What are the most essential features on a treadmill?
 

Hubby and I have decided to give each other the gift of health for Christmas, so we've asked Santa for a treadmill. That way we can walk away the winter without having to worry about slipping on the roads or trudging through the snow. Santa needs to know what the features are that you can't live without on a treadmill. The only thing I can think of is one with a push button incline, rather than having to manually incline it. Anything else Santa needs to know?

Hi Angela -

Hubby and I did the same this year. Sigh, no presents under the tree, but a treadmill in our spare room!! :D

As far as features...here are some of the things we looked at, of course, everyone has different priorities.
1. Deck size.....wider is more comfortable for walking, if you sidestep then you don't hit the solid rails. Longer is good if you or hubby are long legged or striders. Also good when you fall a little behind....you don't fall off the back that way. ;)
2. Incline ability....if your are going to use it primarily for walking it's good to be able to up the incline a little or a lot. I, personally, walk to music and follow the beat. Some songs are fast, so I set the incline for low and the speed for high, some songs are slow, so I set the incline high and the speed low to match the beat. Higher inclines really help work the butt muscles, and the hamstrings. Look for at least a 10 to 12 percent incline automatic (push a button on the dash)ability.
3. Warranty...look for extended warranties, I personally feel they are worth it for such a mechanical monster. Labor/parts/motor/belt, that kind of stuff.
4. Ability to load programs if you are interested...IFIT programs can be downloaded from the net into the treadmill. We wanted this but are finding it too big of a pain to use, YMMV.
5. I really, really, like the ability of our treadmill to up speeds at .1MPH (or whatever in KM) with a single button, at the same time, ours also has the ability to switch from 1 to 10 MPH in 1 MPH increments. It's nice to have the ability to adjust the speed in more than one way.
6. Ability to raise the deck for storage. Ours is in our guestroom and it's nice to be able to "fold it" up and put it away.
7. Cushioning....some decks are very soft, really made for runners, others are in between, some are just too hard.
8. Noise level...some motors sound like they are powering the Concorde...
Plan on wearing your hikers to the store and TRY them. Don't be embarrassed to walk 5 minutes on each of them, it's a big investment!!!!

Good luck -
Marjan

Thank you Truus. That's a very thorough evaluation and definitely helpful!