iMovR ThermoTread GT Walking Treadmill Base

Meet the iMovR ThermoTread GT Desk Treadmill

• The first “clean sheet” design of a walking treadmill base geared for the office, not the gym
• Quieter, smaller, more powerful, and more feature-rich than any other office treadmill
• Smartphone-like, touch-screen LCD desktop console
• Built to last: Premium componentry, “future-proof” software and extensive warranty coverage
• Optional iMovR CloudStation (available 2016) connects ThermoTread to the Internet of Things
• Perfectly balances drivetrain reliability with power consumption efficiency

The New Leader in Office Fitness

Once upon a time the first treadmill desk was created by marrying an adjustable-height desk to a cannibalized running treadmill base. That was more than eight years ago, yet every treadmill desk in the world since has been made using the same recipe. Every walking base sold as a “treadmill desk” has its roots in gym equipment, as evidenced by footprint, noise signature, console design and motor gearing ratios.

iMovR is proud to introduce the ThermoTread GT – the first treadmill desk base designed from the ground up to live in an office environment, not a gym. From upgraded componentry to a sleek, touch-screen LCD desktop console, to its ability to interact with personal performance tracking and corporate wellness software in the cloud (via optional CloudStation available 2016), the ThermoTread GT is to existing treadmill desks as the Starship Enterprise is to the RMS Queen Mary. Both will transport you from point A to point B, but only one has warp drive and photon torpedoes.

The ThermoTread GT Office Treadmill received a five out of five star rating from WorkWhileWalking's expert review team. Read their review here.

A More Powerful Chassis, for Many Years of Reliable Continuous Use

Some 1st-generation treadmill desks are known to have shorter service lives than one would expect. Walking very slowly for long periods of time on a treadmill geared for running is likely to result in premature motor or controller board burnout. Moseying along at a pace of only 1 - 2 mph requires the treadmill’s motor to overcome the immense friction of pulling a dead weight on a rubber belt across a laminated deck. A treadmill designed for a top speed of 12 mph will only have one-sixth to one-twelfth of its rated horsepower at treadmill desk sauntering speeds, imposing a very heavy strain on the drivetrain. The fact that most users neglect to periodically lubricate their treadmills shortens the life of these components ever further.

The ThermoTread GT doesn’t pretend to be a dual-use office/gym treadmill. While that’s a great marketing concept our competitors like to promote, our engineers know that you just can’t have your cake and eat it too. The ThermoTread was designed just for office walking. We made the top speed only 2.5 mph, and ideally geared its high-torque drivetrain (rollers, flywheel, pulley, etc.) for office walking speeds, with a massive 3.0 horsepower, 4000 RPM DC motor at its core.

Next, we upgraded the deck from the cheaper melamine and phenolic materials used on competing treadmills to a superior 1”-thick Bakelite material.  We added a cooling fan to keep motor temperatures under control even if the treadmill is under round-the-clock use, but we made it so silent you can’t even tell its running. Since no one will ever run or even walk briskly on a ThermoTread, we shortened the deck in order to gain back precious floor space that competing units steal away. We even lowered the treadmill deck to maximize desk stability and minimize obstruction.

The ThermoTread is quieter than the least-noisy competing treadmill base (the LifeSpan TR-1200), by a whopping 5 decibels. It’s shorter, lower profile and built with more reliable componentry than any other walking base on the market. ThermoTread GT consumes half the power and is dramatically quieter than the LifeSpan TR-5000, since it doesn’t require an AC inverter and the noisy continuous fan to keep it cool. Even though it costs $500 less than the TR-5000, the ThermoTread GT looks just as nice, if not nicer, with its all-aluminum side rails.

No Membrane Keypads Here

A sure telltale sign that a treadmill was designed by a gym equipment engineer is if its desktop console controls are made with a membrane keypad. Membrane key switches stand up to cardio exercisers’ dripping sweat but they have a tendency to degrade rapidly with continuous use. The bigger downside to membrane keypads is their fixed functionality. The ThermoTread GT is the only treadmill desk base on the market that uses a touch-screen LCD, housed in a sleek desktop console that doesn’t look out of place with the laptops, tablets and mobile devices found at the modern office workstation.

The console contains a powerful computer and a USB port to enable easy downloads of future software upgrades. All the basic functionality is there today to display walking speed, distance, time, calorie burn and other performance statistics, just as you’d expect from any treadmill desk. But that’s where the commonality ends. We know that no one enjoys having to press twenty buttons to restart their treadmill just because they stepped away for ten minutes. With the smartphone-like user interface of the ThermoTread’s desktop console our engineers were able to make the displays faster to interpret and navigate, and to store and retrieve user preferences and usage info easily.

The Lawyers are Gonna Love This Part

Lawyers, often chained to a desk for most of their day, have generally been among the earliest adopters of treadmill desks. But ironically, in-house lawyers have often been unwilling to sanction their use within corporate confines, over concern for potential employer liability. It’s easy to understand given the thousands of treadmill injury claims that are filed each year and the many examples of reckless treadmill escapades one can find on YouTube. In designing the ThermoTread GT we consulted with lawyers, insurers, corporate customers and engineers to completely overcome this concern once and for all.

First, our treadmill base is UL certified to never exceed 2.5 mph. Virtually all treadmill injuries happen at much higher speeds, either through mishap or through cardio exhaustion. No injury claim has ever been reported at this sub-walking speed limit.

Second, before activating the treadmill, our console requires the user to click off on a liability waiver “click wrap,” just like they do when using the GPS navigation system in their car. This exclusive feature of iMovR treadmill desks protects your organization from unsafe operation and potential liability, while creating a contemporaneous record of all equipment usage. No other treadmill desk in the world has this feature, designed specifically for large enterprise organizations and public space usage. Now the lawyers can share their love for treadmill desks with everyone, without reservation.

This is Just the Beginning

As it stands today the ThermoTread GT is a gutsy standalone treadmill base with lots of smarts, which can be used with any height-adjustable desk. Next year it will become an appliance on the “Internet of Things” (IoT), with the addition of our optional iMovR CloudStation. Here’s a preview of what this remarkable patent-pending device is going to allow you to do…

The CloudStation will come in the form of a long power bar, to be installed underneath the desk. The treadmill, electric adjustable-height desk, and all electrical devices on your desktop will be able to plug into the CloudStation, all neat and tidy. Each power plug is software controlled so you can set single-touch power conservation modes, such as turning everything off as you leave the office, except for that laptop charger you’d like to keep on.

The plug for the treadmill itself is special. Our proprietary circuitry on that plug works like a cardiogram, precisely measuring the health of the treadmill and the usage profile of the user by interpreting current fluctuations generated when the user’s feet step on the belt. With it, we can measure distance, speed and step count of the user, and upload it to the iMovR cloud with extreme precision, and without skipping a beat. While all popular fitness sensors (e.g. FitBit and Nike FuelBand) significantly underreport treadmill desk usage, and other treadmills have flaky Bluetooth connections to laptop software, not a single step will go uncounted or incorrectly measured when using the iMovR CloudStation. Best of all, this session data syncs automatically, without requiring the user to either remember or risk losing it forever.

Once this data is in the cloud it can be shared with corporate wellness software platforms, personal fitness sensor software, and a variety of applications that iMovR is developing for enterprise customers, such as ROI analysis and resource utilization reports. Furthermore, using the CloudStation will extend the life of your equipment and reduce your power bills, by measuring friction levels in the treadmill and notifying you when it’s time to lubricate. No more guesswork.

Once a user sets up their profile in the iMovR cloud - along with preferred treadmill speeds, desk height and monitor height - they’ll be able to log into any iMovR treadmill desk, anywhere in the world, and immediately get to work at their ideal ergonomic position, while having every step they take automatically recorded to their online profile. While the standalone ThermoTread GT is limited to 5 user profiles, an infinite number of users will be able to log into any iMovR treadmill desk that has a CloudStation connection.