ProForm Power 995i Treadmill

Purchased this around Black Friday '14 for about six-seventy-five. I had previously been looking at a lot of different treadmills with various features. After doing a lot of research, I knew I wanted a treadmill that was 60" so I could run, had a good incline range and went above 10MPH. I also wanted at least a 3HP motor. All of these criteria would allow me to run comfortably on the treadmill (10MPH+ and 60" tread belt) and give me a good variety in workout (0-15% incline). The only thing I was hoping for, but can't really get in this price range, was a decline as well. However, at the price it was being offered at, with the ProForm name (pretty reliable in reviews), and with it being sold from Amazon, I jumped on this deal. The assembly wasn't easy. I did it by myself and I'm a mid-30's guy in good shape with the necessary tools. I'll say it took several hours to put together, although it wasn't necessarily physically demanding, it was a bit of a workout. For smaller folks, or older folks, I'd strongly suggest paying someone to put this together, but if you're reasonably in shape and don't have any trouble with reasonable amounts of weight, given enough time this assembly shouldn't be a problem. To be honest, the hardest part was attaching the hydrolic arm to the base of the treadmill. This required lifting the base by myself (propped on my back) and positioning the hydrolic arm, screwing it in, and then lowering it. Aside from the lengthy assembly, and the ordeal of getting the piece attached which allows the base to be lowered slowly, it wasn't too difficult. Once set up, it worked perfectly from the start. I took great care with the wires, running them inside the arms and other places so there was no crimping. Regarding the treadmill functionality: 1) Very good and smooth motion. Speeds up and slows down fine. Don't notice a significant issue when going from walking to running. 2) It's not quiet, but not loud. It's a treadmill, and if you go try one out at any store they all make about the same level of noise, like those at a gym. This one is about average in that respect. 3) The programs are nice, and have a good amount of variety. 4) Other features: The fan has two settings, which are useful in cooling you down. The buttons to control speed and incline are helpful and responsive. The display is mediocre, but it does what it's expected to do. It's no iPad screen, but it does give you something to look at when you're running. The bottom line here is that for the money (especially what I paid), this is a solid treadmill. I went ahead and got the iFit yearly package which was interesting, but not necessary. Had I to do it again, I wouldnt' get the iFit component because it's basically a marketplace where they try to sell you packaged routines, whereas for all but the most advanced runners, the manual settings are just fine. If you're looking for that kind of workout, odds are you'll go to a higher-priced machine anyway, so my suggestion is to steer clear of iFit and just customize your exercises using the built-in routines or manual adjustments.

The Treadmill itself I love. I assembled it without a problem. It runs nice. The cooling fan was defective. Hooking up IFit to my router was a challenge. You have to place an overlay over the buttons and scroll through the alphabet or numbers to enter your passcode. After a few attempts, I finally got it to link up to IFit. The manual tells you to unplug the treadmill after each use. I found the passcode for the router was not being retained unless you left it plugged in. After 4 days of use, and loving it while it worked, the link no longer worked from the machine to the router. Was unable to get it to connect properly and remain connected. Customer support stated that the console should have retained the router settings. They are sending me a replacement console but it is on backorder for at least a month. My issue with this Company is where is the Quality Control? I was sent a product with two problems in the console from the start. They could have obtained another console from another unit and replaced that unit's console when it came in off backorder, as I suggested to them to no avail. I bought a 2 year membership to IFit and complained I was paying for it without use. ProForm agreed to extend my membership for the time to obtain the console. I am hoping the new console works good with no problems. I loved it while it worked!!

Quality seems good. Assembly isn't too bad if you're reasonably handy. I needed to figure out how a few things worked, and the holes weren't perfectly lined up when mounting the control panel, but the build quality seems pretty good. I'd say it's as expected for a $2K treadmill, and I was able to get it for much less. Only complaint is the iFit. The buttons and icons are pretty predominant and I don't want to pay monthly for this so in effect, they tease me every time I use the thing. I wish it were compatible with a lower cost service like runtastic or something. But I don't deduct stars for this. Speakers and fan are OK, but to me not as important as the overall mechanics. I wish the volume control for the feedback beep were separate from the volume control for the speakers that are used to play music. I really like the shortcut buttons for speed and incline. Just press speed-3 and you're walking.

I love the treadmill and when it works, it's great. However, the motor on mine went out and Proform's service team is designed top to bottom to spend $100 on obfuscation if it will save them $0.10 on actually helping you. When I first contacted them I had already had a third party technician come out and verify that the motor was the problem and that it was under warranty. He said he can't even order the part b/c I have to get it straight from Proform and because it's under warranty, I have to go through their process. Then the "fun" began. I submitted a service request through Proform's online form. This generated ZERO response. The request is listed on my page but Profrom simply ignored it, not even a conformation e-mail for three weeks. I did start getting spammed with ads from them after giving them my e-mail, so that was a nice middle finger from them to me. I then e-mailed them directly 6 times! Each time I got back a form response saying they received the e-mail and to make sure my product was registered. I gave up on this an used their online chat feature. I waited for 45 minutes to get to talk to someone. That person immediately told me to disassemble the machine myself, take a video of the motor, then upload it to the chat. I said "Ok that's going to take me at least 30 min" are you going to wait, they said no, they were too busy. I asked if I could upload it anywhere other than the chat, they said no, only in the chat. I said, well then you either have to wait for 30 min or give me another option. They told me they were busy and didn't have time to argue with me and hung up on me and closed the chat. I went and made the video, then came back, waited another 45 minutes to get into chat again. I got the same chat person as before. I told her that I had made the video and—I'm not kidding you—she said she didn't want to help me anymore and I should call the service number instead. I couldn't believe it. I told her: "I just spent the last half hour making the video you told me to make!" All she would do is copy/paste her previous response that she was refusing to help me and I should call their number instead. So, I called the number. Waited twenty minutes to get someone. I told them about everything that had happened. This person was very nice, apologized and said "we're very sorry, I have the notes here and you're right she should not have done that." I asked if ProForm had any intention of reprimanding the chat employee for treating me like trash and I was politely told "No, not really, chat is a different group and they just work that way." This person told me that the video I made was not needed and that "that's not how we do things." She requested a completely different set of information and told me that they would need to send their own technician out (on my dime) to verify the problem. I eventually convinced her to order the parts to repair the treadmill ahead of time so when the technician verifies the problem it can be fixed on the spot. It's still costing me more $$ to get it done, but the real disgusting thing is the river of insults and intentional efforts to dissuade me from getting the product fixed at every step along the way. Imagine designing a system like that. I would advise you to buy another company's product. One that will actually give a crap when the product they built needs service.

Last year Amazon had the ProForm 995c on sale for $750, good price, but I snoozes and lost. This year I saw the better 995i on super sale of $650, 38 sec later it was ordered. I arranged for delivery the following Wednsday. On Monday I received a phone call confirming the delivery, and another on the day of the delivery. The unit arrived in the time window specified, and the guys rolled it into the house and into the room it resides in! My wife and I unboxed the unit, Very impressive packaging, there were NO broken components, and all was good! Assembly took 2 hours, it was rather simple really, two people are a must! Still no problems. We plugged the unit in, set the magnetic key on the holder, I hit 2 degree incline, 2 MPH. The machine smoothly raised the platform and the walking belt started! NICE!!! Very low noise, even my cat likes the 1 MPH setting, she walks with me! I am slowly increasing my daily workout, and this unit is a snap to use, I connected to the internet, got a 2 yr Ifit account and now my walks are recorded. It's been a week now, NO PROBLEMS!! I really like this machine. Now in the afternoons, I watch TV, and get a good walk in! The best part, I snapped it up for $650.00 Great Buy. Thanks Amazon!! Edit 1/10/15 This thing is running smooth and works as promised. However ... due to not having a 100% WiFi connection, mine is only 74% signal strength, per the machine, was just not good enough to maintain a reliable WiFi link. I ended up getting a WiFi repeater/router unit on eBay for $40 bucks, and set it next to the Treadmill, That's much better! 100% signal, Sweet! I now just get on the machine and punch up a iFit generated & downloaded walking route, or I can map out my own, and then iFit records the data! So If only they had a better WiFi pkg in the 995i it would be a 5 star! Note to Ifit subscribers, if you hit the right keys, you will get a video of the route you are walking or running, I have a spare laptop, or I considered hooking the second HDMI out from the computer to the big screen, that would be something to see. So far i really enjoy this unit, it's fun to use and helps me lose weight! I'm down 8 lbs! ....more to follow as I do my future walks! EDIT 3/14/15 The machine has been running great, I am down 20 lbs total so far, 20 to go. The problem I have is the IFit, or IFlop depending how well it works for you. I had it working just fine, then I started programming custom walks around my home in the Foothills. I made a 3.18 miles route, it automatically varies the incline. That much works fine. However, I am now having many problems logging the workouts, and viewing the route. It started out fine, but lately it has been really IFlakey. I have been in touch with IFit, they are working on it. I however am starting to burn more calories in anger rather than walking...... I will keep at it, I hope my next edit is more a positive one. I really want to like and use and enjoy this system! EDIT 4/18/2015 ... OK The treadmill gets the star back. The folks at iFit have been working hard, and the machine interfaces with them nicely now! By the way Today I weighed 181lbs ....6 pounds to go! The system, when it works correctly, just rock's as demonstrated by my nice weight loss for minimal efforts on my part! EDIT 8/25/2015 Well 4 weeks ago I woke up, went to the treadmill, it was BRAIN DEAD! OK stuff happens. I called the service number, waited about 15 minutes to speak with someone, and we both came to the conclusion, the main deck mother board was toast! Fine, send me a replacement. they were out of stock, 4 weeks later, the replacement unit arrived, Upon opening the package, the LCD Display was smashed. I called the Service number, again, sent a pic of the damage, they Blue Labeled one to me yesterday, 8/24/15 I should see it tomorrow! They noted to me they encourage the owner/user to install the replacement parts thing yourself. Sweet, this I can do!!! I am a board level electronics repair tech, as one of my many skills, so swapping out a board is no big deal to me! In fact I would rather do it this way than have a "Repairman" show up! Now if I had no Electronics or Mechanical Skills, I would certainly need the services of a Repairman. Good ones are hard to find, one you can trust. well .... This might be a whole different review. Just be advised, if something breaks, you may have to call a repairman. I will add to this post once the 3rd board is installed and the 995i is up and running. I still think it rocks, I did lose 60 lbs. I am at goal!!! Like yay!!! P Sullivan 8/25/2015

I purchased in 2015, it was completely untouched for a year, and then started using moderately (about 3x/week). It worked fine, but was pretty noisy. Since the only place for it was my family room, that meant no one else wanted to be in the room when in use... something to consider if you have similar space issues. About 3 years in, it didn't always start by itself and sometimes I'd have to force push the belt back with my feet to get it going, but once it was going it worked fine. Recently, one of the rear plastic 'feet' cracked, so it was no longer usable. Our treadmill had been placed on top of a rubber treadmill mat for a little extra impact absorption, but it still cracked. I looked online and saw that the part is one of the few that are out of stock (I'm guessing this is a common problem). I wrote to customer service but never heard back. We propped the back of the treadmill up temporarily on some sturdy compressed cushions so it could still be used occasionally. A few weeks later when using it, the treadmill started smoking and smelled like burnt rubber/plastic. At that point, it didn't seem salvageable so we junked it. We hadn't purchased the warranty, but if we had, it would have been out of warranty anyhow. We got about 4 years of actual use out of it, but I would expect a treadmill to last longer.

Awesome Unit! With bated breath from the time you order until the purchase arrives, there comes the sigh of relief. The relief grows when you open that extremely heavy package on the garage floor and find all the parts are there and there are no damages. Without a 6'4", 250 lb body, forget about moving this unit by yourself. Out of the crate, which is the strongest and most secure I have ever encountered, it was still more than a handful to figure out how to now get it in the door and down the stairs to the first level. Again, it is very heavy, six foot in length and 3ft in width. So much care and small movements are required because you do not want scrapes or internal damages before you assemble and turn it on. Once it was single-handedly lowered down a flight of carpeted stairs -a scary event when you are alone doing this- you stop and crack open a cold one in celebration. Forget about clock watching to time the assembly. The Cavs were beating up on the LA Clippers so it did not matter. Following the instructions, being handy with very basic tools and being able to support the weight of that unit while attaching the hydraulic lift/lower assembly, it all came together very well. The next morning I'm off to purchase a 2850 joules surge protector which is reasonable to protect this investment. Forget that minimum 450 joules protection stuff... this unit costs too much for limited protection. The unit I purchased was 30 dollars. Powered it on, tested the various functions and wonder how I lasted so long without this piece of equipment in my gym. Walking or running outdoors in NE Ohio during the winters we have? Forget about it. You need this well constructed. durable unit to not lose out on aerobic exercise when there are 20" of snow and ice on the ground. Count me as one extremely satisfied purchaser. I use it an hour a day and I can FEEL THE DIFFERENCE, in my body. Talk about dollars well spent!... I am overjoyed to say the least. Bear in mind that this is a very long and very tall unit with a very wide control panel. Lots of bells and whistles here. I incline from 2.5-3.0 and being tall, I still have great head clearance in my basement. I was happy to have not purchased an extended warranty. The solid construction, the very silent smoothness of operation generates a feeling of years of use with no problem, if the unit is not abused or beat up on. This is a five star unit and a very satisfying purchase. I hope my review helps you.

The treadmill, for the most part, works great! I was never able to get the iFit portion working (but admittedly that might be user error). The fan, once put together did not work, which was super annoying. It is a sturdily built machine, that is a great quiet alternative to running outdoors in those cold Chicago winters! I would definitely buy this again. While this isn't related directly to product performance, it is something important if user is considering purchasing this item through Amazon: If ordering through Amazon, just beware of their shipping policies. I lived in a second floor apartment, the delivery drivers refused to carry the treadmill upstairs. I had to spend several hours on the phone with the shipping service, and Amazon, before the issue was resolved. Just something to consider.