Sunny Health & Fitness Slim Under Desk Walking Treadpad Treadmill

I started working remotely this year and wanted to do something to get off of my chair. I had tried standing desks in the past but found standing on my feet for hours on end wasn’t really comfortable. I also read some studies that show simply standing on a hard floor all day isn’t that good for you. At the recommendation of a friend, I purchased this little treadmill and in combination with a standing desk it has ended up being one of the best investments in personal health I could have made. It was hard to get used to at first and I recommend starting in with small segments of time. The handy little remote makes it easy to start and stop, and although it probably isn’t recommended by the manufacturer, the deck is sturdy enough that I often will just grab my chair and set it on the deck for a while when I need a break. The wheels on the underside make it super easy to move and store, so you really don’t have to risk damaging the deck with your chair like I do. I find I can walk along at 1.3-1.6 mph and easily work on spreadhseets, emails, correspondence or pretty much any computer based work without a problem. I’m getting more than my goal steps in every day, and my blood pressure has improved significantly. After about two months of using this I felt good enough about getting more movement that I joined a gym. This little treadmill has improved my overall health and wellness and has been worth every penny.

This has been excellent so far. I use it during work whenever I’m not on Zoom meetings, and I legitimately get in more steps now than I did before the pandemic when I was commuting on public transit to the office and generally out & about much more often. I wasn’t entirely sure how to handle moving it out from under my desk each time I wanted to sit to work again—it’s not very heavy and it has wheels so it can move pretty easily, but my workspace is a bit small, and I worried that having to get it out and put it away each time would be the excuse my brain needed to forget to keep using it. What I did instead: my sit-stand desk is on casters, and my workspace is 5 feet wide, the width of my desk, by just under 10 feet long. I push the desk all the way to the far wall with the treadmill under it when I want to walk, and when I want to sit, I pull the desk forward over and a bit past the treadmill, leaving enough room for my chair between my desk and the near wall. So the treadmill and my chair stay in their respective places on either end of the space, and my desk moves back and forth between them. It’s great. Highly recommend.

(One note: the first treadmill I received did not work. I turned it on and nothing happened except the on/off switch lighting up. I contacted Sunny Health & Fitness and they suggested I try opening the motor casing and seeing if a certain wire was obstructed by glue, which may well have worked, but I couldn’t figure out how to get the casing off and didn’t want to risk pulling at it and breaking it. Amazon was a big help and sent a replacement treadmill, and arranged free pickup for the defective one once I received the replacement and confirmed that it worked. Replacement has worked great, no issues. I have several other pieces of equipment from Sunny Health & Fitness as well and love all of it, and this is no exception.)

Since the start of covid, I had gotten much lazier so I figure I should try to get a little bit of movement in during the workday. I tried to get a walk in during lunch but it can be difficult to have enough time to walk and prep lunch and eat so I thought this under desk treadmill would help with that since I can just walk after lunch instead. I’ve used it about 3 or 4 times now and so far it’s been easy to move and use. It’s not too heavy (I’m 5’2 female) and the speed is decent. I tend to stay around the 1-1.5 range and stay on it for 30 minutes to an hour, which gets me about 3K-4K steps on my Fitbit.

I debated over which treadmill to get for awhile but in the end got this one since Sunny Health is a pretty well known brand and I figure it’s safer than the ones from random brands. I figure for this much money, I should try to get something that has the least amount of chances of breaking on me. It came packaged very well and comes with lubricant for the belt and an allen wrench to adjust the belt if needed. I haven’t had any alignment issues like other people yet, but the manual does tell you have to fix it if your belt starts to slide to one side. It also includes a safety leash (which needs to be attached via the magnet in order for the treadmill to run) and a remote control and battery. Everything was pretty easy to set up and start.

Pros:
1) Fairly small footprint for a treadmill. I store it leaning against the wall when not in use.
2) Feels solidly built, not cheap feeling at all
3) Step, time, calorie, distance metric is a nice to have (though probably not super accurate)
4) Has wheels in the front for moving around

Cons:
1) The belt is a little narrow. It’s about JUST perfect for me and even so, I still find myself hitting the side of the treadmill with my toe from time to time. I’m a fairly petite person too, so I think someone with a larger frame than me would find this treadmill too small in terms of width (length seems fine).
2) Beeps are loud. When you turn it on, start the belt, stop the belt, pull the magnetic safety leash off, the beeps are very loud. I wish there was a way to turn down the volume on it.
3) Bit hard to move on carpet. I wish the wheels were a little larger so it could move easier on carpet. Also one of the wheels on mine doesn’t spin well so that makes it harder to move as well (I’m going to try oiling it). Not that big of a deal I suppose.

Overall I think it was worth the purchase (I got it on sale and used a credit card promo). Will update if this thing fails me down the line.

This is a good product for the price. I have had mine for several weeks now. I was skeptical about the quality due to the low price point, so I bought the extended warranty through Amazon. Big mistake! The unit arrived damaged in shipping- the housing for the motor was slightly crushed in the box, and the threading for the screws had snapped off. The extended warranty provider (Warrantech?) insisted it was covered by a 1-year manufacturer warranty, but Sunny Life confirmed the warranty does not apply in Canada. Despite this issue, the manufacturer (Sunny Life) was helpful and responsive, despite the warranty not applying in Canada. They sent me a replacement part, but I did have to pay for shipping. I ended up getting the “extended” warranty refunded and Amazon offered a small discount on the unit which covered the cost of shipping the replacement part. The company that offers the extended warranty was difficult to communicate with and did not seem to understand that manufacturers’ warranties may be different in Canada.

I use the treadmill 2-3 times a week and it works as expected. My only caution is that I realized quickly the “wheels” were scratching my hardwood floors. I had to move it somewhere where it can be stored + used on an area rug to avoid wheeling it on hardwood. Other than this issue, it’s easy enough to move around and operate. Would recommend for the price point.