Treadmills are no different than any other consumer product. There is no way to avoid the small overlooked problems missed due to human error. We simply cannot promise problem free or perfection of anything. Manufacturer recalls vary enormously in reasons as well as their ability to offer correct statistics. You may have a recalled treadmill and not know it, even if you have experienced the reason for that products recall. Here are two recent recalls, then how the information is obtained, and why the accuracy is usually poor.
The 2006 Premier Console from Verizon Fitness was recalled on June 12, 2006 by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. These were sold from September 2005 to October 2005 and had an average price of 00 depending on which of the three versions purchased. The reason for the recall was a programming error in the top console. It can cause an unexpected increase in speed and the level of elevation when the settings for two of the programs are set to run for over thirty minutes. The results of which would obviously be harm due to falling off of the treadmill.
Cybex itself has had four recalls since late 2003. The most recent occurred in October 2008 on the 29th. Reasons for the recall are similar to that of the previously mentioned Verizon Fitness recall, with exceptions of the number of affected products and the number of reported injuries. The Verizon product states only around 500 affected while the Cybex states around 20,000. No injuries have yet been reported from Verizon while 24 have been reported resulting from the Cybex.
It is extremely important to understand that these numbers only reflect what information the manufacturer has. For example, by saying there have been 24 reported incidents, it is in all reality possible that even thousands of injured have occurred and merely not been reported. This idea is similar when stating the number of units affected. If 5000 were sold of that model. It must be understood that every one of the 5000 can possibly have the defect causing the recall.
When stating how many units are affected by a recall, it is decided by only information that has been provided to the manufacturer. A treadmill may speed up on its own, yet the owner may simply choose to restart the program and continue their workout. If it is not seen to the person as any danger, usually it just is not at all worth the hassle. If you absolutely love your treadmill and have a defect you deem as just too minor, you probably will want to just keep it; seeing no reason to deal with the hassle of returning the entire treadmill, how to even do so and staring all over in your quest to find another treadmill that suits your needs, by doing the research again, and then finding the best price. Etc. It is these that don't get reported to the Consumer Safety Commission; throwing numbers off and therefore they can never have a very good idea of how many units actually have the defect causing the recall.
