Sportcraft Treadmills do not have the best reputation on the market. If you are looking for a very cheap treadmill with no rings or bells, a Sportcraft Treadmill maybe something for you. I would advice you to know what to expect when looking for a Sportcraft Treadmill. One way to do that is by researching the internet for reviews. Nowadays there are a dozen of reviewsites where people like you and me could look to get a good view on a product. I have my doubts with the objectivity for most of those sites. In this article i will tell you some background information about the Sportcraft Treadmills, the strength and weaknesses of most Sportcraft Treadmills and let you know if they have changed their ways and are building to change their reputation. First let me tell you a little bit about their back ground.

The General Sportcraft Company was founded in 1926 after a love story between Walter and Sophia Holdstein. Walter Holdstein discovered that there maybe was a market for traditional English Games like badminton and croquet. He had seen these family games when visiting Sophia Holdstein's family in England. He imported the games to the United States and they became a big hit. Through the years they focussed more on indoor family activities and those games became the backbone of the company. In 2001 the Sportcraft Company produces their first motorized treadmill. Their main retailer is Wal-Mart and they become known of their cheap, but well featured Treadmills.

In 2005, after four year of the first release, Sportcraft treadmills have a fallback. There is a recall for three of their treadmills. The Sportcraft Tredex 6.0, TX 440 and TX550 that have been sold from their discount department and other retail stores have a malfunction, the treadmill unexpectedly accelerates and causes users to fall and sustain injuries. There are 110 reports of unexpected acceleration, 14 people got minor injuries. The reputation of Sportcraft Treadmills is damaged, they offer everybody with a malfunction a free repair kit.

What did the General Sportcraft Company do to restore their reputation and gain the trust of their customers? They launched a lot of new treadmills since 2005, here are 5 popular ones:

Sportcraft TX 2.5
This treadmill got a 2.25 total horse powered engine that drives the 14 inches by 45 inches tread belt. A three window LED display shows you all available workouts. There are three positions for manual incline. The top speed is 8 miles an hour and there is a 250 lb. weight limit on the Sportcraft TX 2.5 Treadmill.

Sportcraft TX 305
The 1.25 Continuous Duty on this machine is a lot smaller then it's predecessor, it has a larger tread belt: 15.75 inch by 47 inch. The topspeed is again 8 miles an hour and there are 5 programs preset to have a workout. The incline of the Sportcraft TX 305 Treadmill is 10% maximum.

Sportcraft TX 2.5xt
You would expect that this treadmill has some other features that it's predecessor the Sportcraft TX 2.5 but on the website from the General Sportcraft Company i could not find any difference.

Sportcraft TX 7.0A
This treadmill has improved in almost anything. The 19 inch tread belt is been driven by a 2.77 Horse Power motor. The top speed increased with two miles so the total comes at 10 miles an hour. There are 6 programs to workout on. The Power incline is the only thing that has not been changed and is still 10%. They introduce two new things: a step counter and the quick response speed and incline buttons. They also have changed the design and LED Display on the Sportcraft TX 7.0A Treadmill.

Sportcraft TX 5.0 RC
This treadmill manufactured by the Sportcraft Company is the first treadmill in their product line with a remote control. You can adjust the speed and control with the remote control. It also has an emergency stop function. The remote control is designed to fit easily in your hand. On Sportcraft.com i could not find any other features of the Sportcraft TX 5.0 RC Treadmill.

Could you say that Sportscraft Treadmills have improved throughout the years? In my opinion they have changed their ways a little bit but far too slow. They certainly did not overcome their fallback in 2005 and that is a bad thing. The technology in fitness equipment and treadmills is going very fast and i think the General Sportcraft Company can not keep up with it. I spent a little bit of my time on their website and it is not very up to date. They have four treadmills presented on their website in stead of their whole product line. Another point in where you can see they do not have any clue how much sales are made on internet nowadays.

My recommendation: if you want to buy a very cheap treadmill and you are a beginner, you can consider buying an Sportcraft Treadmill. You have to keep in mind that you will need to buy a new one after two till three years. In stead of buying a very cheap treadmill you may consider buying one that cost you a little bit more money but probably will last longer. Always do good research on the internet before buying a treadmill. Beneath you will see a couple of treadmills that i think are worth buying.