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Comment by rubyfan | Hacker News Reader

I bought a new treadmill with a 24” screen on it. The screen should have been the red flag I guess. They want $40 a month to use the screen if I want to watch Netflix while I run, or sync my running data to Apple Health. There is no way to change this as far as I can tell and if they went out of business I’m sure my equipment would become a brick.

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I guess it’s time to pop it open and do one of those classic “how I rewired this thing to work how I want” HN posts.

I was thinking about that, and then figured just paying the $40 for the next 5 years is probably cheaper.

That's more than I pay to use the gym.

Was the subscription pricing mentioned during the purchase flow, even if you didn't happen to see it at the time?

At $500/yr, seems like it'd be cheaper to just buy a tablet and use that instead of the built-in screen.

The subscription is described as optional and in a way which is unclear. The name of the product implies there is a free version and Pro subscription. In actuality you need the Pro subscription to use some of the features.

Perhaps I’m reaching, but why not just run outside? Cold? What’s a gym cost where you are? $40 just seems like a lot in addition to the amortized cost of the basement clothes rack, I meant exercise machine.

A typical gym where I live is $20-$40/mo per person.

I run daily and live in a climate that gets unpleasant or impassable to run outside for a good portion of the year. I also live about 20 minutes from the nearest gym so there’s also the time savings which is the primary reason for the home gym.

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