Image Treadmills
Image
treadmills are a brand of
budget treadmills that come with advanced design features for
treadmills in the
“budget” price range. The Image brand of treadmills
I have found in my research
are consistently praised for providing better value for money than
other brands
of treadmill in this price range.
Icon
Health and Fitness a major
player in the health and fitness industry produce image Treadmills. Icon is the
world’s largest manufacturer of
exercise and fitness equipment. The company not only produces
treadmills (and
other fitness equipment), they also do all of the industrial design,
research,
marketing and development of their products in house.
Icon image treadmills produce the well
known brands of fitness
equipment such as Reebok and Gold’s Gym under license as well
as producing
their own well known brands Health Rider, Pro Form and Weslo.
There
are several models
available under the Image treadmill brand, chief among these are the
Image
treadmill 16.0 and Image treadmill 17.0 which have both been
recommended by
various reviewers as being the best models of all treadmills in their
price
ranges. The image 19.0 is considered the best value treadmill in the
image
range for price and features. While the image advanced 3000 is
considered the
best value treadmill in the slightly higher (over $1000) range.
The
design and features offered
by image in these budget treadmills are consistently what the reviewers
cite as
the reason for their favoring of Image over other players in the budget
market
place. The Image brand sells models from as low as $400 to $1700.
(These prices
are approximate and actual retail price will depend upon the seller you
choose
to buy from.)
The
drawbacks
Budget
treadmills in general have
the problem of not being as strong and durable as the higher priced
models.
Icon treadmills are budget treadmills and suffer from this same
complaint. Buy
a budget treadmill and you can expect to find parts wearing out and
repairs
being needed much sooner than if you bought a high priced treadmill.
If
you are only going to walk or
use the treadmill infrequently this price range is perfect for you, but
if you
are really going to give yourself and your treadmill a hard workout
expect to
start finding problems sooner than later.
Icon
image treadmills only offer a
90-day warranty on their base models, but a 12-month warranty on their
more
expensive advanced series. They are reputed to have very good customer
service
whilst the machine is in the warranty period; however the quality of
this
customer service is reported to decline once the warranty period
expires.
As
Icon performs all of their
research and development in house they are constantly striving to
improve their
products. Recently they have been able to source bigger better motors
at
cheaper prices and so this feature of their treadmills has improved.
They have
addressed most of the general complaints about quality and durability
by
introducing their advanced range; these ranges however do not really
fit into
the price point of budget treadmills.
Final
Word
In
conclusion, if you want a
budget treadmill, Icon treadmills offers superior design and features,
but like
all budget treadmills if you expect to be able to use it like the
machine in
the gym - very hard and or for extended periods expect to start
experiencing
problems relatively quickly.
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