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So you're looking to buy a treadmill and want to read some treadmill reviews and ratings before you buy. Congratulations - you're way ahead of many buyers.

People who take the time to research before they buy often end up saving money and finding higher quality treadmills for less. But with so much information where do you start?

This article will tell you where to find treadmill reviews and ratings so you can find the best treadmill for you.

#1 Expert Reviews & Ratings

These are the reviews and ratings written by the experts in the fitness industry. People like Consumer Reports, Consumer's Digest, Runners World and Prevention Magazine are just a few out there. These people rate and review various treadmills at various times in the year - usually around January when the fitness crush is on.

While these expert reviews are much less likely to be tainted by consumer bias (as consumer reviews are - see below), here's some things you should know when reading them:

1) Each review has a different ratings system and may rate treadmills on such factors as price, cushioning, stability, quietness, belt area, warranty, console, electronics, programs, incline and quality of construction. Depending on the magazine, they'll usually have an explanation somewhere of how they rated each treadmill.

So while one expert may put more emphasis on cushioning, the other may assign more importance to warranty. This can result in different treadmills getting the "Best Buy" ratings from various experts. It doesn't mean one is better than another - just that it was rated according to different criteria.

2) There are a lot of treadmill brands on the market and expert reviewers often don't have time to look at every single brand. However, just because a certain brand isn't in the ratings, doesn't make it a poor quality brand.

If you have a certain treadmill brand in mind, search around a bit more and you may find another expert review that has included it in their ratings.

#2 Consumer Reviews & Ratings

A consumer treadmill review is written by someone who has bought and used that particular treadmill. Consumer treadmill reviews can give you helpful details about what to expect when buying a particular treadmill. They can also give you good idea of which treadmills offer high quality for your money.

There are a number of consumer review websites out there but probably the most popular with the most reviews is epinions. Anyone can go there and post a review of anything, including their treadmill.

While consumer reviews do offer you a great way to research treadmills, there are a few things you should know:

1) May Offer Skewed Results - Let's face it, we humans are much more likely to post a review if we want to warn people of a bad product than if we are completely satisfied with it. Because of this, you are more likely to see bad reviews of a particular treadmill than good reviews. This may give you skewed results when reading consumer reviews of a particular treadmill.

I've come across several treadmills that were highly rated by experts, well built and offered good value - but they had a couple of very negative consumer reviews.

Keep in mind that even the best treadmill manufacturers sometimes make a dud - and the person who bought it is much more likely to leave a bad review of it.

2) Who's Really Writing It? - The treadmill industry is growing more competitive and (surprisingly enough) cutthroat each year. Marketing is a huge portion of the treadmill industry and manufacturers know you're going to research treadmill ratings before you buy.

So while I'm not making any accusations, I have read several 'consumer reviews' that are clearly not written by a normal buyer. They sound like they are written by somebody working for the competition, trying to turn people off that particular brand. Again, not making any accusations here - just keep this in mind when reading consumer treadmill ratings.

Here's the general rule of thumb when reading consumer reviews: Read a lot of them to get an overall sense (along with expert reviews) of which brand consistently builds quality machines and which brand consistently has problems with their treadmills.

So those are a few ways to find various treadmill reviews and ratings. Taking the time to research which models consistently offer you high quality machines will help you save both time and money in the future.