How To Choose A Machine You" ll Use Without Breaking Your Budget.
Having an exercise machine at home is the ultimate in convenience, not to mention privacy. (You don't even have to wear matching gym socks.) But you probably don't want to shell out $1,000 or more on a machine only to have it languish like last year's gym membership.
We've got good news on that front: Our survey of people who owned a treadmill or elliptical exerciser found that about 60 percent of the machines were used at least as much as their owners had expected. And the majority of them held up decently over time, causing no serious problems or need for repairs.
That's encouraging, since a piece of home exercise equipment can be a big purchase, as our tests of 35 treadmills and 18 elliptical exercisers show. Our top-rated nonfolding treadmill, the Precor 9.31, costs a cool $4,000; the top-scoring elliptical, the Octane Fitness Q37ci, costs $3,100. Spending that much can get you sturdier construction, better hardware, and more features. But you can get a decent machine that provides a great workout for less than a third of that price. For example, our top-rated budget treadmill, the NordicTrack C900, $1,000, scored comparably to the Precor 9.31 in several categories and had some of the same features. If you're a walker, it may be more than sufficient to meet your needs.
Most of people took the budget route, with almost three-quarters of treadmills, ellipticals, and other large-scale home exercise machines purchased since 2008 costing $1,000 or less. But those who spent more than $1,000 tended to be happier with their purchases. And those who bought pricier elliptical machines reported fewer aggravations such as difficulty setting them up or finding the machine awkward or uncomfortable.
Our survey yielded other interesting information: reliability data on the most popular types of home exercise machines, to complement our already extensive tests of those products. And for the first time, we have a sufficient number of responses to provide satisfaction rankings for the top brands of treadmills and elliptical exercisers.
We asked, you answered Our survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, included 42,918 subscribers who responded to our 2011 Annual Questionnaire. The 18,984 of them who owned cardiovascular exercise machines told us about 27,825 machines (some people had more than one).
Treadmills were the most popular, accounting for 38 percent of the bunch; next most common were elliptical trainers and upright stationary bikes (each 16 percent), and recumbent bikes (11 percent).
Owners of 61 percent of machines said they were highly satisfied with them. And for 55 percent of machines, owners said they'd buy the same model or a similar one from the same brand if they had it to do over. Among the other findings:
Home advantage. The top reasons people cited for using a home machine instead of other types of exercise included ease of use (little preparation required to exercise; 56 percent), the ability to multitask by reading or watching TV while exercising (40 percent), the ability to use the machine when other forms of exercise weren't available (due to, say, bad weather; 37 percent), and ability to get a suitably tough workout (37 percent).
Space can be a concern. Most machines didn't cause notable problems for their owners. But among those that did, the most common problem by far was that they simply took up too much room, cited for about one-fifth of machines.
Reasons for stopping. For the minority of machines that hadn't been used in six months or longer, the reasons tended to have more to do with owners' exercise preferences than the machine itself. In about one-fourth of cases, owners said they'd gotten bored or given up; about the same number reported preferring to exercise elsewhere, like the gym or outdoors.
Reliability was encouraging. Of the almost 7,000 ellipticals, treadmills, recumbent bicycles, and upright bikes that people had purchased new since 2007, only 12 percent required repairs or had serious problems. Repair rates, which we adjusted for machine age and use, varied somewhat across machine types. Only 8 percent of recumbent bikes and 9 percent of upright bikes had been repaired. Ellipticals had a higher repair rate than either type of bike: 14 percent. Twelve percent of treadmills had been repaired.
We've got good news on that front: Our survey of people who owned a treadmill or elliptical exerciser found that about 60 percent of the machines were used at least as much as their owners had expected. And the majority of them held up decently over time, causing no serious problems or need for repairs.
That's encouraging, since a piece of home exercise equipment can be a big purchase, as our tests of 35 treadmills and 18 elliptical exercisers show. Our top-rated nonfolding treadmill, the Precor 9.31, costs a cool $4,000; the top-scoring elliptical, the Octane Fitness Q37ci, costs $3,100. Spending that much can get you sturdier construction, better hardware, and more features. But you can get a decent machine that provides a great workout for less than a third of that price. For example, our top-rated budget treadmill, the NordicTrack C900, $1,000, scored comparably to the Precor 9.31 in several categories and had some of the same features. If you're a walker, it may be more than sufficient to meet your needs.
Most of people took the budget route, with almost three-quarters of treadmills, ellipticals, and other large-scale home exercise machines purchased since 2008 costing $1,000 or less. But those who spent more than $1,000 tended to be happier with their purchases. And those who bought pricier elliptical machines reported fewer aggravations such as difficulty setting them up or finding the machine awkward or uncomfortable.
Our survey yielded other interesting information: reliability data on the most popular types of home exercise machines, to complement our already extensive tests of those products. And for the first time, we have a sufficient number of responses to provide satisfaction rankings for the top brands of treadmills and elliptical exercisers.
We asked, you answered Our survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, included 42,918 subscribers who responded to our 2011 Annual Questionnaire. The 18,984 of them who owned cardiovascular exercise machines told us about 27,825 machines (some people had more than one).
Treadmills were the most popular, accounting for 38 percent of the bunch; next most common were elliptical trainers and upright stationary bikes (each 16 percent), and recumbent bikes (11 percent).
Owners of 61 percent of machines said they were highly satisfied with them. And for 55 percent of machines, owners said they'd buy the same model or a similar one from the same brand if they had it to do over. Among the other findings:
Home advantage. The top reasons people cited for using a home machine instead of other types of exercise included ease of use (little preparation required to exercise; 56 percent), the ability to multitask by reading or watching TV while exercising (40 percent), the ability to use the machine when other forms of exercise weren't available (due to, say, bad weather; 37 percent), and ability to get a suitably tough workout (37 percent).
Space can be a concern. Most machines didn't cause notable problems for their owners. But among those that did, the most common problem by far was that they simply took up too much room, cited for about one-fifth of machines.
Reasons for stopping. For the minority of machines that hadn't been used in six months or longer, the reasons tended to have more to do with owners' exercise preferences than the machine itself. In about one-fourth of cases, owners said they'd gotten bored or given up; about the same number reported preferring to exercise elsewhere, like the gym or outdoors.
Reliability was encouraging. Of the almost 7,000 ellipticals, treadmills, recumbent bicycles, and upright bikes that people had purchased new since 2007, only 12 percent required repairs or had serious problems. Repair rates, which we adjusted for machine age and use, varied somewhat across machine types. Only 8 percent of recumbent bikes and 9 percent of upright bikes had been repaired. Ellipticals had a higher repair rate than either type of bike: 14 percent. Twelve percent of treadmills had been repaired.
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