XTERRA Fitness RSX1500 Seated Stepper

This is a QUALITY piece of equipment. It is extreemly rugged construction. It has a VERY comfortable seat. It was not too difficult to assemble. It does have a few drawbacks, but it is FAR better than anything you're going to find for under $1,000. DO NOT PUT THE SEAT ON IN STEP 4 until you take the screws out of the attachment for the lever that adjusts the seat position. You need them to attach this lever to the underside of the seat in step six. They do not come in the bag of parts, they come screwed into the part they are used on. Once you install the seat you cannot get at them to remove them. A number of the reviews I read talked about an annoying noise while in use. I do not know if the factory made some adjustments based on complaints but the one I have is whisper quiet, ZERO noise. It is a tight fit getting the large swing arms onto the axle. We had to use a few light taps from a small hammer, being careful not to dent the finely machined parts. You can put it together with the tools provided, but it's handy to have a better screwdriver and a better wrench. The main drawback, and you will read about this in other reviews, is the way that the handle grips flop around somewhat dangerously when you're using just your feet. And you have to use just your feet to check your pulse. However, this also allows you to change up your grip in a manner that lets you exercise different parts of your wrists and forearms. The wires that connect the handle grips that take your pulse need to be tapped up out of the way. It's very cool how it allows you to set a target heart rate and then once you reach that target heart rate the display starts blinking. I am extremely happy and I have been using it every day since I got it 2 weeks ago. It has a few drawback, but it is not $4,000 either.

I ordered this stepper to help with my Dad's stroke rehab. Received it July 21. The shipping box had obviously been dropped on the end, as well as having a hole in the side. I crossed my fingers and put it together anyway. The internal mechanism rubs through 50% of its revolution, so I called the company that day. Very pleasant; said I'd hear from someone within three business days. I heard from no one, so I called the company again on July 29; again very pleasant, and said they would contact a tech in my area as well as call me back. No calls. My third call to the company was August 7. As always, the company's service person was very pleasant, and can understand that getting a service person to my are may no be easy, but meanwhile, I still need equipment to help my Dad and I have a large, expensive paperweight doing nothing but taking up space in my parent's dining room. Now what do I do? Honestly, it's not like I can repackage it and send it back, otherwise I would. UPDATE: I called Amazon Aug 17; a refund is being issued and the stepper will be picked up. I am thankful to get a refund, but so disappointed that a month has gone by and my Dad was never even able to try to use this.

Plan an hour or so of careful assembly. Sort out pieces before beginning to put together. Once assembled, an excellent product which makes no noise at all! Great monitor with good preprogrammed methods or just great on it's own. Sturdy product which allows for many adjustments. Love it and highly recommend buying it. BTW, if it is making noise...it was either put together wrong or the flywheel is defective (rubbing against the frame). Contact the company directly and they will send you a new one and send a tech to install it. Really, a normal one makes no noise. Additional comments: Have had this product for over 1-1/2 years now and it is still excellent. Problem with the flywheel at first. Tech came out and told company. He replaced it and it's been wonderful. Use it almost every day. Haven't had any issues. If you have, you need to think about calling for help. This is an excellent product.

I've been using the seated stepper for almost 2 months now, and so far it's still fairly silent operation. I'm 67 yrs old, 6'3" and about 260Lb (and losing weight - LOL). I can work up a sweat in about 20 - 25 min, but my heart rate only gets up to 109 - 110 at the highest resistance setting. I'm using it daily and then I go to the gym and work out some more on the treadmill and lifting weights and various other forms of exercise. The box when it arrived is pretty heavy, and I paid the extra $$$ to have the delivery guys haul it upstairs to the room where I use it. Once they got it up there, It took me about 3 hours to unpack it and assemble it. The hardest part was unpacking it from the box... lots of sticky tape on styro-foam. Here's my Pros/Cons list. Pros: -Silent operation - I saw a lot of reviews that said it was noisy, but mine isn't Of course... I listen to audio books while I'm using it. -Sturdy - I don't foresee things breaking. One of the reasons I bought it was the positive reviews on this, whereas some of the other low priced exercise machines had several reviews of parts breaking. -It gives me a pretty good workout that uses my arms and legs. - The wide seat is comfortable, and I'm really glad it has a back support. - The program controls are easy to use and straight forward. I use program #2 and have the setting up as high as it will go. - I'm glad It's not elliptical (I hate elliptical trainers - LOL) Cons: - At 6'3"... I wish the seat went back a little more. My legs never fully straighten out enough, but it's not a real problem. - You have to take your hands off the handles to check your heart rate and put them on the handles down by the seat (where the heart rate sensors are), which in turn makes the swing arm handles swing around. I put some tape on the swinging handles which stopped that. But it seems to me that it would have been easy enough to put the heart rate sensor in the handles. This is a minor issue to me though. - The machine is counting about 3 times the calories for a similar workout on the exercise machines at the gym. I definitely don't believe the calories it's reporting on the seated stepper. They should have built in a way to adjust that... but it's a minor issue to me. I would definitely recommend the seated stepper if you're trying to get a pretty fair workout for low cost ($720). I definitely think I made the right choice here. I had my doctor write me a letter, so I could legally buy it on my HSA account.