Horizon Fitness T101 Treadmill – Review

Horizon Fitness T101 Treadmill – Review – Product Description:

Horizon treadmills are all about one thing – quality. Quality suspension and deck systems to help protect your body; best-in-class motors that keep going strong for years to come; and meaningful, motivating programming to help you meet your goals. At Horizon, we carefully design each treadmill to give you the comfort, control and convenience you need to succeed. Horizon treadmills use large, heavy frames, making them more solid and stable than competitors’. The Horizon T101 offers a comfortable beginning – durability and value rolled into an attractive design.

After researching more than I planned to and more than I would have liked to, I finally came back to where I started at with the Horizon T101. They happen to sell it at a local (& small) sports store where I felt comfortable with the salespeople who actually wanted to help me & with treadmills that were actually able to be used. (At the large chain stores I went to, no sales people were anywhere around and the safety keys were all removed from the treadmills rendering them useless. Hence, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the prospect of giving them my money.)

Anyway, I have read a lot in the past few days about you can’t get a quality treadmill for under X amount of money or by buying anything from X brand. Thing is, I definitely don’t have $1500-$2000 to spend on a treadmill. I wasn’t even comfortable with the idea of spending $1000. I wanted something between $400-$700 MAX. And I didn’t want it to shake, I wanted it to have incline, and tell me how far I’d “traveled” and how many calories I’d burnt, and I wanted to be able to jog on it (5-6 MPH for me.) I thought these were fairly simple demands considering treadmills aren’t exactly new technology. I don’t even need it to support a large amount of weight. Just me, at 150 lbs and hopefully soon weighing less.

So I finally decided I would try the one I liked the most instead of trying to find the one the treadmill reviewers liked the most. I did ultimately decide against Icon made products because I did not like the consoles as much and I feared the fancier electronic stuff meant less quality in the places where it matters most. I also read way too much about subpar quality in the past (although it has perhaps increased recently, shown by their imrpoved warranties) that I could not possibly buy one without fearing it’s impending doom. This brought me back to Horizon treadmills, which I liked the look of the most from the beginning. As a bonus and possible deciding factor, the nice people at Play it again Sports where the T101 is carried in my area assured me they are licensed to fix Horizon products. So if it breaks, I don’t even have to call Horizon. I just go see them and they come fix it.

I bit the bullet and let them swipe my card. Opted out of having them deliver and assemble it. It would have been nice, but I didn’t want to spend any more money if I didn’t have to. It is quite heavy and it was difficult to get it out of the car and inside. Putting it together was much easier, although my boyfriend got aggravated a couple times because you have to hold parts just right for all the holes to line up (which all of ours did). Really though all you do is attach the supporting bars and then fit the console in between the support beams on top. After assembly, I hopped on to begin burning calories asap. I jogged some at 5.8 mph and 2% incline, I jogged much slower at a 5% incline, I walked quickly all the way up at a 10% incline, and I sped walk a lot around 4 mph at 3% incline. I was at it for around 45 minutes and it felt very stable and good under my feet. I realize this is not at all showing if it’s durable yet or not, but my first impressions are that I am quite pleased and excited to get fit for bikini season. I am glad that I did not spend less and that I did not spend more. I like the console and the overall appearance of this treadmill as well. It does not look or feel cheap or flimsy.

The only problem I’m having right now is it is quite large and doesn’t fold up completely vertically. I already knew this but it’s still a little bit of a problem for me. It’s more or less in the middle of my living room right now as there’s not really anywhere else to put it without completely rearranging. My recent weight gain over a tough fall semester followed by the holidays however is more of an issue to me so I am willing to deal with an intruding treadmill. Also one may wish to beware that after assembled it probably cannot move through doorways. It is 33″ in width and 40″ deep while folded. Finally, the 2 wheels are useless. I have yet to figure out how to tilt it back (towards me, when I’m holding onto the handles of the treadmill while folded) and get it onto the wheels. Thus, it is quite difficult to move around. Luckily my floor is tiled; I don’t think I COULD move it on carpet, especially not thick carpet.

In essence, I would highly recommend this treadmill if you are looking for qualities similar to what I was looking for. A fairly basic, safe-feeling, folding treadmill with automatic incline that can easily support an average weight for walking and jogging. It has a lifetime frame and motor warranty which makes me feel like it will be durable over the long haul. Definitely GO to the stores and test them out and see what you feel comfortable on & won’t mind looking at in your home. I would also try to find out if there are people who can service a Horizon treadmill near you, if that will ease your mind as it did mine. I am happy with my purchase, which was a large purchase for me, and I will update this review should anything go wrong. Happy treading!

Tags: fitness, Horizon, Horizon Fitness, T101, T101 Treadmill, Treadmill

Category: Fitness