treadmill recommendation? also, iFit Live?

Why are folks recommending away from Sole?

I got a Sole F85 (at Sears!) last fall and I love it.  It was right in your price range.  It doesn't have iFit, but I can plug my iPod into it.  I usually watch a Runervals DVD or TV or listen to Pandora or use an interval App I've got on my iPod.  I'm not much for all the high tech stuff. Honestly I never even use the pre-programmed runs on the thing.  I always use "manual". But it's been a great machine - big deck.  I can honestly run on it (as much as I ever "run"), and it goes up and down as much as I need it.  Biggest knock against: it takes a long time for it to ramp up to speed from stop.  So going from 0 to 5 mph can take a frustratingly long time, but I've learned to adapt around it.

I'm curious about the negative feedback you've seen on Sole as well.  I bought a Sole F80 in January 2011.  So far, so good.  My budget was around $1500 and found it on sale for $1200 I think.  I wanted something with a good size deck (length & width) as I'm 6'3".  It is sturdy and the motor seems strong enough for my size.  I typically just use manual mode as well.

I try to run outside as much as possible with treadmill reserved for bad weather days or convenience of a quick run without driving to greenway or larger neighborhoods to run through.  My wife and I have put a combined 600 miles on the treadmill so far.  If I was using it more heavily, I probably would have increased my budget but to get commercial grade, the cost was much higher.

I have the NordicTrack Commercial 1750 with iFit.  If you don't renew the subscription you don't get the Google stuff.  I've had mine for almost a year now and no problems so far.

I like the iFit/Google thing because it adjust the inclined based on the course you have plotted in iFit.  So you can theoretically plot a race course you'll be doing and actually run it.  Plus the 1750 has up to 3% decline.

What does the display look like if you don't subscribe to iFit?  Can you post a pic?

I have the Proform Trailrunner 2.0, which I got at Best Buy for $1400 or so.  If given the choice again, I would have gone with the 4.0 for $200 more to get the larger LCD screen and better Google functionality.

As for the treadmill itself...it works great and I'm 205 lbs.  We had a PF 590?? before and I though I was going to break the stupid thing every time I landed on it.

It has 3-4 different screens you can switch to that has a plan view of a 400m track, another I believe is in the speed/incline profile you've ran...can't remember the rest.  Here's a video I did of my workout cave, and also shows a quick review of the treadmill.

http://www.fatguysredemption.com/2012/01/09/the-workout-cave/

From December 2012 through to Feb 2013, the iFIT system has been having MAJOR issues, making it fairly unusable (much to the frustration of the user base).  Before anybody purchases an iFIT system, I suggest that they google "iFIT problems" and see sites such as:

http://www.ifit-fail.com

Only then will they get to see the state of the system.  Otherwise, even thought they have the correct equipment and network, it will still be gathering dust and unusable.

Its interesting to add that becuase of all the really negative (and sometimes hostile user comments from the iFIT user base) yesterday (18th Feb 2013), iFIT deleted their iFIT facebook page and all the negative comments.  Now, customers can only communicate with iFIT through the useless support phone line or the never-answered support email system.