I killed the treadmill

I finally killed our treadmill (with Jane's help). You could say we 'ran it to death.' Literally. It lived a good long life, though, and served us quite well. I'd be curious to know just how many miles we may have logged on it over the years. Quite a few for sure.

We bought this Horizon T50 treadmill at the local Dick's Sporting Goods in November of 2005. So I think we got our money's worth. The only thing we've ever done was get a new running belt sometime last year (I think). Otherwise, it has never given us any problems. I don't know why, but that was much better than I expected, especially considering the amount of abuse we put it through.

Lately it seemed to be having some electrical issues. Sometimes it wouldn't turn on, so I'd have to jiggle some connectors or loosen and the slip them back on. Then a couple times it just shut off - but it was after running for over an hour or so, so I just figured it got too hot.

Well, last week it shut off while I was on it... and it wouldn't come back to life. I jiggled connections, unplugged and plugged back in, cleaned the circuit board and everything else I could think of. Finally it tripped the reset button, and when I would push "start" it would immediately pop it out again. Until one time it sparked, sizzled, and sent up a puff of "surrender" smoke. I think that was its last gasp.

I've been looking into maybe just fixing the old thing. I can pick up a second-hand control board for around $80. But then I don't know if there is also something wrong with the drive motor, and that would be another $100 or so. And then... well, I think at some point you just have to be happy with having a piece of equipment like this longer than the warranty was good for. The motor had a 10-year warranty, so I think after 13 years it's simply time to say good-bye.

I've really liked having our own treadmill. I'm kind of a loner when it comes to working out. It's nice for those times I don't want to go outside, or need to get in an early morning run, or on those really hot days, or when it's raining, or... well, it's been nice. I don't think we can really justify buying another one when we both work for the Y though. Almost every day I/we have access to a dozen really NICE treadmills, and they're free to use. So my days of toiling away in the basement are likely over. At least for now.

It's kind of sad in a way. I guess it's good that we at least never used it to hang clothes from. It was a good long run...