pay for these gimmicks is greatly inflated. You can buy a nice small screen color TV for a couple of hundred dollars. Having one built in to you treadmill will cost you lots more than that. When shopping for treadmill, stick to the features that have to do with running. If you need entertainment while running, place your treadmill in front of an existing television set. There is no sense in paying more than you have to when buying a treadmill; they are expensive enough without the extra whistles and bells.
Warranties-the issue of warranties is a little bit of a chicken and egg situation. Do treadmills that are more expensive come with better warranties or do the better warranties make the treadmills more expensive? Either way, the more expensive the treadmill is the better your warranty will be so you might as well think of it as a feature. It is fairly expensive feature but probably worth it. If you have to have your treadmill repaired, it is likely that someone will have to come to your house to repair it. This is quite expensive; it becomes extremely expensive if you have to buy small computerized parts. Save your self the drama by getting a good treadmill with a good warranty because it is much less likely to need service.
Horsepower-one feature that might seem like you would have to pay more for it is horsepower. This isn't the case. There are some cheap machines out there with lots of horsepower. For example, the Image 19.OR features a 2.8 horsepower motor and the treadmill only costs about $600. Other machines costing $2000 only feature 2.5 horsepower. A minimum of 2.0 is recommended for a machine that you are going to run on and only 1.0 horsepower is necessary if you only plan to walk on your treadmill. This is a feature that you won't need to pay much for, so don't let some salesperson tell you other wise.
Incline-incline is something that you will have to pay a lot for but if you are planning to use your treadmill for actual training (like you plan on running races) you will need it. There is no other way to simulate the experience of running up and down hills. It is especially important to have negative incline. Muscles work in pairs and if you overdevelop your uphill muscles relative to your downhill muscles, you will end up with an injury.
