You want to pick the best treadmill for your needs and your wallet, but the choices and options are dizzying. You know you can't just buy the shiniest treadmill, so you dig deeper into the specs and find a horsepower rating. Now you're getting somewhere. More is better, right?
Hold Your Horses
Not everyone rates their exercise machines the same way, and you want to compare apples to apples, because two grapes isn't bigger than one apple. On top of that, nobody really needs an eight foot tall apple. That's why you need to understand the difference between peak horsepower and continuous horsepower, so, like Goldilocks, you'll get something not too small, not too big, but just right.
"Horsepower" is a specific unit of effort. Your home treadmill has a motor that generates horsepower to make you run and run and run. But home treadmill manufacturers have not agreed upon standards for measuring and advertising that horsepower, so a home treadmill motor rated at 2 horsepower peak may be less powerful than one generating 1.5 horsepower continuous.
Peak Horsepower
Here's the difference. A "peak" horsepower rating tells you how much power the motor can possibly create, whether you intend to jog happily along or run full blast until smoke comes out of the Weslo treadmill. Peak horsepower is the maximum output of the motor, independent of you being on the Weslo treadmill or for how long. It's nice to know that number. But you'll probably want to know how much energy you can expect the motor to produce in actual usage, not as a theoretical maximum.
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Continuous Horsepower
"Continuous" horsepower is just that. It's how much power a commercial treadmill motor will generate under normal, continuous usage over a period of time. It's a much more fair comparison between motors. Normal continuous horsepower falls between 1.25 and 3hp. Now what?
So is bigger better? Maybe, if you are bigger. If you weigh under 150 pounds, doing an average workout of around 40 minutes or so, you can save electricity and get one that's 1.5hp continuous. Users over 250 pounds should get a motor bigger than 2hp continuous. People in between will be happy with a motor that's around 1.75hp continuous.
Here's another trick: you can ask about the motor's RPMs (revolutions per minute). A big motor turning slowly might generate the same horsepower as a small motor spinning fast. Some companies gear up smaller motors to do just that, and when you're running on such treadmills, they feel about the same. The trouble is that a small motor working hard wears itself out a lot faster. So while you're checking the fine print, compare the motor's RPMs. You'll make a smarter decision.
Should you ignore peak horsepower ratings? Not at all. Now's your chance to use what you've learned about both. If you remember that peak horsepower is the maximum capacity, and continuous horsepower is the expected burden, you'll notice that a motor running at continuous 1.5hp with a 3hp peak is operating happily at only half its capacity. In comparison, a motor with a 2hp peak, also running at 1.5hp continuous, runs at 75% of its capacity all the time, which is a bigger burden for the motor.
Measuring motors fairly helps you narrow your search to the folding treadmill right for you: not too weak and not wastefully powerful. Beyond that, go ahead and choose the one you think is the shiniest.
