This is the 3rd in my series of Life Fitness machines in my daughter’s new condo. It is the 95Ti Life Fitness Treadmill. This will run you about $4,000 though you can find them remanufactured for half that price.

Basic Information:

The 95Ti weighs a heavy 431 pounds. It measures 63.5 inches high by 37 inches wide by 83 inches long. The T9i is also larger than the T-70. The maximum user weight is 400 pounds.

Life Fitness has a very good warranty. You’ll get a life time warranty on the motor and frame; two years on the electrical parts.

The belt is 60 inches long by 20 inches wide. That’s considered the running surface. If you run and you tend to not run in a straight line the width becomes an issue. I am more concerned with the length because I don’t like hitting the front of treadmills. I found the 95Ti very comfortable to walk on. The sides of the belt have a really nice tread. They have bumps on them. I got on and off a treadmill by starting on the sides.

You will find treadmills with absorption system names for their belts. The 95Ti has the Flex Deck Shock Absorption System. This Flex Deck should reduce shock and impact to the knees, back, and joints by nearly 30% compared to other treadmills. I have been on treadmills whose belts I can adjust. It would be nice for this price if that were true on this one but it isn’t. In general I found the belt to be smooth but the motor was noisier than I would have liked.

The 95Ti has a 4.0 horsepower motor which is not surprising given it’s a commercial grade machine. The motor has a feature called MagnaDrive. The system communicates with the console and adjusts to the precise power I needed depending on my weight.

There is a middle bar with heart rate sensors and buttons for the most used controls. This makes up a little for the lack of a chest strap since I can monitor my heart rate while using the controls. It had decent side handles i.e. not too short.

There are two integrated water bottle holders, a magazine rack and another space in the middle for my keys.

The console:

The console is huge and showed me my elapsed time, speed, distance, incline, calories, heart rate, distance climbed, watts, mets, and custom messaging.

The machine inclines 0 to 15%. The speed goes from .5 to 12 miles per hour which is more than enough for even the elite athlete.

It has an amazing 28 workouts including workouts called Zone Training which include cardio and hills; Interval workouts which include hills, and speed interval training; Goal Workouts which give you goals of calories, distance and time in your own zone. I always like interval training. This means that the machine adjusted itself to various levels and speeds depending on the difficulty level I chose. These levels can be changed at any time during a workout.

I used both the distance and calorie goal programs. Once I hit my goal the machine went into a cool down phase. I also liked the heart rate interval workout which took my heart rate from hills and 80% of my maximum heart rate (220 minus your age will get you your maximum heart rate.) to valleys and 65% of my heart rate maximum.

Let’s use a program:

One workout I did was cardio. I chose it and hit enter. I then put in my weight and hit enter; time and hit enter; age and hit enter and at this point the machine showed me my target heart rate and what my speed would be. The elevation changed to reach my target heart rate and prompted me to put my hands on the heart rate sensors when it wanted to know my heart rate (custom messaging).

My thoughts:

Life Fitness is a superb company in my opinion. You shouldn’t have problems with this treadmill that people find with other companies because I do find the equipment to be extremely well made. You are paying for that quality.

You would never get bored with the 95Ti. I have no hesitation in recommending the machine but unless you can get it for a really good price and want a machine with so many programs yet no fan (Some people love fans.); no ability to move it because it’s so heavy; no belt adjustments and actually none of the features many less expensive machines routinely have than pass on it. I have to rate it above average in spite of some lack of bells and whistles. If you want the best you have to pay for it and some of the machines with those bells have had people calling customer care and getting no one on the other end.

Please feel free to leave me a question or comment.

All my fitness equipment reviews can be found http://www.epinion.com/user.jo.com.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 4,000