I own a Lifefitness X3 model. It's terrific!!! I tried alot of elipticals and felt pretty much like you...it's for life, health and so...spare no expense. It costs about $2K though...I bought it Jan '07, so the price may have gone down a bit. Hope this helps. Joyce

I recently spent two weeks researching ellipticals. There are several things that you need to take into account. The first, obviously is your budget. With many things, you get what you pay for, and ellipticals are really, really prone to this. The more bells and whistles you get at a 'low low' price, the crappier the equipment - do not be impressed by 'feature packed' equiptment. The second, is your available space. Ellipticals are big. For me, space was my biggest restricting factor - I had a budget of up to $1500, but it had to fit in my small, already crowded, apartment. I wound up going for a Horizon E-66 because of all the ones with a small footprint, it had the best combination of availability, long stride, sturdy frame and good reviews. If I'd had the space, I would have gone for a Sole E 25 or E35. Those are both around $1000-1500 though. If you can swing the budget and space, bambifox is right on, spare no expense and buy a big one with a rear flywheel and a very sturdy frame.

For around $500 you only have a couple of highly recommended ones. The cheaper Kettler ellipticals are compact with a nice heavy flywheel and *very* well made, but have a short stride (14-16"). This was a problem for me because I have very long legs and I need a minimum stride of 18". If you're a short to average woman, you might find the short stride better for you. Schwinn makes a 430 model which sells for around $500 and is fairly well recommended. It's not quite as sturdy as the Kettler ones, but for the money, it's a good buy. The Schwinn 431 is their newer model, and is better than the 430, but it's also a couple of hundred $ more.

Stay away form Nordic Track, Free Spirit and, Proform. They have a problem with cheap parts and are prone to breaking down after a couple of months of use. They have serious repair history problems.

Go to a proper fitness store (Dick's) to check out the machines, and avoid Sears and similar stores. If all you have available is Walmart or Sears, then go check out the their machines, with an eye to trying out stride length (see what you need), and consider ordering online.

BP

That is true...bopeep...they do take up alot of space. Fortunately, I have an exercise room. Great advice! Joyce

Hi,
Thank you for your help. I have a Proform Tredmill and now I am afraid that it will break. I didn't know that Proform had such a poor equipment history.


Bambifox what is in your exercise room. I turned my dining room into our exercise room. I would rather exercise right now than eat HAHA.

Don't be too worried. My mom had a proform treadmill 15 yrs ago...she still has it..doesn't use it, but still has it. I think proform did better with their treadmills and did fall short on their elipticles.

I have a very large house in VA. I have a lifecycle recumbent bike, vectra double stack gym...to the tune of $13K!! I bought it last January and haven't used anything until I started here on 1/5/08! Here's to the rest of my life...better be for that kind of $$$!

Some Proform treadmills seem to be ok while others are also problem prone. I would guess anything made 15 years ago was made before they started to cut a lot of the corners they now do. If the treadmill is a very recent purchase, you might want call up the company and ask about purchasing an extended warranty. Even if you bought a model that has a problem repair history, it doesn't mean that your treadmill will be a lemon. Proform is priced to appeal to a large number of people and they sell thousands of units. The percentage of machines with problems may very well be quite low, but the numbers may seem high overall because they sell so many. If *all* of their machines were lemons, then they could not remain in business!

Here's a site with quite a few reviews on both treadmills and ellipticals:

http://www.treadmillsensei.com/

I found his reviews were mostly in line with other sites and he has reviewed more machines than any one other site. If you stick to your budget, or if you decide to splurge a bit more on your elliptical, it'll help you sort out which one sounds best for you.

Bambifox - it sounds like you've got a very nice set up! I wish I had that kind of space, but I live downtown in a city where space is rare Here's to everyone's new found desire to get into decent shape so we can enjoy our old age!

BP

GG - That's great! Now you are set to go! And hey...if it breaks down after a few years...so what...you would have gotten your new and improved toned, fit and sexy body!...and I don't think your hubby would object to buying a new one!!!! LOL! Your right about not getting bored...it's been good for me having more than one type of cardio machine...I usually switch it up on a weekly basis...it staves away the boredom and challenges your muscles in different ways. Stay in touch...wan't to know how your doing with your WO.

Bopeep - Here..here to getting fit and making the best of our hot a$$ golden years!! woo hoo! The best is really yet to come!
Joyce

P.S. I have the best equipment that money can buy (i.e. Vectra, lifecycle machines, weights, etc.) and it sat unused for a whole year!!! Point is "just do it"...the best equipment is useless if you don't use it! So, whatever you have, (people out there in internetland), JUST DO IT...it'll work! Heee hee!

I really enjoyed my NordicTrak elliptical which i purchased from Sears for about $700 a couple years ago. I've never had a problem with it, and it was relatively easy to assemble with help from my husband.

The only reason i am looking to get rid of it currently is because i joined a gym. (I found that i really need to GET OUT of the house to get anything done for myself!)

I hope you enjoy your elliptical GG. I think that might've been one that Consumer Reports named as best choice in their inexpensive elliptical category.

I have a Lifefitness X5i which I love.

Meee tooo...I have the Lifefitness X3 (X5i must be the newest model...heah?)...anyways...it was the best investment I've made (and I'm a real estate investor with over 20 properties! hee hee!)
Joyce

I think in consumer land, LifeFitness has 4 different set of models, X1, X3, X5 and X7. So when I went to look for mine, they had X1s, X3s and X5s in the shop. (I don't believe they had X7s but I think those are out of my budget range anyway )

The funny thing is I was biased against Life Fitness machines when I went elliptical shopping and it was the last thing I wanted. Luckily, the store was having an awesome sale and the sales man really did his job in getting me to try it

Amazon update on some of the schwinns. For the month of March they are taking $100 off on some of them. It does not apply to the 430 but it does apply to the 418 and 431 and 438.

The 418 is a 3 times best buy from consumer reports. All of them have free shipping. The 430 is $599. With the $100 off the 418 is $499 with free shipping. Very tempting...may have to do it.

Did decide to get the 418. Very good price $499 shipped. I looked around the internet and most of the reviews were overwhemlingly positive. I realize it is an older model but on the flip side prices of $800 to $1000 seemed to be common just a year or two ago. So I am buying at the right time.

My wife and I are using a gazelle for most of our cardio. And while I am losing at a good clip she is not. We are both concerned about plateauing. Our gazelle is great but has no variable resistence. We thought hard about it but decided to help us reach our goals we needed something with varying resistence. Since this particular model seems to be about the most highly rated elliptical almost up to $1,000 we feel it was a good investment at $500.

As long as it is working, we will use it almost every day. And as long as it lasts awhile it will be an excellent, excellent choice.