Hello everyone! I hope this question is ok to post on here. I'm planning on trying to get a treadmill next week, but don't have a whole lot of money to spend. Therefore my question is this: does anyone have a manual treadmill (that you power yourself) and have they had any problems with it? I don't want to spend money on it only to have it to break down within a month. Help!

I highly recommend that you try out both versions before buying. Most people that I've talked to that have bought manual treadmills never used them because they were too difficult or awkward. I had one briefly and returned it the next day, lol. I love my electric treadmill. Every now and then, though, someone will pop up that loves their manual treadmill, so maybe you'll be one of them

Have you considered something like Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds? A LOT of our members have used it for a long time and love it.

My girlfriend borrowed a manual treadmill from a friend to try also before purchasing one. She promptly returned it because it was very difficult. If you know of someone who has one you could borrow it for a while, try it out, then buy or not... Don't waste your $$ if you haven't tried it...

I've tried both..the manual one I bought for $20.00 at a garage sale.I ended up giving that one to a friend when my in-laws gave me their electric,and I much prefer the electric one.The manual one I lasted all of 2 minutes at any given time....it's hard.

I recommend purchasing an electric one - USED. Unfortunately, there are a ton of them out there with barely 20-30 minutes used on it and are quite a bargain because people just want to get rid of them by the time they get around to selling them.

What will you be using it for? If it's just walking 3-4 days a week, a pretty simple and inexpensive one would be just what you need (Plan on paying about $200 used for that one)

If you run, plan on spending twice that amount.

I have a nordictrak one that I really like and my parents just bought a used Proform (Sears) that appears to pretty nice.

Thanks everyone! Most everyone that I talked to tend to prefer the electric ones as well. Since my budget is small, I'm currently looking at the classifieds, and have found one or two that I can get. I'll be going to check out them out sometime this week, so I'll keep ya'll posted on that!

One of my sisters got a manual and never used it. I tried it and they are terrible. Go for a auto, motorized one. As for brands that lay in the cheap areas go to this site which is pretty good at reviews in my opinion : http://www.consumersearch.com/www/he...lls/index.html

I also have gone to this site which can connect u to other review sites and gives a good idea of what those sites are about. I am not sure in all honesty if consumer search is affiliated with anyone. But in reviewing ellipticals at numerous sites and reviews of them, there reviews seemed more in tune with other legit sites reviews.

when i was looking at buying one many people told me to wait till i could afford to buy a good electric one. And so I did! I use it quite a bit and enjoy it!

I prefer the electric because I like to adjust the speed during my workout to avoid boredom. I'll begin at 3.2 MPH then increase every 60 seconds until I hit 4.0 and then I'll drop back down and start all over. The time goes by a lot faster when you know you get to CHANGE something every minute!

Manual treadmills? do they still exist??