Notice I must stress that as an Independent Service Provider we always put our Customers Interests and Safety first and the Services we provide are purely within the interests of our Customers. We are not contracted or locked into any agreements with manufactures and any Technical Guidance we provide is purely based on our own Professional and Qualified Engineering Skillset as well as Industry knowledge.
Motors and their Horse Power:
There are many advertisements that claim there are two different types of motors used on Treadmills "Continuous Duty" and "Peak Duty". This is wrong and misleads the buyer! The “Continuous Duty" and "Peak Duty” of a motor is simply a Power Rating as ALL motors have a Continuous Duty and a Peak Duty.
Some inexperienced advertisers especially over the Internet boast that the Motors on their Home Use Treadmills for example provide 2.75HP Peak Duty which confuses the novice into thinking it’s much better than the other one with a 2.0HP Continuous Duty Motor. When advertisers don't state whether the Motor is Continuous or Peak then this usually means that it is the misleading Peak Duty.
Why so much fuss about the HP? Probably because after you've parted with your hard earned cash the product wont last much longer than a few months or in some cases weeks! (A huge amount of our Domestic Service Calls are from customers who have purchased Treadmills from various "Cheaper" sources and it has failed within a matter of days!)
But isn't it under Warranty? Of Course...Providing the Company that sold you the unit is still in business! The type of individuals that sell these type of Treadmills do so because the distributor who is importing them into the UK in the Hundreds is offering them, the individuals the opportunity to make huge Profit margins. These individuals know nothing about the product they are selling or its poor quality design and build and when the unit breaks down are often difficult to make contact with.
Don't think this happens? Some popular types of Home Use Treadmills are doing their rounds at the moment and unfortunately people are buying them in their droves because they are Cheap and seem like a really good buy. People don't realise that what they are buying is powered by a motor that has a Peak Rating of 2.75HP which is only about 1.3HP Continuous Rating.
Peak Duty is the Maximum measured power potential of the motor – the highest power it can run at with effectively no body on the machine! However the Motor would only be able to provide this power for a Very Brief Interval of Time and not being able to Sustain this power would soon start to overheat possibly causing further damage to the Motor Control Board (MCB). So this measurement of Horse Power is essentially useless to you.
The Peak Power of a Motor in this situation is calculated by measuring its electrical power consumption at its Stall Torque, as simulated with Test Equipment. A mechanical load such as a braking mechanism is applied to the running motor (Simulated as a Heavy Person on the Running Belt) which causes the shaft to stop turning. At that precise moment in time, the motor will draw its Peak Electrical Power. It is at this point, the motor is suddenly drawing an abnormally high amount of current - a phenomenon called "Locked Rotor Current”. You may have witnessed this phenomenon when your Circular Saw momentarily binds up while cutting wet wood (notice how the lights dim when this happens)!
The whole concept of Peak Power is not practical, because the motor is not intended to be operated in this condition for more than a brief interval. A motor in a device such as a Saw is better defined by the power delivered while continuously doing its intended job - Cutting Wood! or in our case the Treadmill continuously doing it’s job of driving a Running Belt under the load of an individuals weight. Stalling an electric motor for more than a few seconds will cause it to heat up and possibly burn out (though your Circuit Breaker or Fuse will hopefully trip first). The motor is, for a very brief moment, drawing much more current than normal.
Continuous Duty is a more accurate measure of the motor power - It tells us how much Minimum measured power the Motor is able to provide at all times, no matter what the weight of the person is on the machine.
Our advice is not to purchase a Treadmill with a Motor Rating of less than 1.75HP Continuous Duty. Buy a Treadmill that includes a Standard Warranty (at least two years) on Parts and labour form a Manufacture who’s been supplying the industry for many years.
Our own Engineers have carried out a search of the "Better" Equipment available and tested various makes of Home Use Treadmills within our Workshop at Expert Fitness UK. Our professional decision was to supply the “Vision Range” of Home Use and Commercial Grade product.
