Folding vs Non-Folding Treadmills - The Real Story

Another reason to have one is to be able to clean easily underneath it. We can't find any problem with this logic and that is why we have folding treadmills ourselves.

The difference in the build of the treadmill is the most important feature. Icon Health and Fitness was the first company in the modern era to build a folding treadmill. The first folding treadmill was actually built in the early 1900's. Icon's original ideas have been redesigned in the past few years and have become a very good design. Most of their treadmills are easy to service, the design is very good, and they have minimized the initial problems that surfaced. The frame design is a little heavier than some of their non-folding efforts and actually creates a treadmill that should structurally last longer than other non-folding treadmills in the same price range. They sell under the brand names ProForm, Weslo, Image, NordicTrack, Reebok, and HealthRider.

Some other companies such as Keys, Everyoung, Trimline, Schwinn, and Vision sell a higher class of treadmill but in almost every case, these treadmills sacrifice quality for the ability to fold up. For instance, the Keys folding machines are much less stable than their non-folding units while an Image folding treadmill is much more stable than anything else below $2,000. Some of these manufacturers have had to add extra support to bolster their designs just to get them to stand upright when folded, using cheap kick stand-like contraptions. It is our opinion that you should start from scratch to design a folding treadmill, not modify an existing design, as many manufacturers have.

The king of the folding treadmill is unquestionably Spirit. If you look at a Spirit folding treadmill on the showroom floor, you may never realize that you are looking at a folding treadmill. You may just think that it is another $2,000 to $2,500 treadmill until the salesperson shows you that it will fold up. The amazing feature of the Spirit unit is that their folding units have so much extra structural support built into their frames. Although they still make non-folding treadmills, their folding units are much more stable and rugged than their non-folding treadmills. In other words, if you need a folding treadmill and can afford a Spirit, theirs is the way to go.

The Biscayne, by Yowza Fitness, is a folding treadmill that is dubbed as the best value in a folding treadmill specifically designed for runners. This folding treadmill is specially designed to stand up to heavy use by runners.

Yowza Fitness managed to fit a full sized 20"X 60" multi-ply running belt into a package that easily folds for storage. In fact, this 254 pound folding treadmill can fold down into a package that requires only 23.8 inches of space for storage.

Yowza Fitness added a 3.0 HP commercial grade continuous duty motor, and a heavy precision balanced flywheel, to this folding treadmill. The Yowza Fitness Biscayne is ready for serious business. And Yowza Fitness floating deck that rests on multi-durometer elastomer rings provides a soft landing surface at the front of the tread, making it easy on your body, and a firm surface in the rear, to push off from.