
MERACH Performance Treadmill Review: Auto Incline Without the Premium Price
An honest MERACH Performance folding treadmill review covering its 3.5HP brushless motor, 18% auto incline, 46cm belt, app and folding design, plus who should buy it.
By Paul Kendrick, Cardio & Endurance Editor · Updated 28 June 2026
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The Sportstech F37 is a folding motorised treadmill from the German brand Sportstech, aimed at people who want a proper running machine at home without paying gym-floor money. On paper it reads like a lot of treadmill for the cash: a 7 HP peak motor, a 20 km/h top speed, a properly useful 15% powered incline and a 150 kg user limit. The headline verdict? Strong spec, real reliability question marks, and a supply problem that currently makes it frustratingly hard to buy.
That last point matters, so I will not bury it. Sportstech has scaled its treadmill presence on Amazon UK right back, and every F37 listing I checked was showing as unavailable. The review still stands, because the F37 has sold in big numbers and plenty of them are running in home offices and spare rooms across the country. If you already own one, or you are waiting on stock, this is what you are dealing with.
How we review
This review draws on Sportstech's published specifications, hands-on impressions from trusted UK reviewers and the consensus of verified owner feedback. We have not run our own months-long endurance test of this exact unit, so we report only findings that come up again and again, the praise and the complaints alike, rather than any single outlier opinion.

The F37 suits someone who genuinely intends to run, not just amble. If you want a machine that can hold a steady 12 km/h with real incline work behind it, and you sit under the 150 kg ceiling, this is squarely aimed at you. Regular sessions on a treadmill like this make it far easier to hit the NHS target of at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous, and the British Heart Foundation is blunt about why that is worth doing: staying active helps reduce your risk of heart attacks and strokes. If all you want is gentle walking while you work, this is more machine than you need, and something from our best treadmill for walking guide will save you both money and space.
Check price on AmazonNumbers first, because this is where the F37 makes its case. The running surface measures 130 by 48 cm, roomy for a treadmill that folds away, and the deck is built up from five layers over an eight-zone cushioning setup Sportstech calls its Smart Shock System. Underfoot that means a deck with genuine give, softer than the plank-like feel of most budget machines.
The motor is quoted at 7 HP peak, around 3.5 continuous horsepower in normal use, and it drives the belt to 20 km/h. Incline runs to 15%, and it is powered, so you can throw in a climbing interval from the console or let Kinomap do it for you mid-run. The console is a 7.5 inch LCD with 12 preset programs, a tablet shelf, Bluetooth, USB and MP3 in, plus an auto-lubrication system that spares you crawling under the deck with a bottle of silicone oil every few weeks.
| Motor | 7 HP peak (approx 3.5 continuous) |
|---|---|
| Top speed | 20 km/h (12.5 mph) |
| Incline | Motorised, up to 15% |
| Running surface | 130 x 48 cm |
| Cushioning | 5-layer deck, 8-zone Smart Shock System |
| Max user weight | 150 kg |
| Console | 7.5 inch LCD, 12 programs |
| App | Kinomap via Bluetooth |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth, USB, MP3, pulse sensors |
| Maintenance | Automatic belt lubrication |
| Folding | Soft-drop vertical fold, transport wheels |
When an F37 is working properly, it is a good bit of kit. The deck size and cushioning are the things you feel most: room to find your rhythm without clipping the motor cover, and give under each stride that is kinder to your knees than the cheap folding treadmills it undercuts. That matters more than it sounds, because the machine you actually use is the one that pays off. Leisure-time running is tied to a 30% lower risk of all-cause death and a 45% lower risk of cardiovascular death versus not running at all, so anything that gets you moving on a wet January evening earns its floor space. The powered incline is the other highlight, turning a flat plod into something closer to hill work, and Kinomap keeps boredom off by matching the belt to whatever filmed route you are following.
Now the part the marketing skips. Reliability is the F37's weak spot, and the pattern in owner feedback is too consistent to wave away. The most common serious complaint is the deck cracking down the middle after a few months of regular use, which owners put down to under-built support brackets rather than to abuse. Belt slippage and a stuttering feel at speed come up repeatedly too, and that is unnerving when you are mid-stride at 12 km/h. Neither fault hits every unit, and many owners run theirs for years without drama, but the failure rate is high enough that it has to shape the verdict. It is made worse by Sportstech's poor reputation for support: slow replies, and unhelpful ones, when something does go wrong.
A few smaller gripes round it out. There is no pause button, so a knock at the door means ending your programme and starting over. The speakers are tinny enough that you will pair your own headphones by day two. And the console, clear as it is, stays a basic LCD rather than the tablet-style touchscreen the "7.5 inch" figure might have you picturing.
At its typical historic price, comfortably under the £600 mark, the F37 was strong value; few folding treadmills gave you this deck size, this motor and a powered incline together for the money. Judged on spec per pound alone, it earned its popularity.
The catch is that you often cannot buy one. Sportstech has pulled back hard on Amazon UK, and the F37 listings have been sitting as unavailable rather than in stock. That reframes the whole decision. A treadmill you cannot reliably order, backed by patchy after-sales support, is a harder recommendation than the spec sheet suggests on its own. If you find one in stock at a fair price and you go in clear-eyed about the reliability risk, it can still make sense. If you want something you can order today with confidence, look at the machines in our best treadmills for home use roundup, our best budget treadmill guide for cheaper folding options, or the best incline treadmill picks if that 15% climb is what drew you here. The full range lives in our treadmills hub.
Check price on AmazonStock has been unreliable. At the time of writing every F37 listing we checked on Amazon UK showed as currently unavailable, and Sportstech has thinned its Amazon treadmill range right down. The product page still exists and could restock, so it is worth checking the current status before you set your heart on one. If you need a machine now, our best treadmills guide covers models you can actually order today.
You can run on it. The 20 km/h top speed and the 130 by 48 cm belt are enough for steady miles and interval work, and the 7 HP peak motor holds its pace even near the 150 kg weight limit. The one caveat is width: at 48 cm the belt is fine for most people but feels a touch narrow if you are tall or have a wide stride at speed.
Yes. The incline is motorised and adjusts from the console or your app, climbing to 15%. That is a real advantage over cheaper folding treadmills that either have no incline at all or make you stop and prop the deck up by hand between runs.
Sportstech rates the motor at under 75 dB, and owners generally agree it is quiet for its size. The motor hum is not the problem; the thud of your feet is, so anyone downstairs will still hear you at a run. A rubber mat underneath does more for the noise than any spec-sheet figure.
It does. The deck lifts and locks vertically on a soft-drop hydraulic system, and there are transport wheels on the front. Be realistic about the weight, though: this is a heavy machine, so wheeling it across carpet is a two-person job and it still needs a decent chunk of floor when folded.
It pairs over Bluetooth with Kinomap, which streams filmed real-world routes and drives the treadmill to match the terrain. That is the F37's best software trick. The 12 built-in programs and the LCD console handle the basics if you would rather not bother with an app at all.

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