Forums >Gears and Wears>Where did you buy your treadmill?
The reviewed Sole treadmill is now a pile of junk in my backyard awaiting formal disposal. Their deck design is horrible; perhaps for low mile, slow runners they last, but I would NOT recommend them to anyone. The deck is just a shiny sheen of polymer over particleboard or something similar. You get a spot where the lube wears off, it overheats and cracks the coating, which then rubs into the belt and accelerates the process. You figure it out when you can either feel the ridges popping up through the belt or you smell the belt burning; in either case your belt and deck are both toast. In 4+ years I went through 4 decks, 2 belts, a speed sensor (which did not fix the speed issue), a start button, and finally junked it when the main control board went out. I now have a NordicTrack 1500 Commercial; quite a few of us bought the NordicTracks here when they ran a deal list winter/spring. Tomorrow I am having the FOURTH display installed on the thing; very annoying, not one has lasted 6 weeks. According to the last tech they are solid machines except for a software issue that causes the displays to go bad; I can only hope I eventually get a display that has fixed software. The machine still runs but only a few basic buttons work (start and stop do not! have to use speed setting to turn it on and pull the safety switch to stop the belt until fixed). Other than the display issue, I have been much happier with the machine so far than I ever was with the Sole. The only thing that bugs me...which the Sole did too...is only let you display pace in mph. Runners think in pace/mile, not mph. At least 5-6 people on here have the 1750 npaden referenced. So far, the only issues people of had of which I am aware are that you cannot put electronic devices on the console or it temporarily messes the display up do to some sort of electromagnetic interference.
The reviewed Sole treadmill is now a pile of junk in my backyard awaiting formal disposal. Their deck design is horrible; perhaps for low mile, slow runners they last, but I would NOT recommend them to anyone. The deck is just a shiny sheen of polymer over particleboard or something similar. You get a spot where the lube wears off, it overheats and cracks the coating, which then rubs into the belt and accelerates the process. You figure it out when you can either feel the ridges popping up through the belt or you smell the belt burning; in either case your belt and deck are both toast. In 4+ years I went through 4 decks, 2 belts, a speed sensor (which did not fix the speed issue), a start button, and finally junked it when the main control board went out.
I now have a NordicTrack 1500 Commercial; quite a few of us bought the NordicTracks here when they ran a deal list winter/spring. Tomorrow I am having the FOURTH display installed on the thing; very annoying, not one has lasted 6 weeks. According to the last tech they are solid machines except for a software issue that causes the displays to go bad; I can only hope I eventually get a display that has fixed software. The machine still runs but only a few basic buttons work (start and stop do not! have to use speed setting to turn it on and pull the safety switch to stop the belt until fixed).
Other than the display issue, I have been much happier with the machine so far than I ever was with the Sole. The only thing that bugs me...which the Sole did too...is only let you display pace in mph. Runners think in pace/mile, not mph.
At least 5-6 people on here have the 1750 npaden referenced. So far, the only issues people of had of which I am aware are that you cannot put electronic devices on the console or it temporarily messes the display up do to some sort of electromagnetic interference.
I bought a Sole F85 about 5 years ago. My wife and I have actually been happy with it, but probably don't put as many miles on it as you. Last I checked it was at around 280 hours use (the mileage has looped around numerous times). Guesstimating an average 8 min pace, that puts us around 2,100 miles.
I have however had to replace the deck once, which cracked down the middle. Thankfully the belt wasn't damaged. Support was really good and sent a new deck out no questions. A bit of a pain to install, but was able to do myself in under an hour. Everything else has worked flawlessly.
But I do mainly easy recovery runs on it, and my wife is really small (~100 pounds). I've done a few 10+ mile runs, but normally my limit is about 6 miles before I start to go crazy! Maybe by keeping our runs short / easy, the deck doesn't get as heat saturated, which caused some of your problems? I agree, you should be able to run on the TM as long and hard as you want without issue, but just saying maybe my experience has been better since I don't often push the limits of the TM?
As for the pace / mph issue, mine has a button to toggle the display to show pace? That is odd if yours didn't have that, they must have changed the design.
Feeling the growl again
I bought a Sole F85 about 5 years ago. My wife and I have actually been happy with it, but probably don't put as many miles on it as you. Last I checked it was at around 280 hours use (the mileage has looped around numerous times). Guesstimating an average 8 min pace, that puts us around 2,100 miles. I have however had to replace the deck once, which cracked down the middle. Thankfully the belt wasn't damaged. Support was really good and sent a new deck out no questions. A bit of a pain to install, but was able to do myself in under an hour. Everything else has worked flawlessly. But I do mainly easy recovery runs on it, and my wife is really small (~100 pounds). I've done a few 10+ mile runs, but normally my limit is about 6 miles before I start to go crazy! Maybe by keeping our runs short / easy, the deck doesn't get as heat saturated, which caused some of your problems? I agree, you should be able to run on the TM as long and hard as you want without issue, but just saying maybe my experience has been better since I don't often push the limits of the TM? As for the pace / mph issue, mine has a button to toggle the display to show pace? That is odd if yours didn't have that, they must have changed the design.
I am sure the amount, length of time, and speed I ran on it contributed to the issues. However, unless they are going to sell it as a clothes hanger I don't see that I am in the wrong expecting to be able to actually run on it.
Their service was much easier to deal with than Nordic Track....it has been very hit-and-miss with them. I also believe Sole put a lifetime warranty on the decks now (wonder why they did that??). Being as I am already on my 4th console with the Nordic Track, and that it is now developing some of the same fine deck surface cracking I saw with the Sole prior to it escalating, I'm not sure I will be any better off in the end. Time will tell.
You are correct, there was a design change after I bought mine that lets you toggle mph/pace.
One thing is for certain, when this one is a pile of junk I am just going to buck up and get a Landice.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
I bought a Sole F85 about 5 years ago.
After much research and thought, I just purchased a 2013 F85 last night on eBay. It should be here in about one week. It's an upgrade from an old entry level Proform treadmill.
Just had the dreaded LS1 "Low Speed Error" on my F85. Fucking POS. I think I have two years left on the parts warranty. I will post my experience.
I bought a used Precor 9.33 five or six years ago off of Craigslist. It was only one year old at the time and I got it for a tenth of the price of a new one. I have replaced the belt once and flipped the reversable deck when I did that. It is a solid treadmill, although it doesn't have a lot of bells an whistles. My first treadmill was a $800 Proform that I bought from Costco. I think it lasted five or six years.
Heh. See all my posts on Sole treadmills.
The good news is, if it is the speed sensor and they will send you a new one it is a very easy part to install. But if the root cause is more complex.....
One thing to consider is if you had your belt too tight...that can cause this. If not, likely the sensor or the motor can't keep up for some reason. When was the last time you lubed it?
I had it apart over the summer and have put maybe 30 hours on it since. I put on a new belt, which had arrived two weeks after the warranty repair on the deck from a couple years ago. I keep it plugged into a Kill-a-Watt to monitor the current draw, which becomes large if there is too much drag due to lack of lube or a broken-down deck.
I can be pounding away at 6 mph and all of the sudden it will just accelerate, as if the 12 mph key got hit. I'll be tearing it down tomorrow to see if there is anything suspicious. It is possible that something is just dirty; I live in a house with 7 cats.
After I got over my little shit fit, I did another round of cleaning, service and adjustment. Here are the findings:
The speed sensor is at the front roller. The front roller appears to be aluminum with a few chunks of steel embedded into it. Same principle as a speed sensor + tone ring on a car.
Before I got started, I tried to reproduce the problem with the cover off. One thing I did was let it run by itself for 20 minutes. It did fine so I began to suspect that it was mechanical rather than electronic.
With it running at 2 mph, I kept my left foot on the rail and stomped the belt hard with my right foot. If I did it hard enough, I could see the front roller pause momentarily. This would definitely cause the computer to read a speed much lower than the display setting. After doing that a few times, the motor began to accelerate, and then it shut off with the LS1 Low Speed Error. So the problem was definitely with the belt connecting the motor to the roller (just a big vacuum cleaner belt). I could see that the motor was twisted ever-so-slightly. I loosened the four bolts holding it down, corrected the twist, and gave the set screw two full turns. I tried the stomp test again and could not make the front roller pause.
Since I had everything apart, I lubed the deck and spent about half an hour fiddling with the tension and alignment of the main belt. Then I did 10 miles on it and it did not skip a beat.
You may want to consider whether it is worth a new drive belt. If it was slipping like that for a long time, it may have damaged the belt. If you had to then over-tension the motor to get it tight enough not to slip (not to say you did), it could prematurely wear the main bearing on the motor.