PaceMaster Gold Elite Fold-Up

January 2009. TreadmillDoctor.com, Consumer Reports and Runner's World all provide high-quality reviews of the PaceMaster Gold Elite Fold-Up; TreadmillDoctor.com and Consumer Reports provide numeric scores, but Runner's World testers provide more details. TreadmillTips.com's review provides little information that is not present in the other reviews. Despite one very thoughtful, thorough and recent review at Epinions.com, we found most reviews here to be outdated, vague or both.

One top expert prefers the PaceMaster Gold Elite Fold-Up to any other folding treadmill, saying it's better for serious runners than the less expensive Sole F80 (*est. $1,500). For $1,000 more than the F80, the PaceMaster offers a longer 60-inch running surface, but the same horsepower and a shorter warranty (including 12 years' warranty on the motor versus the F80's lifetime warranty, and one year of labor coverage versus five). One complaint that surfaces in reviews is that the PaceMaster's handles don't rise when the deck inclines, forcing users to stoop to grab the side rails. A very credible review source reports that the PaceMaster's deck cracked during a durability test; another source says this shouldn't be a problem anymore, since PaceMaster has started using inch-thick decks. Critics do prefer the PaceMaster Gold Elite Fold-Up to another expensive fold-up, the Life Fitness F3 (*est. $2,900), which has a shorter deck and a shorter motor warranty than the PaceMaster.