Understanding The Difference Between Residential, Light Commercial And Commercial Ratings

Understanding The Difference Between Residential, Light Commercial And Commercial Ratings
This is actually a bad article title. Why do I say this? If you think about if for a second, a residential treadmill is obviously a treadmill used for a home. A commercial rating is obviously for a commercial setting such as a gym. So that really leaves us with light commercial. This article is really about the light commercial rating.

LIGHT COMMERCIAL?

If commercial means commercial and residential means home, what exactly is light commercial? Light commercial seems to be a term that is not set in stone as illustrated by the following examples:

1. Landice's website says light commercial is less than five hours a day of use.
2. This store says it's 4 to 5 hours.
3. An EVO3i treadmill which is advertised as light institutional (which is another term for light commercial) is rated to withstand 4 to 6 hours of use.
4. A light commercial Vision R2100 exercise bike is warranted for up to 3 hours of use.

From these cases, you can expect a "true" light commercial piece of fitness equipment to withstand 3 to 6 hours of use daily. Ok, so why did I put "true" in quotes?

LIGHT COMMERCIAL STIGMA

The treadmill that I ended up buying was an EPIC 425MX (since I'm pretty lightweight and not a hard runner). The box that came with the treadmill was labeled as light commercial. I think to myself "Hmm, a treadmill that MSRP's for under $1000 is classified as light commercial...too good to be true."

Here's what I think (and what I think only since I have no proof). I feel the "light commercial" term is a marketing buzz word. Even if light commercial might represent anywhere from 3 to 6 hours of use, the average customer is not going to know exactly what "light commercial" means. Light commercial just sounds better than home or residential. If it says commercial when it’s only slightly better than a residential, it's probably going to generate a lot of complaints. Finally, no matter how I look at it, my EPIC treadmill does not feel like a light commercial.

So the next time you see something advertised as light commercial, you might want to find out if their warranty really does support 3 to 6 hours of use daily. If not, you might want to assume it as marketing jargon.