7 Best Treadmills Under $1,000 For Home Use

Treadmills

By Michael / October 11, 2015

We have created the ultimate list of best treadmills under 1,000 bucks because treadmills are a great asset for anyone who wants to lose weight, stay fit or just needs some exercise at home. Without further ado, let’s see the top list of the best running machines, and later on we shall discuss all the rest.

The Best Treadmills Under $1,000 for Home Use

OK. The deal about the treadmills. For runners they might be a bit of a compromise, especially if you are among those who appreciate the beauty of running outside.

Nevertheless I think they are necessary in our arsenal of home gym equipment. They certainly help us stay healthy on an acceptable budget. And in this case, the acceptable budget would mean having one that costs under 1000 Dollars. So let’s see what the market has to offer.

I know people often say you get what you pay for, but is it really necessary to reach deep in your pocket and find a good running machine? I don’t think so. Given all the benefits you get by running on either treadmill or working out on elliptical, many are a good fit even for a pocket not so deep. So here is a list of those 7 treadmills we at OutdoorExtravaganza found worthy to consider.

The main features we wanted to check in this review are:

• tech – things like the motor, for example: people say mid-priced treadmills should have a good motor with at least 3 horsepower, let’s find out if this is true? Mechanics and warranty: these two go hand in hand when it comes to machines that are heavily used. A good construction is important, but as we found out, not as important as a good warranty (things do get messy if you don’t have one) and a good customer support team (heard some horror stories already)
• size, weight, foldable (yes, no?) – if you don’t have a dedicated room for your home gym, you might find that even the slightest shift in size and foldability can make your life either easier or harder. Pick the one you would easily fit in the space you decided upon.
• programs – by programs we mean running, fat burning, training programs and such. It is our experience that some treadmills really lack the imagination when creating programs and go with only 5-6 which is unacceptable.
• price  – the price tag of under $1000 really means under, but we didn’t want to go too low (below mid-ranged) so this is approximately a range of $700-$1000 which should give you a good but probably not the best treadmill you could fit in your home. Expect some mid ranged, pretty decent treadmills with good price to value ratio, but not the maximum quality (those would cost at least double).

That being said, our comparison table at the beginning shows what we think are the 7 best treadmills one can buy under the $1,000 price range. If you want to read more, you will find a little overview of the treadmills below:

The Winner Is: Lifespan TR 1200i Treadmilll

In our opinion, the winner of the treadmills under 1000 list is by far the Lifespan TR 1200i Folding Treadmill! Congratulations to the people behind it. We loved the combination of a good motor and speed with appropriate incline combination. Awesome warranty and just about enough programs to get you into your zone. Great “musical” power too and we really had to work hard to find anything wrong. Scratch that. It was hard to even find anything not to our liking.

Or read the full 1200i treadmill review.

Horizon Fitness T101-04 Treadmill

Second best, only because the warranty is not so good as for the Lifespan one. But, it has 30 programs on the other hand so if this is what you are looking for, along with a slight difference of a considerable amount of money staying in your pocket (maybe buying extended warranty if that is a possibility) this might be a really good choice.

Slightly less powerful motor means less speed, slower in general, but we believe 10 mph is still enough for a decent home treadmill. This treadmill is so awesome that we are recommending it wholeheartedly.

Or read the full T101 04 review.

Proform 505 CST Treadmill (2014 Model)

Only 15 programs in this one, though they do seem like enough. Stronger motor than in Horizon one, still goes only to 10mph and incline is also on the short side. If you are preparing for some elongation runs this might not be the choice for you.

Reviews mention very easy navigation and usability, which is a big plus. But, there are also some things on the negative side. The price is pretty decent.

Or read our Proform 505 review article.

Nordic Track T6.5S  Treadmill

This is an awesome, affordable treadmill that can fit in your basement or in a garage. The price is just about right not to drain your piggy bank dry, but still has a ton of new fancy gadgety things that can make your life, or running, easier. Well, maybe too gadgety, so the design is not so robust but whatever.

We loved it!

Exerpeutic 2000 WorkFit High Capacity Desk Station Treadmill

Kind of a black sheep among these running treadmills is the Exerpeutic 2000 walking treadmill. Specially designed for home workers who want to combine a little cardio with reading e-mails or writing reports on their laptop, this machine seems like a winning combination.

The speed is on the lower end, but this one not being designed for running we can accept that. Incline is also a possibility, loved it.

All in all, a decent piece of equipment, but not for those who want to run.

Yowza Fitness Lido Treadmill with IWM

Not really sure why is the treadmill popular among users. It lacks pretty much everything that this price range should have. The motor is strong enough, but the belt seems small. Also, some users complained that due to their hight, they couldn’t really run on it normally (the machine is pretty short).

No incline at all? Come on, Yowza, you can do better than that!

Still got some stars because it really fits into a small place. And sometimes this is what matters the most, even in this price range.

XTERRA Trail Racer 6.6 Treadmill

Pretty robust machine with 3.0 HP motor, 12mph maximum speed and a good incline of 15%. Combined with an extra robust design for heavy usage one might say why is this on the bottom with only three stars? Well, we kind of like gadgety-things and space-shuttleish buttons and a lot of programs, so this one with only 7 pre-set programs is really not to our liking.

Still, has a pretty decent warranty and a sale price makes it intriguing to get couple percent more than it really got.

But the original price seems a little bit scary. Sorry.

Bowflex Series 7 Treadmill

For a moment we wanted to include the Bowflex treadmill as well, but after some research that we conducted, we found out that the user experience was really under par and the machine is also discontinued as of the time of writing. This means, that even if you wanted to get one of these machines, the only possibility is to buy a used one.

Not an ideal situation if you ask us. But if you are on a budget maybe you can consider finding one and get it for cheap.

Why Would You Need to Use a Treadmill

The simple truth is, we cannot force anyone to love treadmills. I know there are people who down-right hate them. Those are mostly runners who enjoy the wind through their hair and find treadmills to be boring to death. But, for us – especially in this range which is pretty much affordable for any household, we see treadmills as tools of staying fit, losing weight or just letting go of that stress.

Anyone needs a good tool for stress relief and if you are one of those who don’t turn to alcohol or pills (and you should never turn to that), then some sort of exercise is the very best thing you can do for your body.

Conclusion

The list we presented is to our best knowledge accurate, but as you probably already know, it cannot be taken as ultimate, nor complete. We tried to pick those we think are the best for people to use in their homes, but there are many more treadmill manufacturers out there that are different, or not to our liking or less known so they didn’t make the cut. We wanted to show you the popular ones, because experience tells us these are the ones with the best customer service and best support overall. The ones from the list have a lot of (good or bad) reviews by experienced users already, and that makes the decision which way to go with your home running and/or walking equipment easier for you.

Have something to add? Put it in a comment below.