Product Description

Merit Fitness 720T Treadmill with Heart Rate Monitor, 10 Quick Keys, Cooling Fan, and EZ-For-One Assembly

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70952 in Sports & Outdoors
• Brand: Horizon Fitness
• Model: 720T
• Released on: 2008-01-03

Features

• Folding treadmill with 1.25 horsepower continuous duty motor
• Speed range of 1 to 10 miles per hour, 0 to 10 percent incline
• Four preset programs, two cup holders, hand contact heart rate monitor
• Weight capacity of 250 pounds
• Lifetime frame warranty, two years for motor

Amazon.com Product Description
Make it easy and affordable to get into shape in your own home with the Merit 720T treadmill, which folds easily for storage. A great choice for both walkers and recreational runners, the 720T has a 1.25 continuous horsepower motor that provides a speed range of 1 to 10 miles per hour. It also offers a 0 to 10 percent elevation range for added resistance with 400 pounds of thrust. The computer console has a brickyard LCD screen showing levels as well as four additional LCDs displaying speed, time, and distance and 10 quick keys. It also features two cup holders, a hand contact heart rate monitor, and four preset programs--manual, intervals, rolling, and weight loss.

Specifications:

• Motor: 1.25 continuous horsepower, 2.25 total horsepower
• Speed range: 1 to 10 miles per hour
• Elevation range: 0 to 1.75 percent
• Running area: 18 by 50 inches
• Running deck: 0.6 inch
• Cushion system: AeroSoft
• Belt thickness: 1.3 millimeters
• Roller size: 1.6 inches
• Weight capacity: 250 pounds

Manufacturer's Warranty
Frame - lifetime; motor - 2 years; parts and labor - 90 days

About Treadmills
Walking is still considered one of the most beneficial cardiovascular exercises for people of all ages, body types, and fitness levels. As a fundamental form of aerobic training, walking has numerous physical benefits for the heart, lungs, and circulatory system, while also increasing muscle tone and burning fat calories. Treadmills provide a convenient way to regularly exercise in all weather conditions in the comfort and safety of your own home.

From beginners just starting an exercise regimen to advanced athletes looking to maintain their fitness level, anyone interested in getting and staying in shape can benefit greatly from regular use of a treadmill. Treadmills allow you to determine the pace, distance, and complexity of the workout based on your needs, all while watching television, talking on the telephone, or reading a magazine. Much easier on sensitive joints like the knees and hips, treadmill walking and running surfaces are typically long, padded platforms that allow ample room for a long stride and comfortable, low-impact walk or jog without the harsh contact of a concrete surface.

While many different types, styles, and price ranges of treadmills exist, many of them offer unique features like a fold-up design for easy storage, an electronic display monitor showing speed, distance, workout time, incline level, and burned calories, and EKG grip pulses to monitor the heart rate while exercising. Regardless of the simple to complex features you may choose, treadmills offer an array of aerobic exercise opportunities that will provide long-lasting beneficial cardiovascular results without a commute to the gym or a jog in the rain.

About Merit Fitness
Merit Fitness is part of Johnson Health Tech, one of the largest manufacturers of fitness equipment in the world. They are committed to designing, engineering, and manufacturing superior products for health clubs and homes. Johnson’s manufacturing facilities rank among the most sophisticated in the industry, with an intricate mix of robotics and skilled workers that maintain the highest standards of accuracy and quality. Every stage of manufacturing has a testing phase and 10 percent of Merit’s products go through a rigorous quality inspection that includes completely taking them apart and reassembling them.

Customer Reviews

Customer Service???
After much consideration of all products listed, I chose the Merit 720T. It was in my price range, and sounded great. I received the product, and put it together easily. Everything was going fine, until I plugged it in. It would not run. At all. Any part, whatsoever. I reviewed the book, looked at troubleshooting, and reviewed the DVD that came with it. I took every part off and checked it. It absolutely did not work. I got the number for customer service, but - the hours were Monday thru Friday, 8am to 5 pm. Those are the EXACT hours I am at work. No after hours, no weekends, no help on their website. I had received this item on a Friday night. So I email them, and then I have my husband call the next Monday morning. He was put on hold for so long he gave up. I emailed them again, and he called the customer service again. Finally, he got through, and after a lengthy conversation with a representative, they concluded that the "safety key" had too much glue to make a good magnetic connection, and that is why it would not run. When my husband took off the safety key, pried off most of the glue, and put it back on, it ran just fine. It is still running great, now that the problem is fixed. In all fairness, they did send a replacement safety key that week.
It has alot of features on it, although I mainly use the heart rate monitor, timer, speed, and distance. There are different programs for incline, speed, and distance, but I just haven't gotten into that yet.
Overall, great product, could do better with customer service.

Good value in a home treadmill
After giving up on running in the Houston summers my girlfriend and I started looking into getting a treadmill a few weeks ago so we could run indoors. I like to use Amazon when I'm researching new products because of the reviews and pricing information available. We were very surprised to find such a highly rated but inexpensive treadmill for sale and placed our order right away.

We were surprised by the quick delivery, it was promised by July 30th, we had it on the 21st. I've heard complaints about Eagle before but they are the only heavy freight company I've worked with before that will do residential deliveries on the weekends. Kudos to Amazon for such quick service.

As for the treadmill itself we're overall very pleased with it. The treadmill came well packaged and it was padded with glued up cardboard bricks instead of stryofoam, and the box broke down easy, nice touches for a machine that's designed to be unpacked indoors, much less mess to deal with. The assembly instructions were excellent - having the hardware in individual bags, labeled by step # was a really nice touch. In operation the treadmill is easy to use, quiet, comfortable and responds quickly to speed and incline adjustments. It has a very solid feel when running on it. I'd say it rates pretty middle of the road compared to equipment I've used in gyms - I've liked some pro equipment better, but I've been on pro equipment that wasn't as good. For an at home treadmill, for $400 shipped, that's an astounding value.

There are a few small issues though. As others have pointed out the threaded bolt holes in parts of the frame aren't all tapped properly and don't thread easily. The tools shipped for assembly leave something to be desired and the mix of Phillips and hex key bolts was irritating and the tool shipped was no good, I had to pull out my own drivers, which made things go easier. In service the only thing I'm not happy with are it's mobility. The 'transport' wheels are kind of joke and the whole unit feels dangerously unbalanced when it's up on the wheels to move. We also discovered that it's slightly too wide to fit through any of our doorways, unless we take the doors off their hinges. I also would've preferred that instead of the track folding up for storage that the console fold down - would just fit our house better that way.

-Josh

Treadmill
Great price, who can ask for more?
Well, I did. The treadmill has many features like incline, various speeds, programs, cup holder and a fan.
Delivery took some time as it didn't come with UPS or FedEx. It came with Eagle Express since the box was bulky and heavy. They missed a couple of delivery appointments, but we finally received it.
Assembly was as expected, not too bad. The only problem I had was that one of the screws didn't line up correctly and therefore went in on a slant. I couldn't get it in all the way, so it's only half way in.
Great treadmill and great price.