I was thinking of purchasing a mini-stepper, b/c I cant afford much and their inexpensive but I was just wondering if they give you a good enough workout to get results with?? any opinions are great! thanks!

My g/f has one and she uses it but doesn't like it much... At times it gives her sore knees...

I bought one and returned it because it was too squeaky. And the monitor stopped working right away.

missqt brings up a good point, I think. Could you possibly purchase one at at store that will allow you to return it? Or could you possibly try it out at the store?

I doubt that they would be of the same quality as their full sized, more expensive counterparts. But perhaps they would be better than nothing, if that is the choice. Whether they are good enough is a question only you would be able to answer.

It does tend to get squeaky.

The thing is that I can only do about 5 min max on it and I'm not that unfit. So I just do a circuit on the stepper with aerobics and the rebounder.

If you want to do it fully for your cardio i.e. 30+ minutes, I'd suggest you head for the higher end steppers.