Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I type this as I walk at 2mph on the treadmill in my home office. The desk is a fairly solid unit that comes in five almost stupidly easy to assemble pieces (not counting nuts'n'bolts). It's not hard to adjust to get it to the right height, though changing it regularly for multiple users would be a real pain. The controls at the front of the desk are fairly unobtrusive, quite intuitive, and quite literally easy enough for my five-year-old to use (he thinks it cool, and keeps asking to use it before school for five or ten minutes - he hops on, starts it up with me nearby, walks and trots for a little while, stops it, and says "thanks, dad.") The treadmill part comes totally preassembled, and you just have to unpack it and roll it into place. It seems to work just as you'd expect, and feels solid under my feet. It plugs into the desk with a really simple, only-one-possible-way to plug it together plug to connect it to the desk controls. The wires run almost entirely interior to the desk leg, an elegant solution. While in use, it's very quiet. I've not had it long enough to comment on its durability, but so far so good. A few quirks and short-comings: My biggest annoyance is that it doesn't plug into your computer via a USB or something to track your long term progress, and if you pull the dead-man stop it resets all your mileage / time, etc. (I have an earlier non-Bluetooth version). It's easy enough to make a simple spreadsheet to track it all, but having it reset means you are making best-guesses only. Also, it doesn't remember your "normal" speed, and beeps every time you hit a button (company says it's a safety requirement, can't change it), so if you hit PAUSE to take a quick look at something away from the unit, when you get back you hit START, wait for the countdown to beep four times, then start (with a slow wind-up to 0.4 mph), then hit the speed-up button 15 times (1/10th mph increments) to get it up to 2 mph, beeping all the way. Also, if you had stopped it with the dead-man switch, you have to start by reconfirming your weight, too. Not end-of-the-world problems by any means, but annoying to not have those user-settable. For an elderly or infirm person who might max out at 1.5 mph, maybe the slow start up is a great safety feature. For a healthy younger person, it's bothersome. If it were not for the relatively modest annoyances, I'd give it five stars. The two large and heavy boxes were delivered promptly, and if you are not the strongest person or need to get it into someplace awkward like a back room or upstairs office, I'd recommend having a strong young back or two to assist. The packaging is good, and there is enough cardboard to fill your recycling bin or keep the kids entertained for hours. Personally, I think 2.5 mph is great for just surfing the net. Two mph works for most typing. 1.5 mph is for drinking coffee and more serious typing, and about 1 mph for eating breakfast with a plate under it while surfing the web before the coffee kicks in. Munching on chips while walking seems to be right out if you want to keep things clean and not have a pile of debris at the back to the tread - of course, this is a feature for waistline management, rather than a bug. It's likely not the best unit to get you in shape for a marathon. But if you get out of breath heading to the fridge for another 12 ounces of inspiration, or just want to be able to keep up with the kids for a while longer, the LifeSpan TR1200-DT might be just the thing to get you off your butt while still being somewhat productive in front of a screen. Approx two miles were walked during the writing of this review. 100-mile update: I have now walked about 100 miles on the TR1200, in a bit under three weeks. Most miles walked in a day was almost ten, most time was over five hours, and the averages are climbing steadily. I've lubed the tread once; it was not to difficult, but you should lay down a paper towel or something to catch any errant drips or splashes of the silicone lubricant on the side rails, and even without any tube it still shoots into the middle of the belt pretty well. It doesn't seem like you need anywhere near a full ounce to lube the tread, either. I opted for the Treadmill Doctor tread lube over the LifeSpan product - seems to be the same stuff at a lower cost per application, and it appears to work. 200-mile update: 30 days, 4 pounds, and about 96 hours spent walking later, I've hit 200 miles. (most miles in one day, 11.35; most time, 5:45) - The manual recommend popping off the cover and cleaning the motor compartment every 150 miles, but it doesn't provide directions. It's simple: unplug the unit, roll it out from under the desk, loosen up the four obvious screws a bit, pop the cover off, vacuum, pop the cover back on, slide it back under, and plug it back together. If you leave the screws loose at that point, you'll not have to slide it out for future cleanings. - The step counter doesn't seem to work very well - some 5 mile days it says 800 steps, some 5-mile days it says 4000. - The beeps, the lack of "remembering" my normal starting speed, and lack of computer interface / tracking are still annoying. - Spraying lube on the tread deck is still awkward and a little messy if you are not careful, but it really does help to hit it every 50 miles or so with some silicone. - I'm definitely sleeping better, and it's helped my wrist / arm / shoulder a lot, because the position for keyboard & mouse are more natural than when I was sitting. 900 mile update: Unit still seems to be going strong. Averaging a bit more than 5 miles per day that I use it. A used "D" cell battery seems to be just the right size to stick under the belt on the tread deck to hold it up while lubing; a 10ml oral syringe works great for holding a dose of belt lube, sticking under and squirting around (it also fits into the lube bottle neck perfectly). Another commenter's method of silencing the beep by shooting a little hot craft glue into the speaker works great-quick, easy, effective, doesn't void warranty. I strongly recommend comfy shoes, comfy shorts or other "non-binding" clothing, and a location with good ventilation or an easily-mounted under-desk fan, especially in warm weather. I don't have a secondary sitting desk with a computer, so I could really use a good tall stool or saddle-chair or something to sit in from time to time, something that will go on the tread-deck and be stable, but small enough to easily set aside when walking (suggestions welcome on this). 2000 mile update: Still going strong at 2000 miles and 935 hours of walking in about 5/4 years. One minor software bug: when it hits 1000 miles, and again now at 2000 miles, the odometer rolls over to zero when you check total distance in Engineering mode. If you are tracking on a spreadsheet to keep accurate count, you need to bear that in mind. I don't know if it also happens at 1000 hours, but I'll check and report here then. The more recent "Bluetooth" version may have this fixed - I reported it at the 1000 mile roll-over in the middle of last year when I noticed it. Still like the unit. 1,000 hour update - yup, rolls back to 0 hours after you hit the thousand mark, too. 3,000 mile update - rolled it over again, still ticking right along. 4,000 mile roll-over update: Still no problems with the unit, still looking for the perfect seat for "down times" and when dealing with minor (unrelated) foot problems. 5,000 miles rolled over, in 2341 hours, still seems to be doing fine. Lube it from time to time, dust it occasionally, no problems of note. 6,000 miles wandered past in December 2016. Still working. Definitely happy with the purchase, and would recommend it to others.