The Merit 710t Treadmill Review — good walking treadmill under $400

Ohiyo!

From the depths of the DOJO the Treadmill Sensei comes forth once more to enlighten the masses desperate for treadmill wisdom. I arrived at the DOJO this morning at about 6am because I’d been kept awake most of the night by my beloved newborn grandson. I will refer to the golden child as “He who was not named after me” from now on. For some reason the child just didn’t want to sleep and decided he wanted to awaken at 3am to play with grandpa. Luck for him he is a cute little poop-machine because I normally kill anyone who wakes me up before 5am with my trusty katana.

But I digress.

I’ve been getting hounded by some of my readers to do more reviews of entire lines of equipment each week. You know, start with one unit in the line on Monday and move through all the units offered by a manufacturer each day until I’m done and then begin on another company. I don’t know how consitant I’ll be with the reviews, but I’ll give it a shot. For the next couple of days I’ll be reviewing equipment from Merit Fitness.

Merit itself is a relatively new brand but it has an amazing pedigree as the latest offering from Johnson Health Tech. Johnson Tech is one of the leading health and fitness companies in the world and produces a lot of great equipment under their Horizon and Matrix brands. They also produce equipment for companies like Schwinn and Precor.

The Merit 710T is the lightest treadmill I’ve come across that is still worth recommending to a buyer. These things weigh in at less than 125 pounds and fold up very small. The unit weight and smaller running area make the 710t very much a walking treadmill.

Don’t like the Merit 710T treadmill’s weight or size fool you, if you give it proper maintenance — keep the motor and deck clean, place it on a good treadmill mat — and keep to walking workouts, it should last you 4-5 years without much trouble at all.

Johnson Tech has done an excellent job in their design of the Merit 710T. The motor, while a bit smallish at 1.25 horsepower, still runs cool and at lower RPMs which help extend its life far beyond any Icon or Weslo treadmill in its price bracket.

This is a great $399 treadmill. Now, keep in mind what that means. When compared to other sub $500 treadmills, the Merit 710T is an excellent choice, but you get what you pay for. This is a very light weight unit and, like any lower price unit, should only be used for light workouts.

For being a nice low-end machine at an affordable price, the Treadmill Sensei gives the Merit 710t Treadmill 3 out of 5 golden buddahs.

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