Preventative Maintenance

Dont forget to get a good preventative maintenance

plan in place when owning exercise equipment.

 

Maintaining ellipticals and treadmills is crucial to the life of the equipment.  Dust and debri can collect under the covers of both ellipticals and treadmills causing issues with the electrical components and the bearings.

 

TREADMILLS

The most common issue with treadmills is FRICTION.  When the deck of a treadmill is not maintained and lubricated it causes friction between the walk belt and the walk deck.  This friction can damage the finish on the deck leading to even more serious friction issues and costly repairs.  The friction puts strain on the motor and the bearings in the motor.  When the motor is straining to operate properly it pulls more current from the control board often resulting in over heating and failure of the control board.  These repairs are very costly in both labor and parts.  

 

ELLIPTICALS

Ellipticals have many moving parts that have many different kinds of washers and bearings.  Most often dirt and debris can get into these areas of the machine causing issues with the verious washers leading to damage of the washers or bearing at which point those parts involved become noisey and often do not function properly.  Ellipticals have many joints involved in their operation.  Most ellipticals have ball joints that need to be lubricated with grease in order to maintain proper operation.  Dirty wheels and tracks can cause unwanted noises and make the stride feel bumpy and or hesitant.  There are electronics in the eliptical machines that can suffer the same consiquences as a treadmill if to much dirt and debri is left to build up inside the machine.

 

STATIONARY FITNESS BIKES

Fitness bikes can fall under the same fate as ellipticals as they also contain many different types of washers and bearings.  However exercise bikes and their construction is far less complicated as an elliptical machine and the maintenance involved is not as exstensive as an elliptical or treadmill.  Spin bikes have the most simple design therefore requireing a lot less maintenance.

 

 

One of the questions asked most is; "How often should I preform maintenance on my equipment?"

Equipment should be maintained based on usage, and the amount of dust and debri that might accumulate in the area where the equipment is set up.  

 

Typically with a professional gym that has higher usage on their equipment should preform maintenance on their machines quarterly, and sometimes more often if the usage is higher.

 

Home exercise equipment should be serviced at least every 6 months and more often if it recieves heavy usage.