Bowflex BXT116 Treadmill Expired

I would beg to differ greatly. The Bowflex BXT116 is only superficially similar to the Horizon 7.0 AT if you focus on one spec: the running area. All the other important attributes of a treadmill differ greatly between the BXT116 and the 7.0 AT, notably the core construction specs.

Both models of the Bowflex treadmills drive a three-ply, 2.5mm-thick belt using 2.75" (70mm) rollers with a 3.75CHP (BXT116) / 4CHP (BXT216) motor, and are rated for max user weights of 375 lbs (BXT116) / 400lbs (BXT216).

All three models of the Horizon treadmills drive 1.7mm belts using 60mm (front)/46mm (rear) with a 3CHP (7.0 AT) / 3.5CHP (7.4 AT) / 4CHP (7.8 AT) motor, and are rated for max user weights of 325lbs (7.0 AT) / 350lbs (7.4 AT) / 375lbs (7.8 AT).

The Bowflex treadmills are a bit of an anomaly in that their "bones" are more akin to a heavy-duty commercial treadmill, while that of the Horizon treadmills fall squarely into that of home-use treadmills. On power alone (which is important if you're actually running on the treadmill), the BXT116 falls between the 7.4 AT and 7.8 AT, and eclipses the 7.0 AT. On belt meatiness, the ~50% thicker belt of the Bowflex treadmills on bigger rollers (which determines the belt flexion and hence internal heat generation; also heat dissipation) fall squarely in commercial treadmill territory. The Bowflex treadmills' greater user weight ratings are born-out by their higher construction specs.

The unique design of the Bowflex treadmill incline system presents both an upside and downside. The upside is that is it difficult (impossible?) to toe-strike the motor housing if you tend to run too close to the front. The downside is that there is an additional roller alignment adjustment in the motor housing at the middle/front-roller hinge. They don't tell you about this, nor are you supposed to access it yourself. But the interplay between this hidden adjustment and the two normal belt adjustments in the back determines belt tracking when the treadmill is flat vs. inclined. This was not difficult for me, and we acquired our BXT216 early in the nobody-knew-anything days of the pandemic. So I did not want to get a technician to come and fine-tune our treadmill. So I did this myself.

The other supposed downside of the Bowflex is that it has a shorter warranty period for the frame/motor (15 years) relative that of the Horizon's lifetime warranty. OTOH, other facets of the Bowflex treadmills' warranty are comparable-or-better to that of Horizon's. While the former seems like a hard-to-argue win for Horizon, I do have to wonder how real that is, given that many companies with famed "lifetime" warranties (notably Arc'teryx) have now taken to define "lifetime" as that of the "reasonable lifetime" of the product, not your ownership of it. By that measure, Bowflex's 15 years seem more-than-reasonable to me, and better being actually-defined.

All three have:

12 mph max speed, 0-15% incline
Bluetooth, USB port
Proprietary app that's probably 1.5 stars in the app store.
Folds for storage
Ineffective fan, water bottle holder, contact hand grips that don't work, easy speed controls, tablet stand, all the other stuff that every hotel gym treadmill you've ever used has


Specs that are different:
Spec | Bowflex [bowflex.com] | Horizon 7.0 [horizonfitness.com] | Horizon 7.4 [horizonfitness.com]
Motor HP | 3.75 | 3.0 | 3.5
Run area | 20x60 | 20x60 | 22x60
Screen | 7.5" | 7" | 8.25"
Weight (lb) | 280 | 253 | 318
Dimensions | 85x36x55 | 77x36x59 | 76x37x63
Max user weight | 375 | 325 | 350
Warranty (drive motor & frame) | 15 years | Lifetime | Lifetime
Warranty (parts/labor) | 5/2 | 3/1 | 5/2

Short version: the 7.0 and this model seem comparable. Bowflex has a better motor, better warranty, can take heavier users, and will ship sooner. It's also $100 more (~$140 with tax and worse TCB cash back). I'm not familiar enough with either brand to know how the softer specs (e.g., ease of use for digital features) is, but reviews [treadmillreviews.com] are similar [treadmillreviews.com].

If you wanted the features of the 7.4 over the 7.0 anyway, probably better to keep the 7.4 over this. Between this and the 7.0 I think it's probably a toss-up. I ordered the 7.0 and would probably be slightly inclined to get the Bowflex instead... except that it's not available for shipping or in a store anywhere near me.

Love how they jacked up the orginal price to $2399 and made you field like you're getting a good deal. The price on BowFlex website is $1599