The Ironman 230e Review — Good Elliptical under $400

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Ohiyo!

The Treadmill Sensei is currently very happy with the fact he’s doing this blog. The reason being, it is Christmas time and my wife has a lot of family coming over to the house. A LOT of family. At last count there were 11 members of her family staying with us and a countless assortment of children over almost every day. I like people and I love kids but I do believe I have hit my saturation point…and knowing that I have at least 12 more days of a crowded house isn’t doing anything to ease my mood.

Luckily, I have my reviews to fall back on. Whenever I need an excuse to run away from the family I loudly proclaim that I must get back to writing my website reviews and get to disappear for a blissful hour of quiet in my home office. So, for my time of Zen I do thank you all for reading this blog!

Back to business!

Regular Treadmill Sensei readers know I get asked a lot about budget priced treadmills and ellipticals everyday. There are a lot of people out there who are looking to get fit and do so without spending a whole lot of money. The Sensei can understand that because I like to save money myself. Unfortunately, in the sub $500 range there really isn’t a whole lot of quality. Keys Fitness, however, has come through with a great elliptical priced at just under $400 with the Ironman 230e Elliptical trainer.

About 2 weeks ago I set one of these up for my wife’s cousin, Stephanie, and was able to play around on it a bit. We don’t normally work with very much of the lower end home units but I was surprised at how decent the elliptical motion of the Ironman 230e felt compared to its competitors. Normally a sub $500 elliptical will be very choppy or bouncy and very uncomfortable. I found very little of that in the 230e.

The Ironman 230e isn’t the magical commercial quality elliptical for a disturbingly low price, but it is a well built machine, especially considering its normal $399 price range. Keys has put together a very sturdy machine with a solid construction. The Ironman 230e doesn’t suffer from the shakies a lot of lower end machines suffer from.

If you’re a smaller person, or someone just looking to do some supplemental exercise at home, then the 15″ stride will be more than enough for you. If you’re over 5’8″ or more than 250 lbs I’d look to a larger machine.

For putting out a decent machine and a low price, the Ironman 230e Elliptical gets 3 out of 5 golden buddahs.

A very respectible unit at a great price! 3 gold buddahs out of 5 f
or the Ironman 230e Elliptical.

Ironman 230e Specifications
Programs: 6
Heart Rate Monitor: Pulse grip
Weight: 130 lbs
Stride: 15″
Resistance Levels: 8
Reverse Motion: Yes
Display: Time, Distance, Speed, Calories, Pulse
Warranty: Lifetime Frame, 1 Year Parts