September 2023
I bought a @NordicTrack Commercial 2450 Treadmill for $2800 two months ago because I loved the connectivity features. I bought a higher end unit because I didn’t want any problems. 🙂 But @nordictrack has been disastrous experience. To start, @NordicTrack has outsourced their customer service to @iFITHealth who has abysmal reviews: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/nordictrack.com Now I know why!
I have had the treadmill for two months and it has been unusable since day one. It sounds like a jet airplane taking off, watch the video! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RUSkcrTI5EM
I am in constant contact with @iFITHealth customer service. Every time I call it is a different person who has no idea what has happened before and I tell the whole story over again. Usually somebody promises that I will get a call back in 48 or 72 hours but I never get a call back and have to call back myself and start the whole process over again. I also exchange emails with them and also post on their customer service website. Three times they asked for videos that were sent to them. They sent me a new motor to install in the unit. One of their maintenance people came out and installed the motor but the noise was the same. I have now read of many other customers with similar problems on the same unit, some who dealt with them for 4 months or more trying to get their treadmills working. I don’t have such patience and after just two months of this, I am giving up.
To top it all off, they told me that I would have to pay a “restocking fee” of $250 + 10% = ~$550 if I wanted to return a treadmill that has never worked. I looked up the law and you are not allowed to charge restocking fees on defective products. But somehow they claim that the noise is within their specifications so they consider the unit to be perfectly working. They did offer me some free accessories if I didn’t return the unit. They should have offered a good pair of noise cancelling headphones!
I made a noise measurement of the belt running without anyone running on it. I measured an LAeq of 86.7dB running at the top speed. I made the same measurement on the same equipment with the same settings on a unit at Best Buy and got 69.5dB for LAeq. Remember that this is a logarithmic scale. According to NIOSH standards, anything louder than 85 decibels is considered to be in range that could begin to cause damage your hearing. A typical gas-powered lawn mower is about 85-90dB. We are talking about hearing damage here—I am not even getting to how unpleasant it would be to actually use this treadmill or even how I would be able to hear the audio from any program I might try to watch while on the treadmill. I am not sure I will be able able to get my “restocking fee” money back but let’s see. In any case, beware of @NordicTrack !
An irony is that this treadmill was picked as one of the quietest treadmills: https://www.treadmillreviewguru.com/quietest-treadmills-review/#nt-2450 I have a couple things to say here:
- It’s all a scam!!!! This “independent” review site that rated my treadmill as the best quiet treadmill for running is likely paid off by NordicTrack! https://www.connectfit.com/blog/affiliatesites
- Watch their video at: https://youtu.be/NS9kDp-6SKs?t=820 In particular watch and listen as Matt is running on the treadmill. On what planet would you choose this to be a quiet treadmill?
By their own data, they claim to have made these measurements:
- 69 Decibels: 3mph, belt on only (3% grade)
- 73 Decibels: 3mph, with a person walking (3% grade)
- 77 Decibels: 6mph, belt on only (3% grade)
- 82 Decibels: 6mph, with a person running (3% grade)
When Matt runs on it it must be 85dB or more, but even at 82dB, people are damaging their hearing! Over time, with wear and tear, these units will only get worse. So I see two scenarios:
- People are damaging their hearing continuing to use treadmills, particularly as the treadmill slowly wears down through the years.
- People have given up on their treadmill and it is now gathering dust. Perhaps the unpleasant sound contributed to their decision, but at lease they are not damaging their hearing any more.