Someone just asked me about treadmills. After running on several in clubs and owning two, I have these requirements:
1. I often run for over an hour. The timer must be able to deal with that and not reset to zero after it hits an hour. Otherwise I lose count.
2. I want a keypad that can quick jump me to a given incline or speed. Hitting the up and down arrows a million times sucks.
3. It must have a water bottle holder. Gotta drink. Even better if there are two holders.
4. It must go faster than 10 MPH. 10 MPH is a 6:00 mi/min. Someday I hope to run that fast and need to practice running faster than that to achieve that speed.
5. It must go higher than 10% grade. If it can do negative grades, that’s fine.
6. It should have a full size running surface and not a compact one. Some of those made for apartments are smaller than normal. If the running surface is too small, I sometimes hit the back edge while striding.
7. HR monitor optional. I don’t need it although sometimes it is interesting to take a quick read of your HR.
8. Programs optional. I mostly run with my coach’s workouts, so I don’t use those pre-programmed workouts.
9. I don’t need it to fold up.