Is It Common For Treadmills To Be Off?

donicagalek
donicagalek Posts: 526
edited September 26 in Fitness and Exercise
When I'm using my tread at 3MPH, I'm jogging. I'm NEVER walking when it says 3MPH. Every site I go to claims 3 MPH is a walking pace.

About five years ago I used to walk home from work. It took me about 40 minutes to walk home and I remember driving the path once and it was just under 2 miles. That would mean I was walking about 3MPH. What the h*ll is up with my treadmill? :-/

Is this commonplace?

Replies

  • lisam724
    lisam724 Posts: 58 Member
    I'm not sure but would love to know my tread mill tells me I'm going 2.5 and it feels like 5 or 7 mph.
  • donicagalek
    donicagalek Posts: 526
    My belt slips, too. I think I really need to trash the thing. It's only good for walking.
  • arc918
    arc918 Posts: 2,037 Member
    treadmills are known for being way off
  • fcrisswell
    fcrisswell Posts: 234 Member
    Yep. That or they are calibrated for 6 foot plus people cause I know at 5 ft 6 I am jogging at 3 MPH too!
  • anzura
    anzura Posts: 171
    I think it really does depend on your stride. I think I'm an average size person (5'6"), and my brisk walk is 4 miles in an hour, which translates to a 15 min mile pace. 3 miles per hour is a 20 min mile which is definitely a walk, unless you have really short legs and a short stride. Treadmills are often off by a little, but gyms do maintenance all the time to make sure the timing is on track.

    I put my bike on my home treadmill to test the distance and speed. It was right on the money. You might want to try something similar.
  • dizzielizzie99
    dizzielizzie99 Posts: 11 Member
    my 3mph is a nice brisk walk and I am 5'6. But I usually have it at 2 % incline as well so I don't know if that makes a difference.
  • donicagalek
    donicagalek Posts: 526
    I'm 5'8" so it really doesn't make much sense at all. The belt slips, too, which makes it seem like by using it I'm making it move faster almost as if it's not motorized (though it is). I'd claim rip-off, but it was given to me a couple of years ago.
  • jennfur
    jennfur Posts: 11
    I'm 5'10" and have the same problem. I think treadmills tend to just be way off. :P
  • RBXChas
    RBXChas Posts: 2,708 Member
    I looked into this a few years ago - I had been running on the treadmill at my apartment complex, and it was saying I was running 6-7mph, which obviously affected the reported distance I'd supposedly been covering. I then went to visit my parents and got a guest pass for their gym, which was brand-new, so all the treadmills were also brand-new. I found I couldn't run anything close to 6mph on any of the treadmills there (I tried more than one because I thought maybe one was way off) but was running closer to 4.5, which meant I hadn't been covering as much distance as I thought. I was extraordinarily frustrated, since I was going to run a 5K in a few days and thought I'd be able to handle 3.1 miles easily, but between the frustration (which really messes with your head when you're running) and the proper speed reporting, I wasn't even close.

    I looked into it, and it turns out that treadmills need to be recalibrated from time to time. MPH on a treadmill have nothing to do with height - the belt moves at whatever speed it moves - but a "walking pace" might be based on a certain height. But anyway, MPH can be way off in either direction on a treadmill that hasn't been properly calibrated lately.

    The good news is that because I could pinpoint the problem, I asked my apartment complex to recalibrate their treadmill, which they did. Since it sounds like you're talking about your own treadmill, you might want to check into having it serviced, which may be much cheaper than buying a new one!

    Good luck!
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