The Merit 720t Treadmill Review — A bit of a let down

Ohiyo!

One of the industry trends from the past year that the Treadmill Sensei really hates is the term “THP.” What that stands for is “total horsepower” and is another phrase for “peak horsepower.” A peak horsepower rating is completely worthless and is a bit of a shady thing some treadmill manufacturers are doing. If you’re using horsepower as a guide at all, then you need to reference the continuous horsepower.

I have been very sad to see that Merit Fitness, a Johnson Health & Fitness company, using THP has a rating for their treadmill motors. It is a shame because they were doing so well other wise.

Anyway, today I want to talk about the Merit 720T Treadmill in order to finish up the Merit line of treadmills. The Merit treadmills are part of Johnson’s new ultra affordable line of work out equipemnt, all priced at under $599 while still being very solidly built. We went and picked up a unit from Sports Chalet here in Southern California for a nice lady at our local library who wanted something small for her office.

The Merit 720T Treadmill, like its brothers (the 710t and 730t treadmills), is a very slick little treadmill for the price. Coming in at under $400, the 720t treadmill seems to a slight upgrade to the Merit 710t — the main difference seems to be the larger deck size on the Merit 720t. The units are very simple to put together and you should be up and running in less than 30 minutes.

If you’re looking for a decent walker’s treadmill I’d suggest dropping down to the 710t or moving up to the 730t. The Merit 720T Treadmill just doesn’t offer quite enough to recommend it over the two other treadmills in Merit’s current line. It’s not a bad treadmill it just doesn’t stand out from the other treadmills Merit offers.

For being not quite as good as the other Merit treadmills, the Treadmill Sensei gives the Merit 720t 2.5 out of 5 golden buddahs.

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