Fun With Treadmills

Fun With Treadmills

So I went out today and bought a used treadmill that I found on Craig's List. It was in really good shape, seemed to work fine, and for $85? What the heck, if it lasts a year, that's okay.

It lasted 29 minutes, before I smelled something burning--and then it stopped working completely. I disassembled it, and found the motor too hot to touch.

I had an inspiration. We hadn't taken the old treadmill to the dump yet--and its motor was just fine. So I opened it up--and the motor, wiring, and drive system was essentially identical--and they both seem to have been made by the same company in Utah (although it looks like the company name changed somewhere along the way). Perhaps I could just swap the working motor into the new one?

Several problems with that:

1. The mounting bracket was slightly different, and not readily alterable.

2. When I plugged the working motor into the new treadmill's drive controller, nothing happened.

3. When I unplugged the motor, and checked the output voltage from the drive controller, it was utterly zero. (Perhaps it needs to be under load to measure voltage, but I don't immediately know what sort of load it needs for such a test.)

The electrical characteristics of the motors are slightly different: the working motor is 14 amp; the non-working one is 17 amp. I thought at first that the reason the working motor wasn't working in this treadmill was that there is a sensor that identifies that the walking belt is moving (probably so that the drive controller will shut off the electric motor if the walking belt stops)--but even starting everything up and turning the belt didn't make any difference.

I'm going to make some calls tomorrow--but I am beginning to think that the reason that used treadmills are available so cheaply is that:

1. They break down frequently.

2. The cost of repairing them is most of the cost of a new treadmill, because the only expensive parts are the drive controller and the motor.

So far, I've spent $90 for a Sears service call to find out that the old treadmill isn't worth repairing, and $85 on a treadmill that gave me a great workout for 29 minutes. I'll make some more calls tomorrow, but it doesn't seem like anyone repairs treadmills except Sears, and that's so expensive that it makes more sense to haul both of these to the dump, and buy new.

Even more frustrating is that one of these treadmills is in perfect shape except for the belt, and the other has a perfectly good belt--but the motor (and maybe electronics) are shot. I may do a Frankenstein, and transfer the good belt to the old treadmill.

UPDATE: I suspect that what happened here is that this treadmill has been sitting in a garage for some period of time, unused. Dust gets inside the motor, and any lubrication gums it up. I started using it--and the extra friction burned out the motor. ProForm warrantees the motors for eight years, so I trying to find out when this unit was sold. The cost of a replacement motor is $178--which is about halfway to a decent treadmill, and more than halfway to a cheap one.

I'm hoping that ProForm can tell me if I can use the motor from the older treadmill or not. If not, I'll see if it is practical to do a walking belt transplant from the newer treadmill to the older one. They seem to be identical dimensions, and the drive mechanisms are identical. It is unfortunate, because the newer treadmill is otherwise in great condition. But the $85 I spent on the newer treadmill is exactly what I would have spent (with tax) on a replacement belt for the older treadmill.