30 years in the industry, including the time as a Chief Product Officer, have taught me a lot about service and durability. Some equipment, like a dumbbell or a plate, doesn't need a lot of service. When it breaks, it breaks. But people are sometimes surprised to find that their Olympic bars have assigned bend and breakage weights and their quality has a lot to do with how long they last.
But the more complex equipment, especially when you get to equipment like treadmills, or some of the machines with weight stacks, well, they can take a lot of damage and can have a very limited shelf life. Lots more friction, electronics, etc.
That's why the warranty is so important. Looking at the parts warranty, especially on cardiovascular equipment, can tell you a lot about the manufacturers confidence in their own product. A walking pad bought online will often have a 3-month parts warranty. The best treadmills, can have a 10-year parts warranty. That's a big difference!
And something no on talks about is that the length of the labor warranty is also the length of liability in having parts. Lots of brands don't stock parts after warranty.
The labor warranty is often ignored. A labor warranty is very short on bad products, but even for top level products it's normally one years or possibly two. Because the labor warranty denotes your time of total confidence and support, when everything is covered. And while a manufacturer can control and predict a lot of the wear on parts, labor has a lot more variables.
Due to the fact that there can be multiple visits and hundreds of dollars in each visit, plus distance, manufacturers avoid putting a long labor warranty. And urban areas are worse. But this can be very expensive down the road where the longer you go, the more likely a service call is going to happen.
This is also one of the reasons ConnectFit has our own service department. Unlike nearly everyone, we do it all in house.
Maintenance is key here, where service can be avoided for years with some lubrication, tightening, and checking balance and wear. And we set up with our extended warranty company that unlike normal extended warranties, we still do the work. Not some lawnmower repair guy...