Methodology for rating treadmills

We’ve rated treadmill features to help you put together your shortlist. We also recommend you take some time to understand the different types and specifications, to ensure your treadmill will do everything you want it to do.

So what goes into our treadmill ratings?

We rate treadmills using a system of one to five stars:

We round ratings to the nearest half star.

For each treadmill, we evaluate a range of metrics including:

• How powerful the motor is and what speeds it’s capable of generating.
• How spacious a running deck it offers.
• How solid it is and the maximum user weight it can cope with.
• How many pre-programmed or customisable work-out programs it offers.
• What entertainment connectivity it offers.
• Whether and how it monitors your heart rate.

In each case, we look at what’s normal. To do this we’ve collected data points for a huge number of treadmills from multiple manufacturers and retailers. This helps us to identify where a particular treadmill is excelling or where it could do better.

What our ratings don’t cover

Because the same treadmill can be sold by 20 different retailers at 20 different prices (or even second-hand), we don’t factor the price into our ratings. However, we regularly scour prices and highlight good deals from specific retailers where you can pick up a highly rated treadmill below a specific price point.

Similarly, one person’s ideal running machine might not be ideal for the next person, so we aim to identify great deals for specific circumstances – for example, somebody buying their first treadmill or somebody buying on a tight budget. We also aim to do the same within distinct product categories – for example, manual treadmills.

It’s also worth noting that our ratings evolve over time as we build more considerations into our appraisal or as market benchmarks move. After all, what made for a good treadmill 15 years ago probably wouldn’t cut the mustard in the home gyms of today!

The bottom line

Our ratings are there to provide you with a quick assessment, but it’s also important to do your homework to find a suitable treadmill for your own situation.