Smooth 6.25 Treadmill Review and Price Comparison

Your Smooth 6.25 Treadmill Buying Guide
Summary of What The Experts Say

Experts sing praises for the Smooth 6.25 treadmill. Experts are pleased with the longer than normal 5 year parts warranty and the exceptional lifetime warranty for the motor and frame. About.com, a company owned by New York Times has rated this as the best budget treadmill. The Smooth 6.25 treadmill was also said to be upgraded from previous years and is the best buy for a few experts if it's priced below $1500. Experts believe users that are shorter than 6 feet would enjoy running on this machine very much. More impressively, experts actually believe this is one of the few treadmills under $1500 that can take a serious runner. Lifetime warranty on motor and frame, 5 years parts and one year labor warranty is also said to be quite a bit above average in this price range. If it’s priced at $1699, experts say you would be better off going with the Smooth 7.1HR Pro instead.

Summary of What The Users Say

Users noted the assembly was easy, the machine is heavy and would recommend this for runners. One user also found the treadmill difficult to move around. More than one user has noted the Smooth 6.25 as being quite quiet.

What You Should Do

Buying a treadmill by Smooth Fitness is tricky. If you're just going to use the treadmill for walking or jogging and you want a Smooth treadmill, your only option is the Smooth 5.25 for $1000. But if you're in search for a Smooth treadmill that can take the pounding of regular running, does the Smooth 6.25 hold up? Should you consider the similarly priced Smooth 7.1 HR Pro? [Click To See Rest of Review][Close Reviews]

To start, the Smooth 6.25 treadmill is the lowest priced treadmill for RUNNERS out of the entire Smooth brand. If you're willing to go up in price, you have the Smooth 7.1HR Pro, Smooth 9.17HRO, Smooth 9.25HR and the Smooth 9.25X. All Smooth treadmills except for the Smooth 5.25 change prices almost on a weekly basis which makes picking the right Smooth treadmill to fit your running needs, extremely difficult and time consuming. Luckily for you, we've literally spent hours distilling just the information you need to make the best buying decision. In this review, we compare two very similar models - the Smooth 6.25 and the Smooth 7.1 HR Pro.

It's important to know what prices Smooth sells the Smooth 6.25 and the Smooth 7.1 HR Pro. When you visit the Smooth website and it says the sale is ending this Friday or this week or whatever, there's a high possibility (but not 100 %) the price will actually change. It’s somewhat of a marketing ploy in trying to get you to buy now but sometimes, they really do change the prices. So the key here is to buy when it's priced at its lowest. What's the lowest price? Based on our monitoring of 2007 sale prices, we have seen the following prices:

Smooth 6.25: $1499, $1699
Smooth 7.1 HR Pro: $1699, $1999
Smooth 9.17HRO: $1999, $2399
Smooth 9.25HR: $1999, $2299, $2399, $2999
Smooth 9.25X: $2499 to $3499

Although we can't say for sure whether the treadmill will sell for its lowest price, we can say for sure these treadmills have sold for the above prices at one point. So when you see the treadmill you want at the lowest price we have up there, you're encouraged to buy or you really might miss the sale!

Now that we have prices to work with, let's get down to business. If you actually read the expert reviews, you’d have discovered that much of the strong points mentioned in the Smooth 6.25 treadmill are repeated in the Smooth 7.1 HR Pro. This is because both treadmills share many similarities and few differences. The main difference between the two is that the Smooth 7.1 HR Pro features a unique power folding option (i.e you don't need to manually fold the treadmill yourself.) The second difference is you have to pay extra ($50 or so) for a wireless heart strap on the Smooth 6.25 but the 7.1 HR Pro comes with it by default. A final difference is the 7.1 HR Pro uses a different type of cushioning system called the Impression Shock Absorption Technology - this is the same cushioning system found in the most expensive model in the Smooth lineup. The 6.25 uses the Swing Arm technology which can also be found in the Smooth 5.25 but can also be found in the highest priced EVO treadmills that run for in excess of $3000 (EVO is another brand of Smooth Fitness). Based strictly on logic, we really can’t determine which treadmill has the better cushioning system as Treadmill Doctor gave equal scores in the cushioning area to both.

So basically, it comes down to whether the power folding vs manual folding and the heart strap is worth the extra $200 (Smooth 7.1HR PRO: $1699 subtract Smooth 6.25: $1499 = $200). For me, the answer is no because I can lift the treadmill manually. If I wanted the wireless heart rate control strap, I can just pay the extra $50. If the Smooth 7.1HR Pro is priced at the regular $1999, the Smooth 6.25 would win hands down as the better choice of the two at $1499. Even if the 7.1HR Pro is sold at the $1699 price, we would still buy the 6.25 to save a few bucks.

If you're a shorter runner and don't mind running on a deck that's a little shorter than normal, experts and users recommend the Smooth 6.25 as probably the best runner's choice under $1500. If you think the deck is a little short at 54 inches, you'd have to move up to the Smooth 9.25HR or 9.25X. You’re also encouraged to read our meta review for the Smooth 9.17 HRO as it closely relates to the 6.25/7.1HRPro.

Verdict: As experts have said, this is one of the best choices for runners at $1500. For regular runners that want their treadmills to last, this is as affordable as it gets. For tall runners, we would not recommend the 6.25 treadmill as strongly due to the shorter belt. Like all the Smooth treadmills, it shares the weakness of not being able to try before you buy. If you’ve read our review for the 5.25, you would know our confidence is shaken in regards to Smooth’s customer support. The Smooth 6.25 is a better choice than the Smooth 7.1HR Pro for cost reasons. It is also a better choice than the Smooth 9.17HRO for similar reasons.


After reading opinions from experts and users, we have objectively analyzed the Smooth 6.25 Treadmill and assigned it a meta score as follows:

If the total price is $1375, you are getting a Super Bargain (5.0/5.0)
If the total price is $1500, you are getting a Great Bargain (4.5/5.0)
If the total price is $1625, you are getting a Good Bargain (4.0/5.0)
If the total price is $1750, you are getting a Small Bargain (3.5/5.0)
If the total price is $1875, it is No Bargain (3.0/5.0)
If the total price is $2000, it is Somewhat Overpriced (2.5/5.0)
If the total price is $2125, it is Greatly Overpriced (2.0/5.0)
If the total price is $2250, it is Severely Overpriced (1.5/5.0)

The current lowest price is $1499.00 which makes it a Great Bargain.

Notes:

1. This meta review was first published on October 25th, 2007.
2. For a list of resources used to construct this meta review, click here.

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