Why Buying a Commercial Treadmill is Cheaper Than a Residential Treadmill

Why Buying a Commercial Treadmill is Cheaper Than a Residential Treadmill
By this time, you're probably wondering how a commercial treadmill could possibly be cheaper than a home treadmill. In case you’re wondering, we haven’t gone off the deep end. Just bear with us for a moment and we will show you how a commercial treadmill could potentially save you not only money, but also your health in the long run.

If you're a dedicated runner that is determined to NOT allow the treadmill to turn into a clothes rack, this article may just be the most important article on this website. If you have slightest doubt on whether you're going to be using the treadmill 6 months from now, this article is more appropriate: Why buying a treadmill or elliptical could be the biggest mistake of your life.

For those of you still with me, let us do some (gasp!) math.

First, let's get one thing out of the way. A commercial treadmill for a home setting is meant to last you a lifetime. That's right, from the day you start running on it to the day you're too old to run on it. A residential treadmill on the other hand is something you expect to throw out at some point (less than 5 years if you're not lucky).

Even with the overwhelmingly positive reviews for some of the sub $2000 treadmill models, they probably won’t hold up after 5 years of consistent use at a 25+ miles per week running pace. So if you decide to spend $2000 on a home treadmill and get really, really lucky and take really, really good care of it, you might still have something functional after 5 years under that kind of running pace. Let's say it really dies on you after 5 years of use. That’s $2000/5 or about $400 per year.

Now contrast this to a commercial treadmill. Sure, you'll need to spend $3000+ for a true commercial grade treadmill but let's consider this.

If a home treadmill lasts 5 years, then you should really expect a commercial treadmill to last twice as long. This is again being extremely lenient. If a commercial treadmill can only take twice the beating of a residential treadmill before hitting the dumpsters, I'm sure there will be a lot of angry gym owners. After all, commercial treadmills are meant to take pounding after pounding, day after day, week after week, year after year. The home treadmill on the other hand is more often than not, pounded on less than once a day on average in the long run.

So if you set the "death" of the home treadmill at 5 years, we’ll set the "death" of the commercial treadmill at 10 years. Continuing our scenario, let's say you bought a commercial treadmill for $4500 which is on the high end since commercial treadmills can be had in the mid 3000s.

$4500 / 10 = $450 per year

In the worst case scenario where I greatly underestimate the lifespan of a commercial treadmill and greatly overpaid what it takes to buy a commercial treadmill, you end up only paying $50 more per year on average which is a pittance if you take running seriously.

But that's not the entire story.

You may be paying $50 more per year for a commercial treadmill but can you put a price on the following benefits?

1. What’s the price of running on a commercial treadmill versus on a residential treadmill? If you've run on both, you'll immediately notice the difference. By our calculations, if you’re running 25 miles * 52 weeks * 10 years = 13000 miles = 2000 hours at 6.5 mph = 83 DAYS of pure running over 10 years or 8.3 Days of Pure Running Each Year!

If you needed to run for 8.3 days straight, wouldn’t you prefer spending $50 more to reap the benefits of running on a softer surface?

2. Running as you may already know puts a lot of stress on your knees and joints. The impact and cushioning system is generally much better on a commercial treadmill. Can you put a price on the unnecessary damage to your body that a home treadmill causes?

3. If you’re going to run that many miles, you’re going to need to repair the treadmill at one point. By getting a commercial treadmill, you’re going to need to call the repair man a lot less often than if you ordered a home treadmill. Doesn't assembling, disassembling, paying the repair man and the time spent count for something?

4. Environmental damage - let's not try to waste here. Two home treadmills do more environmental damage than one commercial treadmill.

If you're a user that clocks over 20 miles per week at a running pace, don't even consider getting a home treadmill. Save time, save money, save stress, save your body and save the environment. Getting a commercial treadmill is the way to go.