subjective tests of various cardio machines

I posted this over in misc.fitness.aerobics, and meant to crosspost
here but forgot.

For those who might be considering buying a cardio machine, or trying
to decide which ones to use at the gym, I thought I'd report my
findings of some recent cardio machine testing I've been doing - not
brands, specifically, although I'll mention them, but types.

Types I've been playing with:
Precor elliptical with handles
Precor elliptical w/o handles but with cross-ramp
Versaclimber
Precor Stairmaster
Percor Treadmill
Concept II Rower

I'm doing very subjective comparison testing right now, just seeing
what I think of each. BTW, I own the versaclimber and the cross-ramp
elliptical.

First of all, it's pretty clear that you can work very hard on all of
these, and fairly easily on most. Since people work out for different
reasons, it's probably important to first decide on your goals and
then see which machines might be most effective for you. I've been
spending a few months playing with all of these, and it's clear that,
while your cardio conditioning improves with all of them, going from
one to another can require some pretty specific conditioning before
any given machine feels "comfortable." No suprise there.

So, on to the machines. I'm going to try to rate each on several
characteristics:
1. Level of perceived exertion (this usually translates to 'how soon
do I wish I was off this thing' while working at a moderately high
effort level.
2. Physical comfort. Not exertion, but joint pain and other
ergonimics kinds of issues.
3. Degree of boredom. Not comparing to the great outdoors, but to
indoor machines. 'Nuff said.
4. Training effect for other activities. A pretty specific feeling
about how the conditioning of the particular machine seems to help me
doing other things.

How I rate them:
Precor elliptical with handles
1. perceived exertion - med/low You can crank it up to 200 steps/min
for a sprint and it's plenty hard of course. The handles are nice,
but don't add much conditioning I believe. I try to clasp/unclasp my
hands and use diff combos of fingers, but it's not much.
2. physical comfort - good. No problems at all.
3. degree of boredom - not bad. Enough variety in workouts, hand
positions, and resistance to keep me going - especially with high-
energy music in the headphones.
4. training for other activities - Med. Basic cardio fitness builds
well. not so great for hill climbs or stuff like that. Pretty good
for running carryover, but not same as running.

Precor elliptical w/o handles but with cross-ramp
1. Perceived exertion - med/high If you crank the ramp to it's
steepest and raise the resistance, it's pretty tough.
2. physical comfort - good. no problems at all
3. degree of boredom - not bad. same variety in difficulty levels as
precor above, and ramp adds a nice 'terrain' dimension
4. training for other activities - Pretty good. The cross ramp can
hit the legs/butt pretty hard, (try wearing a pack) and the cardio
conditioning is great, assuming you work hard like anything else.
Need to look elsewhere for arms and shoulders unless you use dumbells.

Versaclimber
1. Perceived exertion - Way High! This thing kicks my butt every
time I try to stay on for longer than 20 minutes at a med/high
resistance level. For some real pain, hang underneath it and go for
awhile.
2. physical comfort - No problems ergonomically.
3. degree of boredom - Too tired to be bored - Well, actually it's
more boring than those machines that can provide profiles and vary
angles, etc, so I guess it's pretty bad.
4. training for other activities - Pretty damn good if you're training
for fairly high levels of exertion like mountain climbing, hiking up
hills with a pack, wrestling, etc. Carryover to running - not great.
General conditioning seems very good. Racket sports are helped
somewhat.

Precor Stairmaster
1. Perceived exertion - med/high. If you crank the level up, it's
hard not to lean on the rails and just survive. Takes some
discipline.
2. physical comfort - med. This one gets my hips and feet sometimes.
It's cumulative.
3. degree of boredom - pretty bad. you can only change the level and
that's not much stimulation.
4. training for other activities - good cardio. Uphill hiking/running
is helped. Not much running-specific carryover.

Percor Treadmill
1. Perceived exersion - High if you crank the angle or the speed,
otherwise, med.
2. physical comfort - Easier on the legs than pavement, but still some
of the usual running complaints, just to a lesser degree.
3. degree of boredom - not great. Not as fun as ellipticals. tend to
zone out, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
4. training for other activities - best carryover to running (duh).
good aerobic conditioning. Not much for other, full body activities.

Concept II Rower
1. perceived exertion - med/high, but better with some practice
2. physical comfort - fine.
3. degree of boredom - pretty bad. You can only change your grip so
many ways.
4. training for other activities - Good basic aerobic conditioning,
but not too effective for high-effort, uphill activities hikes or
anything like that.

Conclusions:
Machine with the highest perceived effort level: Versaclimber. If
you can stay on this thing consistantly, it will hone you into the
lean, mean athlete you always wanted to be. Not an easy one to face
early morning or when you're tired. For me, it has to be an addition
to other stuff.

Machine I'm most likely to keep going back to: Precor w. cross-ramp.
Good variety, comfort, and plenty of effort when you dial it up. This
is my machine of choice if I had to pick one. I will add that I've
tried other brands, but I like the Precor the best.

Machine I really want to get off of: Stairmaster. Just don't like
these things.