Best Under-Desk Treadmills of 2024
Most of these machines, also called walking pads, did not impress our seasoned testers. Only one model earned our recommendation.
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At Consumer Reports, we’ve spent decades testing full-sized treadmills, including using a custom-designed running robot to test the durability of each machine. Given the surge of interest in under-desk treadmills, also called walking pads, we applied our expertise to evaluating nine under-desk models, putting them through similar tests as full-sized treadmills.
While we found one option we can recommend, overall, we’d advise consumers to be very wary of these products—most of the walking pads we tested did quite poorly in our evaluations due to either shoddy build quality, poor ergonomic fit for users, or safety concerns.
Under-desk treadmills are essentially very basic, lightweight treadmills with no display, no adjustable inclines, and usually no railings, designed only for walking. They are generally easier to store than even traditional folding treadmills but are also often quite a bit less sturdy.
“You run the risk of faulty manufacturing with many of these products,” says Sarah Bogdan, test project leader for treadmills at CR. “If you are looking for long-term health benefits, many of these may not last long term.” The belt on one under-desk machine actually tore during our durability test.
CR’s testers assessed under-desk treadmills in our labs to see how well they are built, how well they can accommodate a variety of user body sizes and shapes, the range of exercises on offer, how easy they are to use, and whether they pose any safety risks to users.
We evaluated models ranging in price from $180 to $1,615. To select models for our evaluation, our testers chose walking pads that appeared to be popular based on search interest and Amazon sales volume.
Serious Safety Concerns
Though not all of the products that we tested came with serious potential safety issues, many did. Those are reflected in our safety ratings but can also be linked to issues with build quality and machines that are not made by manufacturers that have experience making treadmills.
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