subject: How to Get Your Treadmill or Elliptical Repaired [print this page] Buying your own home exercise equipment is often far more convenient and economical than joining a gym. However, there comes a time when exercise equipment like treadmills, ellipticals, and home gyms, needs repair, or at least attention. The retailer, especially if it's a big box store, likely knows little about repair and may refer you to the manufacturer. The manufacturer is often far away and usually not motivated to help you. What's the poor owner to do?
The quality of treadmills, ellipticals, and home gyms has improved dramatically in recent years. At the same time, their cost has declined substantially. This has put both the equipment owner and repair person in difficult spots. If the owner has spent $1,000 on a treadmill, does it makes sense for him to stay home so the repair person can make a $200 repair on a five year old machine? For the repair person, does it make sense to drive around town for hours making small repairs? It may get to the point where, as with toasters, it is simply better to buy a new machine instead of bothering with repairs. However, we are not there yet!
The first step is to determine whether your equipment is covered by a warranty. If you bought your machine new, you should have received a manufacturer's warranty that covers parts and labor for a specified period. If you are still within the warranty period, contact the manufacturer. They will typically arrange for parts to be replaced, pay for a replacement machine, or send a local, independent repair person to your home. If your warranty has expired, they may refer you to a local repair person who you can pay directly.
If you did not buy your machine new, you will not be covered a warranty. You could contact the manufacturer for a referral to a local repair person. However, some manufacturers are not particularly helpful with this. You could also try to make the repair yourself. Though this is often possible, especially if the problem is mechanical, most people don't want to bother. If the problem is electronic, such as a console that does not function properly, the solution is usually as simple as replacing the malfunctioning component. These parts are usually available for purchase on the Internet, but you typically can't be certain that replacing the malfunctioning part will solve your problem.
There are sources for free and inexpensive advice on the Internet, but this can be time-consuming and inefficient. You could also search for a local repair person yourself. Outside major metropolitan areas, finding an experienced person can be difficult. There is a directory of exercise equipment repair people at Treadmill Service Providers Directory. This is a good source of repair businesses, but is incomplete. If you find a good repair person elsewhere, adding their name to this directory is free, so you may want to help out the business and the next person in need and add the business to the directory by submitting their information as a comment to the directory.
