Jake P

Review of Icon Health and Fitness

I purchased a ProForm SmartPro 5000 treadmill made...

I purchased a ProForm SmartPro 5000 treadmill made by this company in November of 2018 from R.C. Willey's. It had issues with the walking belt slipping when on incline. Followed the instructions in the user manual to tighten the belt. Once I had the walking belt as tight as it would go it held, for a couple of workouts. I called ProForm (Icon Fitness) customer support and was told that I needed new roller adjustment screws (didn't make sense to me, but they are the experts right?) . After two weeks the screws came, I replaced them. Not too hard, however the new screws were exactly the same as the old ones.

I put the machine on incline and stood on the walking belt. I the belt immediately started moving backwards. I called again, this time they sent a new motor, new belt rollers, and a new deck, and technician came out. When I described the problem to the technician he immediately told me that while the machine will go up to a 15 degree incline and the pre programmed workouts automatically go to a 15 degree incline, the machine as a whole, specifically the motor and control board, are not designed for it.

According to the technician, who is a 3rd party contracted by Icon Fitness, in order for a treadmill to function properly at any incline over 12 degrees the motor has to have built in braking and stops, otherwise the belt/motor will slip from the force of gravity on the walking belt. So even though your console says you should be doing 2.5 MPH, you will likely be jogging at 5-6mph to avoid falling off the back of the walking belt.

I find it hard to believe that the product design team at Icon does not know this. After reading several exposes from former employees it appears to be that the philosophy of Icon fitness is that the product only needs to work long enough to get outside the 90 day warranty period, or delay service until the warranty period expires.

By now I am well outside of R.C. Willey's return period and since the product is not built to do what it claims to be able to do I just want my money back.

I called Icon Fitness and their attitude is that the machine is working as designed and any returns would have to go through RC Willey's

Do Not Buy Any Products built by Icon Fitness including but limited to the brands of ProForm, Golds Gym Fitness Equipment, NordicTrack, Weslo, Cadence, FreeMotion.