Understanding Why You Shouldn't Trust Everything Consumer Report Treadmill Ratings Says

Understanding Why You Shouldn't Trust Everything Consumer Report Treadmill Ratings Says
Before I begin this article, let me say that I have the utmost respect for what Consumer Report has done for buyers. I think they carry the best of intentions and the service they provide is in many cases, is truly valuable. But when it comes to treadmills and ellipticals, they just don't have the resources and knowledge to do a thorough enough job. Let's look at why.

If you're not familiar with the way Consumer Reports work, they go out and buy all their own products to test without any incentives from any one company. This way, they can keep their reviews neutral. However, this need to go out and buy all the products and only be able to test the products they buy is going to severely limit their range and scope of coverage. Here's precisely why:

1. This site is aiming to cover about 650 ellipticals and treadmills by the end of the year. Although many of the models go a few years back, they're still being sold online which means a potential customer such as you could be buying it. Now, let's assume that a treadmill or elliptical costs only $800 which is definitely on the lower end, they would have to pay over $500000 - that's half a million dollars they have to spend just to test all the models! Consumer Reports is not Microsoft, they can't afford it!

2. Even if they were able to obtain all of the above models for testing, the time it takes for them to thoroughly analyze each and every model is not to be underestimated. It’s hard to say how much time the testers from Consumer Reports spent on each of the treadmills when they did their testing but anything less than 60 minutes is probably not enough. Let’s say they’ve only spent 60 minutes reviewing each treadmill, that’s 60 minutes for 650 pieces of fitness equipment or a total of 650 hours. It would take four people working 40 hours a week for four weeks just for testing treadmills and ellipticals. Don’t forget they also need to type up their findings, calculate a score, cross compare and probably do a lot of other things that we’re not aware of. Since Consumer Reports reviews things other than treadmills and ellipticals, they just don’t have enough man power or money to do as thorough of a job as they could.

3. Lack of knowledge is the final weakness in consumer reports. In many cases, the testers are knowledgeable but would they classify themselves as treadmill and elliptical experts? If they were, they would probably be working in the fitness industry instead of Consumer Reports.

Having stated all this, I am not saying their reviews are worthless. I'm simply stating that because of these limitations in monetary resources and personnel, they cannot do a thorough and comprehensive enough job no matter how noble their intentions.

Since this site reviews the reviews from all possible sources that can be obtained on the net, the findings from Consumer Report are naturally included into our ratings. So rest assured that if Consumer Reports is your buyer's bible, this site will include what it has to say but also include opinions from other credible sources to ensure you make the best buying decision.