The Spirit XT10 Treadmill – a best buy under $1500

Ohiyo!

Once more from the depths of innerspace comes the wisdom of the Treadmill Sensei. Well, truth be known, it’s more like from the depths of the bathroom because I had a nasty case of food poisoning that kept me out of service for about a day and a half! We tried a new Japanese restaurant in San Diego and I got a bit of bad beef teriyaki. I must say that vomiting incessantly for 24 hours gives one of the best ab workouts I’ve ever experienced. Someone should market it. Call it the “supermodel ab workout.”

But I digress.

Now that I’m back to normal (my wife says that calling myself “normal” might be a bit generous…and my mother-in-law agrees), I’m going to get back to finish up my Ichi-Ban Award winner reviews. Today I’d like to start with one of the truly great treadmills in the $1000-1500 range, the Spirit XT10 treadmill.

If you’re looking for a nice step up from the Sole F63 but aren’t ready to move up almost $800 to the F83, then the Spirit XT10 is an excellent choice. It offers everything the higher end units offer but at a much lower price. Sure, it’s got a slightly smaller motor under the hood, but with a large 2.75 HP motor in there you’ll never notice the difference. The Spirit XT10 is one of the biggest and baddest treadmills in this price range.

The XT10 treadmill features the same basic base set up as many of Spirit’s other units (unless I’m mistaken, it’s either the same deck as the Z88/XT9 or a very similar one). It features slightly beefier upright bars than the Z88 which will provide you with a bit more stability. You also get a 12 mph top speed and a great 15% incline.

All in all, the Spirit XT10 gives you more features for your dollar than anything else at this level. In fact, if the deck size were large it would have been the Treadmill Sensei’s top pick under $1500. However, at 55×20, the running area on the Spirit XT10 treadmill is more than enough for all but the heaviest duty of runners.

I had Hikaru do a round of jumping jacks on the XT10 to test out the stability and was very impressed. Hikaru is not a small guy and the unit held up exceptionally well to his weight. I think the 300 pound max user capacity might actually be a little underrated in this case. The treadmill can handle weights up to 300 pounds very nicely (normally, you subtract 50 pounds from whatever the listed weight capacity is and use that as a guide, in spite of what most manufacturers would have you believe — but not in this case). That added level of stability in addition to the giant 2.75hp motor makes the Spirit XT10 treadmill and excellent choice for runners, large families, or small office gyms.

For another above average treadmill, the Treadmill Sensei gives the Spirit XT10 Treadmill 3.5 out of 5 golden buddahs.

UPDATE: This unit has been discontinued and is sold out. Try the upgraded 2008 Sole F80 Treadmill for the best buy award winning treadmill alternative.

-The Treadmill Sensei
http://www.treadmillsensei.com