I’m looking at getting an under-desk treadmill for my standing desk, and I’m reading a bunch of reviews that say they take an obscene amount of power. Like 7-9 amps or more. They even say that you should just give the treadmill a whole circuit of its own.
The trouble is, our apartment here (US/110V) has very limited resources in terms of circuits, and we’re fused at 15A - not 20A. Things like the garbage disposal, oven, refrigerator, water heater, etc. are all on their own - but both bedrooms (of which my office is one) share a single circuit.
To make it worse, a lot of these treadmills don’t post wattages or expected power draws in their online specs. And I have to believe that “wattage while walking 1-2mph” is going to be different from “wattage when running 6-7mph” (yes, some of these under-desk treadmills go to 7mph!).
When I’m working I have a 4-bay DAS array (3A draw), my Mac Mini, my laptop, my standing desk, some 30W LED lights, and a few other small things. Am I going to be blowing breakers trying to use one of these things?
Is there any chance any geeky MPU peeps have checked the power draw on their under-desk treadmill under relatively-low-speed walking usage?
I’ve never checked the actual power usage, but I’ve been using mine 5 days a week for well over a year now with zero issues. I was initially running a 2019 27” iMac with an additional 28” 4k monitor, a fairly big set of Logitech speakers with subwoofer, as well as a ton of peripherals. All of these were plugged into the same outlet (via a UPS), and I never had any issues.
I have no idea honestly. It’s a cheapo I found on FaceBook Marketplace for $80. I think it’s FitShow though. Couldn’t find a link to one online though. I did just get this one on Amazon this week though, and so far I haven’t had any issues with it either.
I’ve used them, and they’re just about uniformly garbage from what I can tell. I’m a bigger guy, and at least for me the rollers tend to develop flat spots and make the motion janky. That exacerbates some hip/knee issues that I have, so it’s counterproductive.
Out of curiosity, any chance the power label is visible and has the amp draw printed on it?
To a large extent, it’s going to depend on what the draw is currently on the circuit you propose to use. Is your apartment in an old building? Oftentimes, bedrooms in those older buildings were designed with electrical supplies just for lamps, so that’s why your two rooms share a common circuit. Household electrical requirements are much more demanding today. That’s why the house we are building now I specified a 400 Amp service, instead of the conventional 200 Amp service (I will share my office and sound/internet setup once complete).
Regarding your situation, seems to me that the computers, monitors, LED lights, those things don’t draw a lot of current. Things that do are space heaters, quartz-halogen lights, vacuums, and some printer (eg., things with motors or heating elements). The treadmill takes a lot of juice to run with a person on it. I think if the treadmill is the biggest draw on the circuit and you turn off the heavy-draw items, you shouldn’t have a problem with some lighter draw items being used on the same circuit simultaneously. You might see the lights dim a bit when you are using it.
I would think so as well, although the DAS array apparently is rated at 300w.
The thing is, I’ve seen at least one YouTube review that basically claimed that a monitor + laptop + treadmill on the same circuit was enough to blow a breaker. And that just doesn’t seem sane to me - although I’m open to the possibility of being wrong.
It’s just weird to me that a treadmill would use that much power for slow-speed walking, hence my desire to find the actual stated draw from the devices themselves.
It doesn’t help that much “Internet wisdom” treats electricity as a magic force that nobody understands, and therefore prescribes voodoo-like rituals. True comment from “should I unplug my treadmill when it’s not in use?”, asked on Quora:
I would as its always pulling electricity even when its not turned on. I unplug coffee maker, counter top appliances, chargers, certain lamps, washer and dryer
I mean…I get that there’s a tiny bit of power draw to keep a clock working or something, but anybody that’s thinking they’re saving massive energy by unplugging a coffee maker or LAMP that’s turned off…
Yeah, the savings from unplugging a toaster is miniscule and not worth the effort imho.
I would just go for it, get the treadmill and see what happens. By itself (plus some low draw items) I expect it will be fine. Worst case is that you have to turn off devices on the circuit if a breaker blows.
Well that’s the whole thing. I can’t turn off anything else on the circuit, as it’s just my computer setup (albeit with a Mac Mini server, DAS array, etc.) that would be on. And the purpose is to use it while I’m working, so it’s not that useful if the machines I do work on have to be turned off.
I really don’t want to have to return a 70-lb treadmill to Amazon.
