The BladeZ Fitness 7.9 Elliptical — Highly rated TV elliptical under $2000

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Ohiyo!

Every so often a new treadmill or elliptical comes through the DOJO that the Treadmill Sensei hasn’t had a chance to work on before. When this happens, I make sure that I’m the one who does the service or setup so that I can run the equipment through a review process for this website and for you, my loyal readers.

This past week I was very excited to see a pair of 7.9 Ellipticals by BladeZ come in to the shop to be installed at a local apartment complex. I was surprisingly impressed by what I saw.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, BladeZ is best known as the manufacturer of those nifty little scooters like the Razor. What a lot of people don’t realize is that BladeZ is a part of a company which has been manufacturing fitness equipment for 30 years and is, in fact, one of the largest such producers in the world! They provide OEM for a number of other treadmill and elliptical companies (meaning “Original Equipment Manufacturing — they make the equipment and someone else labels and sells it). For isntance, they were the manufacturer for the True Fitness equipment for quite some time.

Another thing to know about the BladeZ equipment is that they were the first fitness company to integrate a TV screen in to their equipment and have been doing it for a long time now. If you’re wanting a TV on your elliptical that won’t break down during a hard workout, then a BladeZ treadmill or elliptical would be an excellent choice.

The two BladeZ 7.9 Ellipticals that came in were boxed and unassembled. The actual assembly of the ellipticals would get about a 6 or 7 for level of difficulty. They weren’t hard to put together for me but they might prove a little challenging for someone less mechanically inclined — Make sure to take your valium if you get frustrated easily! Also, it might be easy to misplace or lose the remonte control for the TV if you’re not careful. Total assembly time was about 25 minutes — figure an hour for a regular customer.

Getting on the BladeZ 7.9 Elliptical for the first time was a real treat. BladeZ likes to brag about their “robotically welded frames” and I must say they have every right to brag. These ellipticals are solid as a rock. Not only does the stability come from the welded frame, but also from the very solid approximately 30 pound flywheel and the 220 pound weight of the ellipticalitself. If I didn’t know better I would have guessed this was a light commercial elliptical.

Next I noticed the pedals and the stride of the BladeZ 7.9. The elliptical has very large, well-padded pedals placed at a slight tilt that were very very comfortable. On top of that, the 7.9 elliptical has a fantastic 21 inch stride which was one of the smoothest I’ve ever felt on a residential grade elliptical.

From there everything else was just icing on the cake. The TV was clear and bright. The BladeZ 7.9 Elliptical featured 16 levels of resistance, heart rate monitor and control, a reading rack and 8 workout programs. Very nice overall. If I had to nitpick I’d complain about the warranty on the units. 3 years for parts and 1 for labor isn’t terrible, but with a 5 year parts and 2 years labor warranty, this would easily be one of the best ellipticals under $2000 – I believe the going price is around $1599.

For only having a couple of minor quibbles, the Treadmill Sensei gives the BladeZ BF 7.9 Elliptical 4.5 out of 5 Golden Buddahs.

UPDATE: The BladeZ 7.9 Elliptical has been discontinued.

The BladeZ 7.9 Elliptical gets a nearly perfect 4.5 gold buddahs out of 5.

The BladeZ 7.9 Elliptical has been discontinued and is no longer available.

BladeZ BF 7.9 E
Stride: 21″
Programs: 8
Max User Weight: 300 lbs
Resistance: 16 Levels
Heart Rate Monitor: Pulse grip
Heart Rate Control: Yes
Display Type: 7″ LCD TV, LED Console
Readouts: Time, Distance, Speed, Heart Rate, Level, Mets, Calories, Watts
Special Features: Reading Rack, Bottle Holder, Oversized Pedals with Soft Grip Inserts, Cable/DVD ready TV
Product Size: 28″ Wide X 80 ” Long
Unit Weight: 220 lbs.
Parts Warranty: 3 years
Labor Warranty: 1 years