I am SO frustrated! This weekend I bought myself a treadmill. I was so excited, I have even converted my guest room into a home gym for myself. Then, when my husband was just finishing the assembly, I was looking through the manual and noticed the weight limit for the machine was 250! Now I don't know if I'll be able to use it!

Has anyone else run into this problem? My husband insists that I will be fine to use it (some long explanation about horsepower and such) but I am afraid that I will break it, or burn the motor out or something, and it was not a cheap machine.

Any thoughts?

Well, as long as you're not running 100MPH on the thing, it doesn't seem like it should be a huge problem? I say if you run into any problems, call the treadmill company and play dumb. Haha!

I would call the company, and be sure to get a name when you do talk to someone. If they say to use it, use it. Then if it breaks you can always say "I called your company on x(date) and spoke to Karen Smith who assured me I could use it without breaking it..." That way if the worst happens maybe they'll give you another one. Good luck!!

I had the same concern when we bought ours from NordicTrak -- it was rated for 275 and I was about 290. My husband (an engineer type) also said that these things are built for certain tolerances over the limit and said I should use it. I did, but was nervous doing so. And then we did have a part break early on (apparently, when something goes, it often goes early...). It was still under warranty and so was fixed, no questions asked. I will say that since I've gone below the weight limit it squeaks a lot less than it used to.

I would also recommend you call the company and see what they say. To cover their though, they may just give you the party line. You could also use that time to ask what activities are hardest on it -- does speed matter? Incline? I think my husband would say no, it's all the same, but he's not here...

If you do use it and something does happen, they may also fix it without asking questions.

Edited to add: I did mention it to my husband, and he was much more hesitant about the difference from 290 to 250 than he was from 290 to 275... FWIW...

I am a wild woman, and started using my aging Fitness Edge recumbent bike at 290 pounds, even though it's just rated for 250.

It's been fine for 30 minutes a day (most days) for two weeks.