Smooth Fitness 7.35 Folding Treadmill
- Separate pedestal and a one particular-piece, 62-inch deck can deal with aggressive operating and walking
- three.five-horsepower commercial grade motor 20 by 62-inch running/walking surface
- Capabilities a sound system with speakers and iPod docking station
- 20 fitness programs such as a manual system, preset programs, and heart-rate manage
- 350-pound maximum user excess weight -15 incline levels .five to 11.three miles per hour array
- Assembled dimensions: 80 by 33 by 56 inches (L x W x H)
- Folded dimensions: 44 by 33 by 56 inches (L x W x H)
- Lifetime warranty on frame and motor, 7-year warranty on parts and electronics, 2-year service warranty
- Water bottle holder and wireless heart rate monitor integrated
$ 1,439.99
Featuring a gym-high quality style, the Smooth Fitness® 7.35 treadmill is best for your routine. Heavy-duty aluminum side rails and an industrial-strength frame help place the 7.35 miles ahead. You can even attach your USB memory stick to the MP3 port and be energized as your personal soundtrack blazes from the console — bye-bye, bouncing headphone wires!Best for significant training at house, the rugged Smooth Fitness 7.35 Folding Treadmill provides a complete-length, 20-by-62-inch running surface, one-touch controls, and a effective 3.5-horsepower continuous-duty commercial grade motor. Thanks to a separate pedestal and solid one-piece layout, this treadmill also has shock absorption capabilities generally only found in non-folding treadmills–but in a fo
Unpredictable to the point of dangerous,
While I wish I could echo the comments on here, I took a gamble on the Smooth Fitness 7.35 treadmill in mid-February and have so far lost my bets.
Upon arrival in early March (3 weeks from order), the treadmill was incredibly easy to put together. The console is nice and large, speakers decent, the deck plenty long and wide with a solid feel. Unfortunately, that’s where the positives stopped. While I bought this treadmill partially for its warranty, I did not expect to use it the first day.
The initial problem: The treadmill speed is unpredictable to the point of dangerous.
Upon the first attempt, I set the treadmill on its base speed (0.5 mph) and proceeded to stand on the belt… and it stops! At 6’2″ and 180 lbs, the motor and belt shouldn’t be stopping by any means. I proceed to stand on the side rails and increase the speed to 1.0 mph. It starts… and stops… and starts… so I decide to reset it as is usual logic with most electronics.
Again, I place the console on the base speed and just let it run underneath as I stand on the side rails. *Without touching anything*, the treadmill ZOOMS from 0 to top speed with absolutely no notice or gradual lead-up. Just sudden, instant top-speed.
Now, had I been standing on this, let alone my wife, either of us could have been seriously injured given there was zero notice and nothing was touched. Sure enough, every time from there on, the treadmill exhibited the same problem over and over rendering it unusuable.
I called Smooth Fitness technical service and to their credit, the technical support person was very friendly, returned calls promptly, and admitted he hadn’t seen this type of problem before. He also stated this is a new model and that may be a contributing factor. He suggested having the treadmill replaced; however, customer service wasn’t so willing. They gave two options — pay the $300 shipping to have it returned or the treadmill must be serviced with replacement parts from a local fitness service center. They do *not* exchange units, despite hardware failures.
The cliche “between a rock and a hard place” comes to mind. As I wasn’t looking to spend $300 on top of the $1,500 I already spent on a brand new machine, I reluctantly agreed to have a service rep come out. Two weeks later, a service technician came out (now more than a month after purchase) and suggested a new motherboard. The technician left and another two weeks later the part arrived and a technician was back out to install it.
For the time being, the treadmill worked alright. It inclined, declined, increased and decreased in speed consistently . . . or at least for the next couple weeks.
Problem #2: E1 — Speed Errors
The console turns on, you can set your programs, and then… nothing. No treadmill movement, just the error code.
I’m waiting on a resolution on this — I’ll update this review once I hear back from Smooth Fitness, hopefully tomorrow.
As a final note, I did write a review on Smooth Fitness’ website that was honest to the unfortunate facts, but positive to the structural feel and prompt response of technical service. Given it was not the stellar review like their others, they chose not to publish it, to which I can only assuming because it was not glowing.
In the end, I do believe their treadmills should be quality based upon Consumer Reports and Runner’s World; however, when you’re given a lemon, how many times should your product need to be repaired before they finally replace it? Particularly when you just paid for it brand new?
UPDATE on 5/10/10: Smooth shipped a new motherboard and had a technician come and install it per the warranty. After 24 hours, it is running okay. I have increased the rating from 1 to 2 stars as while I still have reservations about the product, the technical services response on the phone has been good at returning my phone calls.
UPDATE on 1/28/11: It’s been awhile, so I thought it worthy to post an updated review. I have increased the total review to three stars — having had this treadmill for about a year now, I did have one more service call in June of last year. The technician explained at the time his fixes that day addressed some of the problems prevalent in this early model. Since then, the treadmill has been running smoothly on the 2-3 mile/three days a week runs I’ve been undertaking (usually… admittedly, the holidays may have been a lapse). Since then, I’ve noticed the following:
+ I do like the large LCD display on here. While I don’t find myself using the customized programs, the display itself is bright and the calorie counter and distance tracker tends to be within a +/- 20 calories as well as +/…
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|I wanted to like this treadmill…,
When I got the call from the shipping company to set a date for receipt of my new treadmill, I was definitely excited–so you can imagine my disappointment when the shipper’s arrived with the wrong product (a Smooth Fitness elliptical instead of a treadmill). I called Smooth to fix the problem and they were very helpful and apologetic; on the downside, it ended up taking almost three additional weeks for the treadmill to arrive, and nobody thought to call and let me know what was happening in the mean time. When the treadmill finally showed up (over a month after I placed the order), the box had already been opened. If I had known this prior to my acceptance, I would’ve declined the shipment, but when I questioned the shipping company representative (from Oak Harbor Freight) about the plastic bands that were removed, he assured me that such was common practice (something to do with the pallet that the box was attached to). In any event, I once again found myself disappointed as I discovered that the treadmill had, in fact, been taken out of the box prior to my receipt and was improperly repackaged. That wouldn’t have bothered me too much except that there were gashes in the plastic side boards. I’m assuming this happened during shipment, as it would be extremely bad practice for any company to knowingly ship a new product in such a condition.
Once I got the machine set up, I could hardly wait to give it a trial run. I couldn’t have been more disappointed with the performance–specifically, the length of time it took for the treadmill to slow down from a fast pace. I timed it, and it took at least 45 seconds (perhaps up to a minute) to slow from 10 MPH to 6 MPH. This is detrimental for any interval workout (such as Troy Jacobson’s “Runervals”), where your rest time is precious. I’ve run on many treadmills over the past 15 years and had never encountered one that operated in such a deficient manner. Needless to say, I called Smooth the next day, figuring that perhaps my machine was defective. To my utter dismay, I was informed that the 7.35 models and lower were designed to operate like that; evidently, this was a new “enhancement” added to the current-year’s model–if I wanted one that didn’t function in such a manner I’d have to upgrade to the 7.6 model or above. I was so disappointed with the 7.35 that I was ready to purchase the 7.6 on the spot…that was, until customer service informed me that I’d have ship the 7.35 back at my own expense. They wouldn’t budge at all on that point, even after I explained the aforementioned shipping fiasco that was no fault of my own. After that conversation, I was ready to send the machine back for a full refund and take my business elsewhere, but I couldn’t do that either, since I’d prematurely disposed of the original box (Smooth said it could only be returned in the original packing). I guess I gave to much credence to the many positive reviews I read while researching this purchase.
Other disappointments include:
- The digital-distance meter doesn’t display hundredths of miles; e.g., it displays “1.2″ but not “1.25″ … I’ve never seen a quality treadmill that doesn’t let you know when you’ve run a quarter mile.
- The fan is worthless. Airflow is entirely undetectable from a mere 12 inches away.
On the plus side, the treadmill operates well when it gets to the desired speed: very smooth and solid. Unfortunately, however, the pros don’t outweigh the cons in this case and therefore I cannot recommend this product.
Best wishes in your treadmill search and fitness goals.
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|7.35R Sturdy, Quiet, Attractive, but Inconvenient,
I researched treadmills the best I could, but found the available online information to be more generic or more suspicious than, say, car reviews.
Nevertheless, I did trust them enough to narrow down the range about three manufacturers/models. The Sole F80, the Nordic Track C1750, and Smooth 7.35R. [NOTE the 7.35R replaces the 7.35, the console is different, and it has true 15 percent incline.]
Prior to the review proper, just a quick note about the competitor’s models that I tried:
I was able find a Nordic Track C1500 (previous model to the 1750) and a Sole F80 at Sears, and tried them out first. I was disheartened to find that I could only try a Smooth by actually ordering one.
While the Nordic Track was impressively better on features and specs, and worked great, it also had the highest deck (probably necessary for negative incline feature) which was for me a negative. Another big negative is that once released from the folding position, it had no slow soft descent (you have to hang on and lower it carefully).
The Sole F80 was also very good, and very easy (too easy?) to move once folded up. But when looking for independent reviews, videos, etc., I encountered so much self-promotional material it crowded out nearly everything else. Amazingly, I decided to buy the Smooth sight unseen, based on the scant reviews, and the longer (7 year) warranty. I also believed that, based on proximity, I could get parts faster, should I need them in the future.
OK. The review: I have only just assembled and used this unit. I can’t attest to its durability yet, only the assembly, feel, and user experience.
Don’t do curbside delivery. Get this unit delivered to exactly where you want it, right side up, with the front, heavy end (marked on the box) in the right place. Don’t plan on moving it much. Unlike some others’ reported experience, my box–ordered direct from Smooth–was in pristine condition when I received it two weeks later.
This unit is really easy to assemble with a friend, as there are very few parts that are not preassembled.
The soft release feature is amazing and impressively slow and soft. More so than the Sole, which is also quite adequate.
This unit is very hard to move, or even figure out how to move (instructions notwithstanding) at least on my relatively thin carpet,or figure out how to move. (I am a strong large male, BTW.) Night and day difference from the Sole which is hard not to move once it is in the upright position.
I think the Smooth is the most aesthetically pleasing of the three treadmills I have tried, and it is quiet enough.
I weigh 235 lbs, and have run it so far up to 8mph. It was very solid and stable (and I’m out of breath).
The fan, when activated, is amazingly loud for a tiny little computer type fan. It has two settings, loud and louder. It actually does create a bit of breeze, so I wonder if in response to prior criticism on the weak fan maybe the company tweaked the speed to get better output at the expense of noisier operation. It has a fixed blowing angle however.
The console is pretty primitive. As another review noted, it only shows tenths of miles. I believe the lap feature counts quarter miles. There is support for five users, which AFAIK is only useful for computing calories burned (you enter each user’s height/weight/gender). That was just right for us, since we have a family of five. There is the ability to enter two custom programs (I believe two each, for each of the five users), but the process of entering the program is just way too tedious, and makes no allowance to go back to correct anything without having to start over.
The biggest drawback for me compared to the Sole are the available quick settings for speeds and inclines. The 7.35R has a key each for 4/6/8/10 mph. No quick access to anything slower. The inclines go from 2/4/6/8 percent. No easy access to 15%. (BTW, unlike the predecessor 7.35, the 7.35R goes up to full 15 percent grade, not “levels”, though their website is still not up to date on this point).
The membrane keys are easier to keep clean, but harder to press than the Sole (there is no tactile feedback). But I wonder if the Sole buttons wouldn’t eventually break. The Sole has speed/incline increment/decrement keys on the handles which are easier to use than poking the plus/minus icons directly on the console.
All current treadmills have a safety feature, where you are tethered to a “key” so if you slip too far back, or trip, the unit will come to a halt. The annoying thing–at least on this unit (I didn’t check this out on others)–is that there is no way to resume your program in progress even after plugging the key back in. That can only be accomplished with the pause button provided the key stays in place. This could tempt some users to defeat an…
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