The Weslo Cadence C44 Treadmill Review — Really Bad Under $400

Ohiyo!

One of the things the Treadmill Sensei hates about treadmill manufacturers is when they create (and trademark) new terms to confuse buyers. Terms like “Whisper deck,” “impuse drive” and “comfort cell cushioning” all grate at my nerves because they really mean absolutely nothing at all. They are all just buzz words and do nothing to make your workout better or more comfortable. One of the biggest perpetrators of the meaningless trademarked buzzword is Icon Health & Fitness, and their Weslo Cadence C44 Treadmill is one of the units they do it on. Can you tell I’m about to go on a rant?

The Treadmill Sensei is in a bit of an annoyed moode today because my wife’s relatives think they can bring in their cheap, broken-down treadmills to fix after they’ve been trashed. Today, one of Athena’s aunts (who wishes to remain nameless…unfortunately, it’s my blog and I can name names!), Aunt Nikki, brought in a burned out Welso Cadence C44 treadmill. Aunt Nikki said she bought the Weslo C44 because it had a maximum user capacity of 250 pounds and she had intended to work her way down to that quickly (Aunt Nikki currently weighs about 285 pounds). She never listens to me.

Let me repeat this again in case anyone missed it before, when you are looking at a treadmill, make sure the maximum user weight is at least 50 pounds OVER what you weight. Manufacturers generally over state the weight capacity on their machines and, if you want your treadmill to last, you need to factor that in. Meaning, Aunt Nikki should have purchased a treadmill with at least a 325 pound max user weight. She didn’t and she burned out her motor.

Speaking of the motor, Icon bills the Weslo C44 Treadmill as having a 2.25 THP horsepower motor. Regular readers of this site know that THP is a completely worthless rating…it stands for peak horse power (or total) and doesn’t do anyone any good. The actual horsepower rating of the Weslo Cadence C44 Treadmill is really around 1 to 1.25 horsepower…and it is the size of a soup can. This is not a motor that was ever meant to be hauling 250 pounds. I’d have given it a ranking of 200 lbs at the maximum, and said 175 lbs as a safer bet.

As I told Aunt Nikki earlier today, even at the “bargain” price of $399 the Weslo C44 treadmill is not worth buying — $99 MAYBE. This unit has a flimsy frame, weak manual incline set up, tiny motor, very small deck/running area and no programs. Even the pulse grip seems to have been poorly designed and calibrated.

In my opinion, the Weslo C44 treadmill did more for Aunt Nikki’s health as a broken unit than as a working one…at least she got a good workout carrying it down to the DOJO. For being a flimsy waste of money, the Treadmill Sensei gives the Weslo Cadence C44 Treadmill 1 out of 5 Golden Buddahs…and I think I’m being overly generous with that!

-The Treadmill Sensei
http://www.treadmillsensei.com