Woodway Desmo S Treadmill

I've been running on treadmills now for 20+ years - I started with the Proform (the folding treadmill), graduated to a True (home version), then to their commercial line, and finally picked up a Woodway a few years ago. I run alot - and I mean alot - usually between 3000 to 4000 miles a year, depending on how much time I have, etc - and I do it all on the treadmill. I should point out that I'm also barefoot runner, but only on the treadmill, so I'm probably pretty lame in comparison to the real guys who run on gravel barefoot. ;) So, I hadn't really considered the Woodway because of its price and the fact I could never find one to check out in person, but I always heard great things about them. I had been struggling with adding computer control to all my previous treadmills, and I knew that the Woodway had a really good system already builtin (I had spent several hours, over several calls with their tech support people getting a feel for exactly what you could do). Finally I decided to pull the trigger and picked up a Desmo - best decision I've ever made. The unit is built like a tank - it's certainly not something that you have to be gentle or careful around, it almost demands that you punish it, just to prove how strong it is. ;) From the service standpoint, I generally have the local Woodway tech come over and service it once a year, even though they generally don't say you need to do it for home use, but it's inexpensive (around $100), and I'm a firm believer in the old Ounce of Prevention adage. The thing that really makes the Woodway stand apart from everything else is the deck - unlike a normal treadmill which is a belt, the Woodway is more like running on a tank tread. Sure, each segment of the tank tread has about 1/2 inch of rubber on it, and is made of a flexing aluminum T-bar, connected to several hundred roller bearings... Did I mention this is built like a tank? As far as the actual display and built in workouts, it's really no different than any other treadmill out there - they're all about the same. But, and this was a big but for me, the Woodway supports a full computer interface, so it's possible to control everything from custom software. Don't let the other manufacturers say that they also support a computer interface (generally CSAFE) - while technically true, one of the limitations is that CSAFE stops accepting commands once the belt starts moving, making it totally useless for remote control. If you've owned a treadmill and you've enjoyed using it, then you can't go wrong with any Woodway. While they are crazy expensive relative to other ones, they're also rated for 250,000+ miles, which is about 10-20x what a normal or even club treadmill typically is. 'You get what you pay for' is definitely true with Woodway.

This is a tremendous treadmill because it has bar none the best running surface available. It is like running on a perfect rubberized track. Additionally, the quality is top notch and I suspect it will be very durable, but at 6 months of ownership it is to early to say.

Before Woodway Treadmill, I was not big fan of treadmills, I've tried many different ones, and they all hurt my knees. I used Woodway on the gym and it was something else. It did not hurt my knees at all. I really love this treadmill; I wanna have one at my home.