If you’re thinking about buying a Smooth Fitness 7.6 HR Pro for your treadmill desk … don’t.

I bought this model after my Smooth 5.25 broke. The repair was going to be expensive and was going to take awhile, so I decided to invest that money in a new supposedly better model. Because I loved my previous Smooth treadmill, I felt safe buying one that was LIKE NEW for a $200 price cut. That was definitely a bad move because it meant that I couldn’t return it. Here’s what happened:

• It arrived in a beat up looking box and the top wasn’t even connected to the rest of it, it was totally loose. If I hadn’t been so desperate to have a treadmill, I would have refused delivery
• It had NUMEROUS scratches and marks and dents
• It had a bad squeak — expected when something is old but this was supposed to be LIKE NEW
• The rails are a lot lower than my old one so the treadmill desk was at hip level. I had to set the keyboard and mouse on top of two reams of paper to bring it up to the right height. (see photo):
• It doesn’t work the way my old one did. I’m on and off the treadmill all day long and at the end of the day, usually would record how long I’ve walked, distance, calories burned, etc. This treadmill resets itself after 3 minutes so I have to record everything EVERY TIME I get off. I called support and was told it’s a “feature”. Don’t you hate when a flaw is called a feature?

Ok so all of that was annoying but the thing couldn’t be returned so I had to live with it. But after awhile, it developed an intermittent problem — the motor makes a funny grinding noise, the belt vibrates and speeds up a bit, and the digital display goes a bit haywire, showing a pulse even though I’m not grabbing the sensors. It lasts maybe 20-30 seconds. It seemed to be getting worse recently so I wanted to get it checked while this piece of crap is still under warranty.

Submitted a service request and someone called the next day. A treadmill service guy came to check it out, and called Smooth to discuss.  He told the Smooth rep about the treadmill desk, how I walk for long periods of time at low speeds, and I could tell from his face that I was not going to like what the Smooth guy was saying.

Get this … Smooth is saying that the treadmill is not designed to be used that way — as a treadmill desk — and doing so could/would void my warranty. What the hell does that mean? If I removed the desk and just used it to look at TV and walk for 4 hours, would THAT be okay?

I ordered this thing over the phone and told the lady what I was going to use it for, and she didn’t say anything about that voiding my warranty, nor do I see anywhere on the website that their treadmills can’t be used at low speeds for long periods of time. That makes no sense at all — there is no posted minimum speed limit in any gym I’ve ever been to. Just another case of a company trying to pass the buck and find some way to blame the consumer for their own shoddy merchandise.

I didn’t get a chance to talk to this rep myself and frankly was so pissed afterwards that I didn’t want to talk to him and put energy into something so negative. But I’m definitely going to call and discuss this with them. It’s stupid to mistreat someone who has bought TWO of their machines and has raved about them. Consider my recommendation to buy Smooth Fitness treadmills to be null and void, unless you want to void your warranty.