Great, thanks Omar. :mad:
I was just about to invest in one of those gaming tables and now you’ve made me feel like I should be getting more exercise for my money rather than passive gaming. If only I had $18,000, then I could get both and my friends could hang their coats on the elliptical machine while we play.
It’s actually a combo stair climber and runner (have you used it before or are you going off the sales brochure?). As you push harder, your stride lengthens and it becomes more “running”. I’m really skeptical of the calorie burn claim they make, because you really have to increase the resistance and push against it to get the longest possible stride (full on run) to get that maximum calorie burn vis-a-vis other ellipticals and the treadmill. YMMV but I think that claim is a little tied to perfect use rather than average use.
Yes, it’s my go-to machine at the gym. The higher you set the resistance and lengthen your stride, the more calories you burn. It’s one of the best aerobic machines I’ve used.
Hey, Omar…we have this particular Life Fitness cross-trainer elliptical at our house for the last 4 years. As a 48 year old male with crappy knees (had knee surgery at 13 and is now arthritic), I can work out on this machine with little to no pain at all. It’s pretty quiet (it does plug in), I can vary the stride length which varies from from 18" to 24" while working out, and it is less than half of the price your thinking of spending. There are more advanced models too on that site.
Good Luck!
If it fits comfortably in your budget, I say why the hell not?
I would love to have one of our gym’s Precor elliptical at my house. I’d rock it every day.
I agree with guestchaz that a used/refurbished one would most likely be in terrific shape.
You’re so going to hell, for saying that!
(I’ll be right there with you, for thinking it too).
Bahahaha this had me rolling. Thanks for sharing 
Round these here parts you can get a pretty nice elliptical on craigslist for under $1000 bucks. Don’t know why you’d spend 8 times that just to have a new one or a particular model. The Precor thing sounds cool but not that different than other sorts…
But it’s your money. 
It’s different, trust me. I just helped a friend move a home elliptical, and I work out on a gym elliptical.
It’s the difference between a go-kart and a Hummer, really. And the one the OP wants isn’t just “an elliptical” it does more.
“Sir, we’ve traced the IP address… it’s coming from inside the house!”
After a great deal of consideration, we bought a Precor EFX 5.33 for about half of what you’re considering for your model. We started out planning on buying a much cheaper elliptical, but after trying out several brands, and talking with a number of different trainers, we decided to upsell ourselves into the one we bought. It was the only elliptical that we found that fit both of us, with respect to height, range of motion, etc.
We both use it regularly - daily, and sometimes several times a day. I admit that I’d gone of the fitness wagon and stopped using it for a few months of laziness, but the wife kept using it daily. When I finally got off my ass and started caring about my health again, having a good, comfortable elliptical machine made it easy to do. I love that thing. Having a club-quality (and a better feel, personally, than any club machine I’ve used) elliptical in the home has been a great boon.
We have absolutely no regrets about the elliptical we bought. After more than a year of regular use, it works exactly like it did the day it was installed. It was an expensive investment for us, but it’s already been well worth the cost, and I expect it to last us for years to come.
That’s the thing…it’s got to be comfortable (but still make you work hard to burn calories!) to use, or you will stop using it and it becomes that expensive towel holder. So if it’s being sold as used equipment for $1000, I wouldn’t just shell out the money unless I spent a good 1/2 hour on it and if I feel fine the next day, I would consider purchasing it. Some machines out there are crap, but some are cheap pieces of crap, and some are expensive pieces of crap. Just make sure that you don’t buy crap, regardless of price.
Exceedingly happy Nordictrack owner. Never ever ever in shape during any of the past forty or so years. Until now. Now I’m on it for upwards of an hour and a half a day, five or six days a week. Never got close to that ability with a treadmill. Note too that per a Polar HRM, I’m mostly in the second and third heartrate zones; it’s not as if I’m lallygagging.
It’s awfully quiet (the plug is primarily for the fan and the digital display), and while I can’t compare it to the Precor, its adjustable stride/incline allows us to work a variety of muscles.
Before purchasing, we spent a lot of time on different machines at box-stores and specialized fitness retailers. There is no doubt that the $5-8,000 models had a better intangible feel to them. But the marginal difference wasn’t that severe–we instead chose to use the difference to hire a personal trainer to come in a few times a week and work with us to pick up and put down heavy objects.
For us, this was a lifestyle choice. We work from home and don’t like heading out to a gym. Our workout area is a quasi-finished area of the basement, a fully feathered nest that has the weights, the now-rarely used treadmill and the elliptical, as well as a 47" LCD connected to cable, Internet, and a DVD player. YMMV.
follow up question for the OP, if you’re looking at a used precor model from a gym, are you looking at one with the touch screen or the one with the led display? On used gym equipment, assuming proper maintenance, the most likely failure point will be the electronics. I would recommend trying to get one with the led display.
I have the same machine. We bought it in April and I use it all the time. I love it.
If you know you’re going to use the machine you want to buy and you can afford it, I don’t see any reason not to buy it.
A big shout out for Precor’s warranty and customer service. Had some motor problems and motor was replaced without hassle or charge. I just got a new belt, deck, motherboard, and motor upgrade for free on my seven year old machine. I paid too dang much for the thing, but now it is like getting two for the price of one.
Are there any elliptical machines out there that fold up against the wall the way most treadmills do? I MUCH prefer the workout I get with an elliptical, but my wife would never let me permanently take up that much real estate in the living room.
I should clarify that the folding elliptical would have to be sturdy enough to handle a 300-lb. person.
Why spend $8,000 when you could spend $14,000?
I don’t generally fall for any ads I see in in-flight magazines, but I’ve been vaguely interested in this thing for years. Wish I could find a gym that has one so I could give it a go at a leeettle bit more comfortable price point.
I would never, ever buy a machine, no matter what the cost, from a company that claimed i would need only 4 minutes of exercise a day using its machine.
You could simply “rent” one, and if you don’t like it it will only set you back a mere $1,500 (plus about $850-$1,185 shipping).
Sounds like a legit place! 