NordicTrack T5 zi Treadmill Reviews

NordicTrack T5 zi Treadmill — 

My husband and I both work. We have different hours, yet have to share one car. We were finding using our Y membership difficult to work into our schedule, so we decided to buy a treadmill to use at home.

I am giving this treadmill a neutral rating for now. Now that we have had a chance to use it a little, we like it so far. But we've experienced some negatives and I just wanted to share our experience and hints so far.Some things to be aware of before you buy - The manual says to plug the treadmill into a surge protector, so you will need to buy a single-outlet surge protector with a light that indicates that there is power to the surger protector. I assumed, since this is an iFit compatible treadmill, that it would come with at least one beginner iFit card for trying out the iFit system. It doesn't. Chances are, you won't need to get into the motor area, but if you do, you might need to buy an especially long phillips-head screwdriver. The manual suggests a 5-inch shaft.First issue, like one reviewer stated, there ARE a lot of little parts to put together. Having read this review beforehand, I was skeptical when the salesperson told us construction mainly involved attaching the console and attaching a wire. It's not quite that easy, but if you are a patient person and enjoy putting things together it is not THAT bad. The base with the belt and motor is all put together, so it's not like you have to build a motor or anything, but attaching the console and the upright arms that hold the console do involve quite a few parts. The instructions say it takes two people to put it together. If you are a strong man and can figure out a way to prop up the upright arms while you attach them, you might be able to do it by yourself.The instructions are pretty clear, with a couple of exceptions. The biggest issue (besides the fact that it didn't work once we got it together, which I'll explain in a minute), was the identification of screws and washers. It would have been very helpful if each size and type of screw and washer were sorted and identified in individual small bags instead of thrown in together in a couple of bags. I would suggest going through all the screws beforehand, comparing them with the diagrams at the beginning of the manual and separating them into little baggies yourself before starting. Also, there are some silver screws and black screws of the same size. Where the black screws are to be used, the manual says so, but it doesn't specify where the silver screws go. So if you have silver screws and black screws of the same size, and the manual doesn't say black, I would assume the silver screws are to be used. I doubt it really makes any structural difference, but aesthetically the black screws would look better in areas that will be visible once everything is together. For example, in step 10 where it says to use four number 10 screws to attach the crossbar to the handrails, it doesn't say whether to use the black or silver ones, but if you use the black ones, you won't have black screws to use for step 12 where it SAYS to use black screws. The good news is they do give you one or two extra of all the screws and washers.The upright covers are particularly difficult to attach. They don't even appear to fit the uprights at all, but if you place both hands inside the covers and pull on the sides you can widen the covers enough so they will slide on. Also, once you get everything in place and are ready to put the screws in, the screw holes don't line up very well and the screws here are particularly difficult to get in.So we spent probably about four hours over the course of two days, on and off, putting the thing together. Many people probably wouldn't spend that much time, but we went slowly and carefully. We plugged it in and nothing happened. We did all the troubleshooting suggested - made sure there was power to the outlet and the surge protector, the reset button was on and the magnetic key was attached. I pulled apart and put back together the wiring connection for the console several times, thinking it might not be seated right. As a last resort, we opened the motor area as described near the back of the manual where it talks about checking a reed switch if the console doesn't work properly. I don't believe this switch has anything to do with no power to the console and it appears to be for detecting the motion of the belt pulley so the speed reads correctly on the console. Once I was in the motor area, however, I saw the real problem. The white wire coming in from the power cord was not attached to anything. It was obvious where it was supposed to go, but I couldn't attach it because there was not enough slack in the cord so that I could manage to attach it. I am wondering whether it became detached during shipping and handling or was never attached to begin with. Anyway, I reported the problem to customer care and they shipped a new cord and grommet. The parts came in about a week. Now that the power cord is attached correctly, every seems to be working okay. While waiting for the parts, I searched online where else a power cord grommet might be obtained because I realized that if the grommet were repositioned, the problem with too little slack could be corrected. As far as I can tell, just about every treadmill on the planet uses the same grommet, so if you Google treadmill grommet, whatever you find will probably fit your treadmill.Getting the motor cover off and back on was extremely difficult, as the screws on the bottom of the motor casing are recessed VERY deeply. Once you get the screws loose, it is impossible to remove them without tipping the treadmill back upright and letting the screws fall out. I found putting them back in impossible unless you insert the screws into the holes without the top of the casing in place yet so you see the pointed tips peaking through the recessed holes and then hold them in place with small bits of masking tape so they stay in place while you put the top cover back in place and get the screws started into the top casing. It is very difficult to get the screwdriver engaged with the screws and takes several attempts of poking and turning the screwdriver before you can feel that it is engaged and starting to turn the screws in.Be prepared for much frustration if you have to get into the motor area, but once you get it together and working, I think you will like it. Some things others might consider Cons don't bother us so much. The speakers are not great, but we are using this in our living room on front of the TV and boom box anyway. Personally, I would have rather had the speakers omitted or placed in the area of the cup holders so the console would be smaller and not block so much of your forward view. If you want to have a TV you can view while looking straight ahead, it will have to be raised very high.