Bowflex Series 7 Treadmill Review

I bought this product based on the positive review in Consumer Reports.

I received free shipping from Amazon, but the delivery was a nightmare. "Free" shipping means that a nice delivery guy will bring it into your yard, and one that's had a bad day will dump it at your curb. Without the pallet the box weighs about 250 lbs.

We finally wrestled it into the house and I had it put together in about 45 minutes. The assembly was very easy and everything was provided - even the screwdrivers needed.

Everything was great, ran great, looked great, until day 4 when the machine just suddenly stopped. There was an error message on the display: err LS. I called Amazon, who said I should call Bowflex to get the problem fixed. Bowflex does not have any weekend support so I had to wait until Monday. When I did finally reach them, their operators were friendly, but were quick to jump on a solution to the problem as though it had happened many times. They said that my speed sensor must have been damaged during shipping and that they would ship me a new one - for free. We waited 5 days for the new sensor to arrive, called Bowflex back, and they walked us through installing it, re-calibrating the machine, and getting it operational again. It took an entire day and three phone calls. The instruction book doesn't mention calibration and the first operator had us calibrate it using metrics (there's no way to easily tell the difference) and we had to call again when I was strolling like a walk in the park at 5 "mph".

Everything finally works now.

Pros: I love the "Indiglo" screen - makes everything really easy to read;
The machine itself is a beast - very heavy and sturdy feeling;
It folds up very easily and the platform lowers automatically when you press the latch so no wrestling with a heavy platform crashing to the ground;
It goes up to a 12% incline - very nice for serious hill work;
The heart rate monitor works with Polar products so I was able to use the chest strap I already had (it came with one to boot);
The 60" deck is great - those extra inches come in handy when doing sprints so I don't fly off the back with speed changes;
The operators I spoke to at Bowflex were professional. They offered to stay on the phone while the new sensor was being installed.

Cons: Nothing is well marked on the console - it took a while to remember which side was the speed and which was the incline (the wording is very small and far down);
The programs aren't listed on the machine so you have to keep the book handy if you want to do anything other than a "quick start";
The machine itself is a beast and folding or not there is no way it's getting moved anywhere with any degree of ease - expect to grunt and swear a lot if you want to move it;
The Enter button shares duties with the Cool Down button and all buttons only require a feather touch tap. Hit that Enter button too hard and you'll suddenly end your workout and be in the Cool Down phase. Your only option is to record what you had and start over from the beginning;
I noticed that another reviewer talked about getting shocked - I do too even though I have it on a rubber floor, and a treadmill mat - it's not enough to really bug me though, just surprising at times;
The fan is useless - I roll my eyes that they would market that as a sellable feature.

I honestly don't know if I'll buy a Bowflex product again. Regardless of what Consumer Reports said, if I'd known that I was going to get a machine that was going to conk out in 4 days I probably would have gone with a different manufacturer. That said, now that it's fixed it's working like I expected it too right out of the box. Even good customer service doesn't make up for a faulty product part. So I'm torn about whether I'll be a repeat buyer in the future.Get more detail about Bowflex Series 7 Treadmill.