Smooth Fitness CE-3.6 Elliptical Trainer

I like my elliptical a lot. What I don''t like is the message I just got from Smooth, offering me a $20 gift certificate to write a positive review here on Amazon, plus an extra $5 to write one on their FaceBook page. What good are online reviews if they can be bought? So beware of positive reviews for Smooth products, they may well have been bought and paid for!

We did a lot of research before making this purchase. Although our first choice was the Precor that our gym has, its $5000 price was not what we had in mind. After researching online review sites, this Smooth CE-3.6 kept popping up with five stars & top rated.

Our biggest hesitation was that it was only sold online there was nowhere for us to actually get on one and try it out.

We took a chance, and based only on the glowing reviews, we ordered it.

Delivery was prompt & efficient they called in advance, set up a date and time, and arrived right on the dot.

The free shipping delivers into your door on the ground floor. The box is large and extremely heavy (it took 2 large delivery men with a dolly to get it off their truck and into our garage). I would strongly suggest that if you intend to have this machine end up on any other than your first floor, you either pay extra for in-place delivery or open the box downstairs and take the unassembled pieces upstairs separately. You''ll still have to manage the main base portion however, which is still very heavy and quite unwieldy.

The parts were packed very well, labeled and identified accurately, and instruction book very clear. Once unpacked, it took 1.5 hours to complete assembly, clean up, set in place and begin first workout. *** Although one person could assemble it alone, a second person is helpful one person to hold a large/heavy piece in place while the other person secures it.

The machine lives up to its name and is very smooth and quiet. The console is easy to operate and figure out even without the instruction book. The fan, which I did not think I would use, turns out to be a surprisingly nice bonus.

The 18" stride, and width and height of the moving handlebars are very comfortable for both me and my husband (5''4" & 6'').

If pressed to critique, I would wish for a book holder, and also critique the speakers which are quite tinny and not really worth using. We either hook up the iPod to speakers that are set up in the workout area or just use earbuds so the built in speakers aren''t important after all, we knew we weren''t purchasing a stereo.

Overall extremely happy and very satisfied with this. It''s a gym-quality machine that really does satisfy a workout at home when there''s not enough time for a trip to the gym.

* * * update June 2011 * * * Sometimes the best measure of a good company isn''t about how error free they are, but how they handle things when problems come up. I must say that Smooth Fitness gets five plus stars in this category. Two months after purchasing this machine, one of the foot pedal posts loosened from the wheel (this was an area that came pre-assembled).

One phone call and two days later all was repaired. Not only was the service rep efficient, but friendly and apologetic too. The locally contracted repair company that came out to do the repair was equally impressive.

Very, very reassuring that Smooth Fitness stands by their product, their warranty and treats their customers well both pre and post purchase.

* * * another update May 2012 * * * one of my foot pedal plates cracked. Still useable, but this machine came with a 5 year parts warranty and I figured it was worth a try to see if they really stand behind their product and their warranty. One phone call later and the part is on its way. Just more validation that we made the right choice in this purchase.

Buy Smooth Fitness CE-3.6 Elliptical Trainer Now

Well, this is our first elliptical, first fitness equipment of any-kind for that matter. We were looking long and hard in the $600 range, but saw that many models in that range had too much of a plastic feel. The smooth 3.6 does not feel cheap all, it is heavy and solidly built and backed by a very nice warranty. I think the warranty can tell you a lot about the company''s confidence in their product. This has lifetime on frame, 5 years on parts, 2 years on labor. It took us several hours to put it all together and when it was complete, it was indeed very smooth and easy to operate. The electronic console does not turn off, it just goes into standby, but I have one of those Bye Bye Standby BBSBUSA Energy Saving Kit remote controls, so I connected it to one and now I have a remote to turn on or off the elliptical. The instructions aren''t the best. When it came to the last part about installing the electronic console, I stood there scratching my head for quite sometime. Nothing you can''t figure out, but it was a bit annoying. Just remember that when it comes to screwing the Electronic Console onto the plate of the main frame, you will be using only 2 bolts, and these bolts were already screwed onto the back of the console, just unscrew them, then re-align the console to the plate with the holes and then re-screw. The instruction calls for 4 bolts with parts number "105." There aren''t 4 bolts, only 2 and "105" are not bolts on the parts list, "105" is the electronic console itself. I know this doesn''t make any sense right now, but if you buy this product, you''ll see what I mean. This was the only annoying thing in the whole process. I was looking for 4 dang bolts and never suspected the 2 that were already screwed onto the back of the console. Ultimately, I realize those 2 were it. I''m kind of curious why no one has mentioned this in all the previous reviews. If you are an owner of this machine and know something I don''t know, please comment. Otherwise, I stick by to saying the instructions on that part were a bit annoying. But I''m still giving a 5 stars because we like the final product a lot.

Read Best Reviews of Smooth Fitness CE-3.6 Elliptical Trainer Here

got my smooth fitness ce-3.6 on feb 21 2012 it came broken have yet to get service they will not return calls or email been two weeks no help written review on smooth fitness website but it didnt get posted

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We decided to purchase this elliptical after reading some positive reviews. Knew that delivery was slow but did not realize that would also mean poor customer service. We had the machine for two months before it required some major servicing. We called and emailed the company, the machine is under warranty, no word back on when the machine will get serviced. This is totally unacceptable!

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