Landice L7 Pro Sports Trainer

January 2009. TreadmillDoctor.com's review of the Landice L7 Pro Sports Trainer is the only one we found that includes actual numeric scores. Other sites don't test or rate the L7 Pro Sports Trainer, but the review at TreadmillSensei.com is a particularly amusing and informative read, with good insight from the reviewer's 20-plus years of fixing exercise equipment. Reviewers at Treadmill-Ratings-Reviews.com and TreadmillTips.com both find loopholes in Landice's warranty. TreadmillReview.net's write-up covers the entire Landice brand.

Several reviewers say the Landice L7 treadmills are the best you can buy for under $4,000. Most ignore the mid-range model, the Landice L7 Pro Sports Trainer, instead recommending the more expensive Landice L7 Cardio Trainer (*est. $3,300) for hard-core runners. But some particularly reliable experts see the value in the L7 Pro Sports Trainer, which they say includes all of the features most runners probably want at a lower price than the L7 Cardio Trainer. The Landice L7 series starts with the Landice L7 Pro Trainer (*est. $3,000); the L7 Pro Sports Trainer adds a standard wireless chest strap heart rate monitor and a few more user-defined workout programs, and we found it for the same price as the L7 Pro Trainer. The top-of-the-line L7 Cardio Trainer adds a wide variety of extra workout programs, including some that detect your heart rate and vary the workout to keep it constant. Reviews say it's just a matter of which features you want, because the L7 treadmills are all well built: They have 58-inch running decks (sufficient for all but the tallest runners), powerful 4-horsepower motors, hefty 2.5-inch rollers and a 400-pound user weight limit. Experts predict Landice owners will never have to use the extensive warranty (lifetime frame/parts/wear items, one year service labor), but more than one reviewer cautions buyers to read the fine print -- the warranty includes loopholes that can void it. If you don't plan to run hard every day, experts say a less expensive treadmill, such as the top-rated Sole F80 (*est. $1,500), is sufficient for jogging and occasional running.