As, up until recent months, my daughter's asthma had made life difficult for her in many respects, she became worried about her general fitness. She is a competent swimmer, but found that swimming in indoor pools was worsening her condition. I know asthma is supposed to be helped by swimming but in her case she is highly sensitive to chemicals, and the chlorine was ascerbating her condition. As she wants to pursue a career in theatre, she knows that she'll need to be fit, and so should build up her stamina. She became insistant that she would like a treadmill for her Christmas present (the one before last). I was a little dubious concerning this, as this type of thing takes up so much space, but I thought there would be a plus side to this, being that all the family could benefit and when the better weather came it could be moved to the garden.


I looked, mainly, at two treadmills in Argos (online). The first was the cheapest and that was a manual treadmill. My husband said this wouldn't be any good at all so, we decided to go for the next one up. I'm not sure of the price at that time but think it was between £80 to £100.

As this treadmill was magnetic, we thought this might improve the performance. The motorised treadmills were too expensive but, in hindsight, I feel these are probably much better and worth the extra expense.


This treadmill is heavy and CANNOT be picked up from store, so, with just over a week to go before Christmas, I ordered it online. Soon after I had a telephone call from Argos comfirming my order and asking me which delivery dates I would prefer. The delivery cost was about five pounds. The item arrived on time and I thought I received a good service, in this respect.


On Christmas morning my husband assembled the treadmill and found this easy enough, although he is quite handy with this type of thing anyway. I was worried straight away by the size of it. Of course, I knew the size but, actually seeing it in my through lounge it was bigger than I'd expected. I wouldn't have chosen this one if it hadn't folded but, even in it's folded state it takes up a lot of space.


We all had a go. My Westie was eager to get on, so we let him, and my daughter thought she wouldn't have to walk him as much, if he mastered the treadmill!
I have a neuropathy problem that affects the muscles in my feet and ankles but I had, mistakenly, thought that with this I might be able to exercise at my own gentle pace in the privacy of my own home. Alas, because of the fixed incline of this piece of equipment it caused me pain and just wasn't any use to me whatsoever.
My husband tried it an didn't like the incline either. As the incline is at 6%, that is enough to mean you really need to hold on all the time as you are walking on this. This is a shame, as I thought it might be alright for power walking. This was not the case, unfortunately. As you start to build a little speed if you don't hold on you're likely to fall off. Of course, my daughter insisted it was okay, for a while and by the time she relised it wasn't up to much, it was too late to return it. I really wish I had though.

Next came the decision to move it. It has wheels but that doesn't make it's transportation easy. My husband and son struggled to get it upstairs and into my daughter's bedroom. She has a laminate floor and we soon found that if she used the treadmill it was very noisy in the living room, which is underneath her bedroom.


After a few days I found my daughter had put piles of clothes on it, but then, even folded it took up too much room and she couldn't get to her cupboards.


We persevered for a while but found it useless. Too big to keep in the house and too big and much too heavy to move around. It is now in the garage, another redundant item that would only have given my husband exercise in opening his mouth to say, as usual, 'I told you so! and unwanted further exercise in the difficult, perspiration making task of moving it!


This treadmill is currently sold by Argos for, £79.99. That is supposed to be with £20 off. However, I wouldn't bother with this, even if it was given free of charge. It really isn't worth it.



Here are the specifications as taken from www.argos.co.uk:


Speed self powered, with adjustable magnetic running belt braking.

Fixed elevation 6%.

Running surface (L)111, (W)38cm.

6-function LCD exercise monitor with calories, distance, pulse, scan, speed and time modes.

Foldable for easy upright storage.

Transportation wheels.

Max user body weight 115kg/18st.

Size (H)125, (W)71, (L)135cm.

Gross weight 34kg.

Requires 2 x AA batteries, not included.

Packed flat for home assembly.

Home delivery only.


Cannot be reserved for store pick-up
for home delivery
Store pick-up not available on this order

Standard delivery £5.95 for this order



This review may be found on ciao by annelorraine1