NordicTrack Treadmills

The NordicTrack brand is owned by Icon Health and Fitness, which is one of the top 3 fitness equipment companies in the world. Icon Fitness also owns ProForm, Healthrider, Freemotion, Reebok, Image, Weider, Weslo, Epic, Gold's Gym and the iFIT workout technology.

The original NordicTrack Company went bankrupt a few years ago, and that is when they were bought by Icon. From that moment on, NordicTrack has been transformed into a well known exercise and fitness equipment brand.

Specialists say that in the past NordicTrack was forced to have a top design since they worked with cheap parts. Now they use better components and as result they have invaded the market with top class products.

NordicTrack sells mostly residential products and their offer includes: treadmills, ellipticals, incline trainers, exercise bikes, strength equipment , skiers and striders.

Reviews and Additional Info

As an overall opinion, NordicTrack treadmills are good products, with competitive features and accessible price. They stand up with technical innovations that are really helpful for the end user, and they are the first to bring these upgrades on the market.

In 2011 they have surprised us with new features which we have enjoyed testing: Android touch screen technology, decline options on all new models, new preset workouts.

NordicTrack is actually the first brand we know to have launched a competitive workout system with low budget models. We are talking about the new iFIT LIVE system (with direct access to Google Maps). This extended the brand awareness all over the world.

As a personal note, in 2011 other brands have decided to invest resources to copy the move and launch similar products, based on the touch screen technology Android platform supports. But NordicTrack is a pioneer and we highly respect that.

Main Strengths

User Oriented NordicTrack changed their philosophy about how treadmills are produced when they were bought by ICON. Today NordicTrack Treadmills are better, stronger and more good looking than those produced just a few years ago. The fact that they improved the treadmills' quality and the efforts they do to keep this standard up are definitely a big plus.

Workouts Each NordicTrack treadmill comes with at least 25 preset workouts. Plus, all models have the iFit cards/IFIT LIVE Module (included or compatible) which allows downloading hundreds of workouts in your treadmill console from iFIT official website.

Incline Trainers Incline Trainers are available only for brands owned by Icon and they stand up with the high incline option (up to 40% supported). We have discovered that with Incline Trainers it is more efficient to do our daily cardio workouts (for losing weight or simply staying fit). The high incline and the decline options help simulate hills and valleys better, and from the user end perspective this brings only benefits to your workout routine and health.

Motor Warranty Almost all machines come with a life motor warranty. This is a very important and valuable detail since the motor is the most important part of a treadmill which can be very expensive to replace.

Weaknesses

Parts Warranty Even if they offer a lifetime warranty for motors NordicTrack gives only 1 or 2 year warranty for parts and in home labor. The In Home labor warranty is not included in all offers. All you can do is buy an extra warranty coverage.

Customer Support complaints Unfortunately we have received several complaints from our readers about the customer support delay when assessing their issues with NordicTrack treadmills. Although we haven't yet experienced any major failure during our reviews, we have to mark this as a week point. We will update our opinion following our readers' feedback.

Buying Tips

When you decide to purchase a NordicTrack treadmill, you must first see their promotions. They have important SALES almost all the time and you can find good bargains.

From all the NordicTrack treadmill reviews done to date, we selected two to be in our 2011 Best Buys top (the NordicTrack C 900 model and X7i Incline Trainer). We recommend you to read these reviews if you want a reliable residential treadmill. C 900 is a good bargain for the $1000 price range. While the NordicTrack X7i Incline Trainer is an efficient cardio workout machine that we warmly recommend to those who want to lose some weight.

The second recommendation, is to buy a treadmill with the iFIT LIVE included. It doesn't matter if you get the touch screen system or not (although it is a super nice feature). But the iFIT LIVE connects you to a large workouts variety, which automatically control your NordictTrack treadmill speed and incline. This is one of the main reasons we recommend this brand.

We love to help our readers to buy the right treadmill, so if you have any question, contact us anytime.