If you are to achieve your fitness goals then the best treadmill to consider having is a motorised one. Choose a model which is powerful enough to meet with your needs. What you need to remember is each individual will use the treadmill for different reasons. Be careful when selecting the power scoring. For the best type of treadmill, power scoring/ratings are in HP (Horse Power) and it is important that you should make sure the HP scoring is the on-going duty HP and not the maximum duty HP. Bear in mind that treadmills are not solely designed to run at the max it displays, if this speed is put into action then that can cause the motor to burn out.

Joggers and walkers need to have an on-going HP scoring of 1.0-1.5 and for runners 1.5-2.0

Following behind the power rating the next vital factor to consider is the width of the treadmill deck, in general the wider the deck the more comfort as in i.e. cushioning for the body joints. Ailments like knee, hip or back problems then it is best that your treadmill has plenty of cushioning.

Once again as mentioned before every one that uses a treadmill does so for different reasons so the width & length of the belt should be decided upon by the length of the stride, the treadmill used for an average stride normally would have a width of approx 16-18" & a length of 45-50". For the taller person with a long stride then the belt should be as broad as 18-22" and in length well over 50 preferably 55-60.

If you want to make your workouts harder the incline facility is a good way to do this. Inclining the treadmill bed kind of imitates the effect of running or walking up a hill. You can opt to have a manual incline adjustment or if money is no issue then you can purchase a more expensive motorised adjustment. The bonus of having a motorised one is that the incline adjustment can be made during exercise

Treadmill models come in all sorts of design and will have a computer controller.

The more added features such as heart monitoring, stored workout programs, as well as memory capabilities etc you will find is a lot more expensive than others with just the basic functions, however even though that these features are very important you have to decide if they are worth paying extra for if you know that you will not be using them