1 Year Review of the BalanceFrom/Signature Fitness Stair Climber
Introduction
Welcome back, today I am reviewing the $1500 Walmart Climber, sold under the brands name BalanceFrom (not Form) according to the Walmart listing, but also carrying the in-person branding or insignia of Signature Fitness. I’ve owned it now for a full year and have using it 4-5 times a week with everything from a few mins pre-weight-training warmup, to dedicated intense cardio sessions, and overall been pleasantly surprised at how well it functions, and looks, for the price, but I want to point out some specific details lacking in their product descriptions, a few caveats, and some important things in general to consider prior to purchasing this machine.
Price
Alright so first, let’s look at the price, that’s why we are all here, this thing is $1500 with a minimal $50 delivery fee, sold and fulfilled via Walmart.com, not a third party. We have all looked at marketplace, gym liquidation auctions, our sisters’ friends husband who bought a new Stair Master for 6 grand, but nope – this this is sold at major retailers, you can buy it for slightly more on Amazon, you can add a warranty and get out the door with tax for about $1600 all in. Normally any piece this big and “cheap” I would say that an immediate red flag and/or indicate of the presumably low quality and seemingly too good to be true, Coupled with many seemingly fake 5-star Walmart reviews. But to my great surprise, it came quickly, it’s legit, and it works, at least well enough, has some features that weren’t mentioned in the ad, I now have this year long experience to share to others who may be interested.
Dimensions
Since the day I ordered it the product page was is still lacking, so I am going to provide some specifics details and measurements that may make it helpful to actually compare to other options. Starting with the delivery it just gets plopped in your driveway in a huge box, it’s practically fully assembled besides attaching the handrails and the display monitor. The fully assembled foot print, rounding up to the 1/2 inch actually measures 50in length x 31.5in width x 82in height. Before attaching the rails and monitor, the base is only 46 inches tall. And full assembled with me, a 6ft 2 user standing on top, while in use my head doesn’t go above 8ft6 in, so I would add another 4-6 inches on top of that to be safe clearance, rounding that height dependent number I would recommend 8.5 - 9ft for ceiling height.
Weight and Moving It
It does in fact weigh the whopping 375 pounds, or in that ballpark range, and it’s terribly awkward and heavy to move. I don’t think there is any realistic way you could get this up or down some stairs just due to the weight and limited grip or carry options, and that the weight isn’t distributed evenly front to back, so I don’t see a real way people could be able to grip or carry it over long distance and stairs. I only had 15 yards to move this from my driveway to the garage, and I thought myself and my ridiculously good looking and strong friend Eric would be able to move this on our own, and boy was I wrong. Thankful a good Samaritan neighbor saw us struggling and saved us from having our fingers or toes crushed into pieces and came to give us a pair of hand to waddle it from the driveway into the garage, where it has not moved since.
Display
The Display itself reminds me of all the machine at planet fitness I used to use 10 years ago and is fine, it has a few preset program options if you prefer to do that instead of the manual option. In addition to the basic stair climber features like stop and go, fast and slow, there are a few other hidden features that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere. The handle has an integrated emergency brake button, so if you press it, the stairs stop moving, which is actually nice if you have kids or pets around or even just if you are worries you may fall off in an all out cardio session. If you miss that E brake there is another safety feature in an weight-sensing-auto stop feature which senses the user is no longer on the stairs and stops and locks the stairs automatically, which again is a pretty nice bit of functionality that wasn’t advertised. Both of these safety features make me feel moderately better about it accidentally getting left on and my kids being around or being able to stop it quickly if needed. The best “feature” if you can call it that is the master power switch to turn it off and disable it completely when not desired to be in use to. Besides these, there is also a hear rate monitor integrated into the handles, although it is terribly inaccurate, and I have seen other users in various reviews also mention this, so I wouldn’t really count on this as a working feature to use.
Speed Settings
So a big deciding factor, at least for me, in a stairclimber or stair steeper are the dimensions of the stairs and the speed options. This info was not available online, but thankfully my engineering degree is finally coming in handy for me to provide the following specs:
The stairs are 22 inches wide, 8.5 inches tall. And 9.5 inches deep. The Speed setting goes from Level 1 -20 for which I hand calculated approximately steps per minute.
SPM = Steps per minute
Level 1 is 30 SPM, so 1 step every 2 seconds.
Level 5 is 70 SPM
Level 7 is 90 SPM
Level 10 is 110 SPM
And the max Level 15 = 160 SPM which is practically sprinting.
The in between levels you can extrapolate from those values if you feel inclined. Long story short, it had a wide dynamic range both having the capability to go very fast and very slow as it should.
Maintenance
Speaking to any required maintenance, they give you a big container of blue grease with some instructions to lubricate the machine every 6 months. The parts they mean are the chain drive and any rotational points and some shaft bearings. I went to do this a few months back and noticed the chain still had plenty of the original lubricant still on it, but being the kind of person I am, just couldn’t leave it alone for fear of it catching on fire if I didn’t provide the desired maintenance according to schedule. Well, after an hour, I did find it near impossible to lubricate the chain or any parts without removing all the metal fascia or panels. And since I didn’t have 3 full grown men to move this away from the wall, I opted to get some heavy-duty spray lubricant and just spray the chain between the frame and the cover panels, which made a mess and made the gym smell terrible for a few days, but I didn’t have to take off anything and/or move the stairclimber so I count that as a win.
In regards to the long term durability, I did have some initial concerns about how long it would last, both from an electronics side, the display, the motor, etc. but a year later everything functions the same as it did on day 1 and I don’t have any concerns about it lasting at least a few more years. Ill provide an update again then!
Alternate Options
As far as reasonable alternatives to this machine, for this exact price range, or potentially slightly cheaper, really the only comparable options are finding something used. I have seen some local sales of older model commercial Stair Climber or other brands stair steppers for the $1000-2000 range but for a 10-20 year old machine. Sure they might hold up over time but it’s hard to know the maintenance history or gauge hidden problems unless you are some sort of technician who knows specifically what to look for. Not to mention the logistics of have to pickup and transport a huge machine back to your home or gym. As far as new options, the only other close competitors are others sold on Walmart and Amazon, which may ultimately be rebranded or very similar import versions to this same product. Overall I chose this specific one due to the fact it had a few prior written or video reviews, the all black and relatively sleek aesthetics matched my gym equipment, and importantly the fact it was sold and fulfilled by Walmart with the ability to add a warranty. The only other new product option I considered would be the newly released STEPR compact version, but as of a year ago it was still unreleased product with release dates that were continually getting pushed and more than double the cost. I ultimately cancelled by preorder/deposit for the STEPR and now have no regrets. I decided I really didn’t need a big screen on my stair stepper, the idea of having to pay any subscription costs for full functionality, and if I needed entertainment, I could survive with just a tablet if needed. Paired that with the facts the stairs are only 5.2 inches not-full-size height stadium steps, except for their pro version which is still only 7 in tall., I would really only recommend the STEPR if space is the main factor for you as its 42 in length, by 27.5 width so you save a few inches of floor area that it takes up. This Walmart one just has a lot better functionality per price and just simply works.
Overall Rating:
Functionality: 9
Feature/Design: 8
Fit/Finish: 8
Value: 9
Overall: 8.5
Overall, there really isn’t much to say that I haven’t covered in detail. It functions really well, can go slow, fast, and looks sleek and the big signature fitness sticker doesn’t look to bad. It has everything you remember from your commercial gym’s stair climber, still getting you on the endless painful stairs to nowhere, with your heart beating fast. I feel like I have already gotten $1500 worth of functionality for this machine, so I can highly recommend it to anymore in the market for a budget cardio option and has the space or height needed for this machine. I think for the price per value (with the unlisted easter egg functionality) it blows all the competition out of the water as is a no brainer. I would recommend the protection plan in case you have options a year or two down the line since it’s only a $60 add on and may give some piece of mind in case of cheap electronic or other parts fail in time, but till then there is no indication mine is slowing down.
Michael - The Jungle Gym Reviews
Overall Dimensions
50 in Length
31.5 in. Width
82 in. Height
8.5 – 9 ft Recommended Ceiling Height
Stair Dimensions
22 in. Side to Side Width
8.5 in. Height
9.5 in Front to Back Depth
Speed Settings
Level 1 = 30 Steps/Min
Level 5 = 70 Steps/Min
Level 7 = 90 Steps/Min
Level 10 = 110 Steps/Min
Level 15 = 160 Steps/Min
STEPR Stair Dimensions
5.2 in. Stadium Step Height
7.2 in. “Full Size” Step Height
STEPR Overall Dimensions
42 in. Length
27.5 in. Width
