ProForm Power 995i Treadmill

Purchased this around Black Friday '14 for about six-seventy-five. I had previously been looking at a lot of different treadmills with various features. After doing a lot of research, I knew I wanted a treadmill that was 60" so I could run, had a good incline range and went above 10MPH. I also wanted at least a 3HP motor. All of these criteria would allow me to run comfortably on the treadmill (10MPH+ and 60" tread belt) and give me a good variety in workout (0-15% incline). The only thing I was hoping for, but can't really get in this price range, was a decline as well. However, at the price it was being offered at, with the ProForm name (pretty reliable in reviews), and with it being sold from Amazon, I jumped on this deal. The assembly wasn't easy. I did it by myself and I'm a mid-30's guy in good shape with the necessary tools. I'll say it took several hours to put together, although it wasn't necessarily physically demanding, it was a bit of a workout. For smaller folks, or older folks, I'd strongly suggest paying someone to put this together, but if you're reasonably in shape and don't have any trouble with reasonable amounts of weight, given enough time this assembly shouldn't be a problem. To be honest, the hardest part was attaching the hydrolic arm to the base of the treadmill. This required lifting the base by myself (propped on my back) and positioning the hydrolic arm, screwing it in, and then lowering it. Aside from the lengthy assembly, and the ordeal of getting the piece attached which allows the base to be lowered slowly, it wasn't too difficult. Once set up, it worked perfectly from the start. I took great care with the wires, running them inside the arms and other places so there was no crimping. Regarding the treadmill functionality: 1) Very good and smooth motion. Speeds up and slows down fine. Don't notice a significant issue when going from walking to running. 2) It's not quiet, but not loud. It's a treadmill, and if you go try one out at any store they all make about the same level of noise, like those at a gym. This one is about average in that respect. 3) The programs are nice, and have a good amount of variety. 4) Other features: The fan has two settings, which are useful in cooling you down. The buttons to control speed and incline are helpful and responsive. The display is mediocre, but it does what it's expected to do. It's no iPad screen, but it does give you something to look at when you're running. The bottom line here is that for the money (especially what I paid), this is a solid treadmill. I went ahead and got the iFit yearly package which was interesting, but not necessary. Had I to do it again, I wouldnt' get the iFit component because it's basically a marketplace where they try to sell you packaged routines, whereas for all but the most advanced runners, the manual settings are just fine. If you're looking for that kind of workout, odds are you'll go to a higher-priced machine anyway, so my suggestion is to steer clear of iFit and just customize your exercises using the built-in routines or manual adjustments.

The Treadmill itself I love. I assembled it without a problem. It runs nice. The cooling fan was defective. Hooking up IFit to my router was a challenge. You have to place an overlay over the buttons and scroll through the alphabet or numbers to enter your passcode. After a few attempts, I finally got it to link up to IFit. The manual tells you to unplug the treadmill after each use. I found the passcode for the router was not being retained unless you left it plugged in. After 4 days of use, and loving it while it worked, the link no longer worked from the machine to the router. Was unable to get it to connect properly and remain connected. Customer support stated that the console should have retained the router settings. They are sending me a replacement console but it is on backorder for at least a month. My issue with this Company is where is the Quality Control? I was sent a product with two problems in the console from the start. They could have obtained another console from another unit and replaced that unit's console when it came in off backorder, as I suggested to them to no avail. I bought a 2 year membership to IFit and complained I was paying for it without use. ProForm agreed to extend my membership for the time to obtain the console. I am hoping the new console works good with no problems. I loved it while it worked!!

Quality seems good. Assembly isn't too bad if you're reasonably handy. I needed to figure out how a few things worked, and the holes weren't perfectly lined up when mounting the control panel, but the build quality seems pretty good. I'd say it's as expected for a $2K treadmill, and I was able to get it for much less. Only complaint is the iFit. The buttons and icons are pretty predominant and I don't want to pay monthly for this so in effect, they tease me every time I use the thing. I wish it were compatible with a lower cost service like runtastic or something. But I don't deduct stars for this. Speakers and fan are OK, but to me not as important as the overall mechanics. I wish the volume control for the feedback beep were separate from the volume control for the speakers that are used to play music. I really like the shortcut buttons for speed and incline. Just press speed-3 and you're walking.