NordicTrack E14.0 Elliptical Cross Trainer Review

NordicTrack is one of the best known and most established names in the global home fitness market. They’ve been delivering excellent value for money for many years so we were keen to see what the well established but not yet tested by us NordicTrack E14.0 elliptical has to offer.

The E14.0 is very much a high-end home use elliptical. It’s full of features which we’ll come to later but the first the assembly. Like all NordicTrack manuals the instructions are clear and as long as you don’t ‘wing it’ most people will be able to put it together. The only thing is, that it’s time consuming. It took us nearly an hour and a half to get it put together and it’s definitely a 2 person job. If you’re handy and a veteran of the flat pack world then it won’t pose a problem but otherwise with 24 stages of assembly we’d recommend inquiring about an assembly service from your retailer.

Once built this is a good looking machine. It’s got a sleek, futuristic, robust look  about it. We like it! It’s quite a departure from a lot of the machines out there but not so much as to make it a love or hate affair. Clean, modern and stylish it really does look great.

Given the way this lovely machine looks we were really looking forward to giving it a go and we’ve got to say from the off that this is a very good cross trainer. Clearly there’s been thought put into making sure that the E14.0 perform as well as it looks. The 14kg (30.8lbs) flywheel and NordicTrack’s ‘EonS’ pulley system combine to deliver a very smooth ride. The action is excellent with no change in feel throughout the whole cycle. It’s extremely consistent all the way through and even larger, heavier members of the team found it smooth and stable through all resistance and incline levels.

Speaking of incline, the E14.0 goes one step further and actually features a decline setting allowing you to choose from -10% to +20% decline/incline. This has the effect of altering the stride length between 20″ and 22″ but, more importantly, it changes the nature of the ellipse from flatter to rounder. In other words, it changes from a ski-style flat (ish) action to a step-style action allowing you to work a wide range of different muscle groups. The effect is very noticeable making this a genuine benefit rather than a ‘bells & whistles’ addition. Another most welcome addition to this set up are the adjustable pedals. Simply lift the pedal and turn the knob on the side of it which the adjusts the angle of the pedal. This ensures that your heel is always in contact with the pedal throughout the whole cycle which, in theory anyway, reduces the chance of strains. The angle of console is also adjustable so regardless of your size you should always be able to get a comfortable position. All this may sound like a lot of adjusting but it’s really quick and easy and makes for a great set up for working out hard.

There are 26 levels of resistance and the maximum is level should be adequate for even the most seasoned fitness enthusiasts and gym devotees. It moves swiftly between resistance and incline levels making it suitable for interval training. Resistance and incline are electronically adjusted via the console and it’s possible to alter these levels while in the middle of a preset workout as well as in manual mode.

The console is a  7″ full colour, Android powered,  touch screen unit which, while not a smooth as your average ipad, galaxy pad, or smartphone, is a huge leap forward compared with other consoles on high-end ellipticals. Having a full-colour display that you can point at and touch to select your programmes makes things intuitive, especially when dealing with iFit Live functions. Not everything is touch screen though and NordicTrack have kept some of the basic functions such as resistance and incline quick keys as traditional console buttons to make things very quick and simple. This is no bad thing as when you’ve worked up a serious sweat the last thing you want to be doing is fumbling around to reduce the resistance with sweaty fingers on a screen. Before you can make full use of the console and the cross trainer itself there are a number of steps you have to follow to set up a wi-fi connection, calibrate the incline and check for firmware updates. This last one is important so it’s worth making sure you don’t skip it as it contains things such as bug fixes.

Once you’ve set everything up there are a whopping 39 built-in programmes to choose from. We simply didn’t have time to test them all but cycling through it’s evident that you’re just not going to get bored. It contains all the different types of programmes you’d expect to see on a premium machine, it’s just that there are loads of them. There are also 4 user-defined programmes so that you can create your own workouts and save them for later. There are video programmes, target workouts, defined workouts, fat burning workouts – you name it, it’s there. In addition to this, there’s the option of the iFit Live workouts. A one-year subscription to iFit Live is included in the purchase of the machine and is all built into the console so there’s no need for an additional plug-in module.

We’ve played around with iFit Live a fair bit as we’ve reviewed different machines that make use of it and it definitely has a lot to offer. For more information on iFitLive, we’d suggest checking out the iFit.com website..

With a hefty maximum user weight of 145kg, a frankly quite ridiculous range of training scenarios and options, electronic incline/decline, touch screen console, iFit Live and NordicTrack’s 5 years frame and 2 years parts and labour warranty this really is an all singing, all dancing model but with genuine bite and function, and not just pretty lights and gizmos!