But if you want to save yourself lots of pain and loads of money, steer clear of these 3 common mistakes that most treadmill buyers make when purchasing:

#1) Getting Taken in by Icing

The 'icing' is all of non-essential treadmill goodies that some lesser-quality treadmills offer you. These are meant to hide fact that essential factors of a quality machine aren’t there.

So what if it’s only a 1.5 HP motor – it comes with a free heart rate monitor! That 90 day warranty doesn't matter – it gives you 30 workout programs!

This is like buying a cake after only seeing icing and then finding out that icing is ALL there is. Focus on core essentials of a quality treadmill first - then enjoy goodies.

#2) The Old Motor Horsepower Trick

Some not-so-savory treadmill manufacturers or stores will try to impress you with peak duty motor power. Wow - you think - a 3.0 HP motor.

However, what they're not telling you is that there are 2 measures of motor power: Peak Duty Horsepower AND Continuous Duty Horsepower.

Peak Duty Horsepower is power potential of motor – highest power it can run at. However treadmill cannot sustain this power and it will soon start to overheat. So this measurement is essentially useless to you.

Continuous Duty Horsepower is a more accurate measure of motor power. This is power at which treadmill can continually, steadily operate for 24 hours without slowing down. Thus, this is more accurate number to gage motor power.

I know of one extremely popular treadmill right now that is doing this and unfortunately people are buying it in droves because it seems like such a good buy.

Don’t be fooled by a 3 HP peak duty horsepower rating when Continuous Duty HP is only 1.5 HP! Just remember that motor is most expensive part of treadmill to fix.