Smooth 9.25HR Treadmill Review and Price Comparison

Your Smooth 9.25HR Treadmill Buying Guide
Summary of What The Experts Say

Experts say the Smooth 9.25HR treadmill shares many similarities with a commercial treadmill but at a much more affordable price. For the money you're paying, you're getting a lot of features that you don't normally find in treadmills at this price level. With the 5 year parts warranty, experts feel Smooth is confident in their product. Hardcore runners are said to be the perfect match for this treadmill due to the extremely generous 62 inch belt and powerful 3.0CHP motor.

Summary of What The Users Say

For the Smooth 9.25HR treadmill specifically, users haven’t said much but for the Smooth 9.2 series of treadmills which dates back to 2002, there have been many things said about the treadmill - most of them positive. Although there have been a fair share of happy customers, we can’t ignore the negative experiences. These include items arriving DOA, not working after 1 day, noise problems popping up after 6 weeks and lackluster customer support (this seems to be a common theme that we've come upon for Smooth's other models).

What You Should Do [Click To See Rest of Review][Close Reviews]

If you've already read the other reviews on this site in regards to the Smooth treadmill models, you would know that we recommend the Smooth 5.25 for walkers or light joggers. Moving up a class, we come to the Smooth 6.25 which is one of the few choices out there that experts say would handle the beating of a runner and is priced around the $1500 area. We've also gone over the similarly sized Smooth 7.1HR Pro and the 9.17HRO and clearly stated why we think the Smooth 6.25 is the best choice out of these three treadmills for shorter runners. But what about the taller runners where the 54" belt length found in the 6.25/7.1/9.17 just isn't long enough? What else does Smooth offer for these taller runners? Smooth Fitness answers with the Smooth 9.25HR and the 9.25X treadmills.

Smooth 9.25X vs the Smooth 9.25HR

As you may already know, Smooth changes the price it sells its treadmills regularly. Although the prices change regularly, our investigations indicate the Smooth 9.25HR and Smooth 9.25X have sold for the following amounts in 2007:

Smooth 9.25HR - $1999 to $2999
Smooth 9.25X - $2899 to $3499
UPDATE: Since the review was written, we’ve seen the 9.25X sell for $2499.

For simplicity's sake, we will use the lowest price we've found for both models in our comparison resulting in a $900 price difference between the two (2899-1999=900). For $900, what do you get in the 9.25X that you don't get in the Smooth 9.25HR? From our research, the following:

3.5 CHP vs 3 CHP (0.5 horsepower difference in the motor)
Lifetime parts warranty vs 5 years parts warranty
4 ply belt vs 2 ply belt
Extra sound system in the 9.25X
The 9.25X being the slightly better built model in terms of reliability (based on TM Doctor's testing)

Whether you feel the above upgrades justify the $900 difference is strictly dependent on the buyer but we will state our perspective on this issue which will hopefully be of assistance if you are considering a Smooth treadmill in this price range.

Let’s consider the motor first. Even though there is a 0.5 continuous horse power rating increase in the 9.25X over the 9.25HR, we have to wonder how much of this extra strength is used to move the thicker 4 ply belt. A thicker belt is heavier. A heavier belt requires more power. Since the belt requires more power, the motor needs to be more powerful. So it would seem that the 0.5 HP extra is not as significant as it would seem on paper.

The lifetime parts warranty is something to be admired. Very few companies out there today offer this (only commercial treadmills from Landice, Endurance and the $3000+ EVO treadmills come to mind at the moment) so this is a pretty rare sight. We should point out that on Epinions.com, there have been quite a few customer complaints against Smooth in regards to their slow, unresponsive or sometimes even non existent customer support once something goes wrong. You can confirm this for yourself by going over to epinions.com and conduct a search on Smooth treadmills and read the reviews that received 3 stars or less.

The sound system is a nice feature that is very rare among treadmills. I personally don't listen to any music when I’m running so the sound system doesn't make much difference to me. For Ipod users, this extra sound system might also be of limited use.

The extra thick 4 ply belt is going to offer a better running surface and thus better cushioning for your joints. In our opinion, the 2 ply belt for the 9.25HR is already quite effective so the extra thick 4 ply belt makes a smaller difference than you might expect. This is not to mention that thicker belts put more stress on your treadmill although this is compensated by the stronger motor mentioned earlier. If you're really concerned about your joints, there's always the elliptical to consider as a second option as well.

The 9.25X with its lifetime warranty indicates that it is the better built and more reliable of the two. This assumption is supported by the results of Treadmill Doctor’s tests.

Do slightly better cushioning, slightly better construction, a lifetime parts warranty, and sound add up to $900? Probably not…at least not in our opinion.

One other question we would have asked ourselves if we were in your shoes was whether it’s worth upgrading from a Smooth 6.25/7.1HR Pro/9.17HRO to a 9.25HR or a 9.25X. Our answer is no in most cases. In terms of quality, you’re not really getting that much of an improvement by upgrading to a 9.25HR. A 9.25X shows more improvement but it’s priced about 2 to 3 classes higher so it’s not worth it. In the cases where we think you should upgrade, these include if you find the belt too short at 54”, the 9.25HR/X at 62” is a much more comfortable choice. The upgraded motor at 3.0CHP would be enough to distinguish itself as a true runner’s treadmill (whereas we feel a rating of 2.75CHP is more of a starter runner’s treadmill.)

Verdict: The Smooth 9.25X and Smooth 9.25HR are the only treadmills that are suitable for runners of all heights and sizes from Smooth Fitness. If you just want the best treadmill Smooth has to offer, the 9.25X is the one you're looking for. If you're going to take price into consideration, the Smooth 9.25HR treadmill is in our opinion, a better deal than the 9.25X due to the $900 price difference. The upgrades just don't quite add up to $900 especially when you consider the shaky history of Smooth's customer support which really detracts from the effectiveness of its lifetime parts warranty policy. If you catch the Smooth 9.25HR at $1999, we think it is a pretty good deal.

After reading opinions from experts and users, we have objectively analyzed the Smooth 9.25HR Treadmill and assigned it a meta score as follows:

If the total price is $1700, you are getting a Super Bargain (5.0/5.0)
If the total price is $1850, you are getting a Great Bargain (4.5/5.0)
If the total price is $2000, you are getting a Good Bargain (4.0/5.0)
If the total price is $2150, you are getting a Small Bargain (3.5/5.0)
If the total price is $2300, it is No Bargain (3.0/5.0)
If the total price is $2450, it is Somewhat Overpriced (2.5/5.0)
If the total price is $2600, it is Greatly Overpriced (2.0/5.0)
If the total price is $2750, it is Severely Overpriced (1.5/5.0)

The current lowest price is $1999.00 which makes it a Good 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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