Last Updated on December 2, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
We have seen that «toy treadmills» for medical doctors cost around 10 000 USD:
So much money for a treadmill, are they worth the money? These treadmills are eventually developed by medical doctors for other medical doctors with high salaries who charge the costs to the health insurance companies, but who else buys those? But no one seem to be there who does optimize for low-cost high-quality. Key parameters for treadmills so that they can be used for medical and research applications seem to be the weight of the device and the quality of the mechanics. Xioami treadmills which can be controlled by a PC weight aound 30 kg:
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/xiaomi-treadmill-walkingpad-integration/204713
Stress treadmills are basically sold by four major companies: GE healthcare, Schiller, Quinton and h/p/cosmos. These devices weight around 200 kg. But treadmills with weith 280 kg can be bought for less than 2 000 USD on Aliexress:
But if these devices could be used for medical and research applications, would these not be sold for this purpose? Other devices of similar weight are sold on Ricardo Switzerland for 10 000 USD:
https://www.ricardo.ch/de/a/tapis-roulant-hera-9000-touchscreen-1208969166/
These HERA-9000 treadmills are produced in South Korea:
http://www.ehealth-one.com/en/product/cardio.php?category=treadmill
We suppose that they have a higher quality of the mechanics and are sold as «professional» devices we suppose to be used in fitness centers. And we do not know if they are significant better than the ones which are sold on Aliexpress and look very similar to the HERA-9000 treadmills..
Woodway treadmills are sold as treadmills of the highest quality:
Every single treadmill is made by hand by the developer according to this video. These devices are also used by sports scientists a a quick search on google scholar shows:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=woodway+treadmill+reliability&oq=woodwa
Woodway treadmills where developed in Germany and are available starting for around 5 000 USD:
Woodway also sells medical and research grade treadmills wich cost 10 000 USD and more. But the question arrises if such expensive treadmills are required for every scientific application. And there are already alternatives to Woodway treadmills on the market which cost less than half of those:
Who does not want a treadmill which is reviewed by a graduate of Missouri State University with a degree in Finance such as Cooper Mitchell, founder of Garage Gym Reviews?
They might be louder if we run on those at full speed as a Woodway treadmill, but is it worth to buy a Woodway treadmill only for that reason? We miss validation papers of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio to answer this question. The Cleveland Clinic also tested Apple watches with Quinton 3 channel ECG devices. Why do they not test Tru Grit Runner treadmills and compare those to Dr. Toys? Would not the patients of the Cleveland clinic in Ohio and medicine students who do their work to receive their medical doctor as well as other scientists without a grand for research be very grateful for those? And we invite also the researchers from the University of Calgary in Canada to participate in this study:
We estimate that it is possible to sell a treadmill which can be used for medical and research application of around 2 000 USD, the costs for a Tru Grit Runner treadmill. And if for instance this device would be validated in a scientific papers it would be sufficient for many medical and research applications. They do not have a treadmill motor, but they can be be bought cheap on Aliexpress, and skilled scientists and medical doctors can connect those themselves to a PC with their data analysis software, as well as to add a Raspberry Pi speed treadmill sensor and add an uplift mechanism to make out of it a stress treadmill which can be used with the Bruce protocol.
Issues the the Tru Grit Runner treadmill has for us personally
It was 2000 USD and it is now $2,495.00 USD, so it is a device which stock market speculations. Furthmore it is not available in Switzerland and shipping from US to Switzerland of a treadmill of that weight is we estimate around 2000 USD. Therefore this device is not interesting for us personally. But there are alternatives also in Switzerland which cost around 2 000 USD, which are eventually used devices. But these are relatively easy to find since many users seem to keep such devices not very long. The prize on Walmart is $1,853.78 now, but which Swiss buy at Walmart? Do they not buy treadmills at Digitec and Ricardo Switzerland?
Tru Grit Runner is available in Switzerland but out of stock:
https://www.u-buy.ch/en/product/79GNEBWT4-tru-grit-fitness-grit-runner-curved-manual-treadmill
But we estimate shipping costs from US to Switzerland to about 2 000 USD. Is it worth to buy a treadmill in US for Swiss? For 2 000 USD we can get a used Gladiatorfit curved teadmill on Ricardo Switzerland:
https://www.ricardo.ch/de/a/curved-laufband-1206231146/
which was 4 000 USD at Galaxus Switzerland (which is associated with Digitec):
https://www.galaxus.ch/de/s3/product/gladiatorfit-laufband-laufband-15744649