Elliptical trainers are a very popular choice for a home gym. Unlike a treadmill, they provide very low impact on your body. If you have bad knees, ankles or hips then an elliptical machine will be very much easier for you to workout. Unlike a treadmill that only provides a cardio workout that tones your legs, an elliptical trainer will provide the same benefits PLUS it will also tone your upper body. There are many elliptical machines with different features and prices. How do you choose the best one for you? Here is a list of criteria that you should consider before purchasing an elliptical trainer.

Budget
Elliptical trainers can vary in price from $95 to upwards of $8,000. The expectation is that the more expensive treadmills will provide the most features, will be quieter and will mirror gym quality equipment. If you do not have a lot of money to spend, you can still purchase an elliptical trainer but it may be very limited on its features. Lower end models generally have a shorter warranty. If you can I would recommend saving some money up to buy a better quality treadmill.

Front Drive vs Rear Drive
Most elliptical trainers will use a flywheel to drive the pedals back and forth as you exercise. The fly wheel can be located either in front of the pedals or behind the pedals. A rear drive elliptical machines will provide a much more natural feel when exercising. There is much more inertia in a rear drive elliptical and you can almost eliminate the jerky motion feel. All gym quality elliptical machines will have rear drive. They are more expensive.

Front drive elliptical machines are much cheaper to manufacturer. Almost all entry level elliptical trainers will have front drive. The path your foot takes on a front drive elliptical machine will generally be much flatter than on a rear drive machine. For this reason you will need to take a longer stride on a front drive machine to get the same benefits of a rear drive machine. Front drive machines are very difficult to clean and are usually made from lower quality materials so they do have a better chance of breaking down.

Resistance
Resistance can greatly improve the benefits of working out with an elliptical machine allowing you to burn more calories. The cheapest elliptical machines will only offer a manually adjusted magnetic resistance. Most of the time the machine has to be stopped for you to adjust the resistance and you cannot adjust it while working out.

The next step up in resistance is electromagnetic. This will allow you to make adjustments while working out. At this level is where you start to see the preset workout routines because the routine can adjust while you are exercising. This level of resistance can take a few seconds for the fly wheel to adjust. Plus it has a tendency to be noisier.

The very top end elliptical machines will use eddy-current resistance. This will shift on the fly to any level you set. This is only found in very high end machines but this is what provides the greatest fell in any elliptical machine.

Models
This website provides reviews of elliptical trainers to help consumers decide which one is the best for their home gym. We are not compensated in any way by any manufacturer which allows our reviews to be non-biased. Here is a list of the current treadmills that we review. Just click on the name of anyone to read the full review.

 
Under $500 Reviews

Between $500 and $100 Reviews

Over $1000 Reviews