Review by cellobuffy:

I’ve owned this mini-stepper for about three months now. Agree with the other posts that the computer doesn’t work and the instructions are useless, but it was easy to put together and those little computers always lie anyway! If I burned as many calories as my very reputable make of treadmill tells me I do, I’d be hospitalised!!

This stepper is absolutely brilliant for what I wanted. I spend hours and hours every day in front of my computer for work and suffer from varicose veins and middle aged spread from all the sitting. I bought this to stand on whilst working on my laptop – which I put on a gas lift chair on the desk, so i can adjust it to the perfect height. Luckily I’m self employed and have my own office otherwise people would think I was barking.

Not only is it absolute relief not to be sitting down all day, and gone are the achy legs and stiff neck and back, but amazingly, after the first few weeks of use I got toned thighs, a toned bottom and lost weight!! A couple of months on, I’ve firmed up very nicely thank you! And I don’t do very much, I just gently ‘walk’ up and down on it whilst typing – am doing it now – and if I’m waiting for a page to load or my computer to reboot I might do something a bit more energetic. It’s also very good for dancing on when a good tune comes on the radio!!

Seriously, because of the lateral movement, you do get a really good range of movement in your thighs, hips, knees and lower back. While I’m thinking I often twist around at the waist, or raise my arms over my head or out to the sides. I don’t use the bungee things so can’t comment on those. It is absolutely fantastic to be constantly moving instead of sitting hunched over the computer all day and if, like me, you’re desk-bound I strongly recommend you get one. Wish I’d thought of it ten years ago!

If you are buying this as a piece of exercise equipment though, you might be disappointed. It isn’t really a work-out and you can’t make the resistance very high, even at the highest setting – twist the central knob to raise or lower the steps to make it easier or harder. But if you use it for any length of time, even an hour a day in front of the telly, I think you’d get results.

All in all it is very sturdy and robust, has stood up really well to continuous hours of use, over several months, is very very quiet – no squeaks at all, just a gentle thud as you go down – and pretty portable, I shove it under the desk as a foot rest when I do sit down.

Review by yoyocham:

When I first trying this stepper out after I received it, I wasn’t too impressed, because I thought, the heights of the steps were just too short, won’t be able to give me a decent workout! Plus the counter wasn’t working at all. I was setting up the height of the steps as how the instruction told me to, i.e to turn the knob fully clockwise, the knob was very tight but I made sure it was turned fully, however the height still not very high! So when I was about to give up, I looked on the product picture again on amazon site, then saw the steps could actually go a lot higher! So I went and tried again, this time, I physcially have to push one of the step higher to the height that I want (you can do that no problem as the cylinder gives you a cushion effect, so it’s very flexible and you won’t break it so don’t worry), then, only then I was able to turn the knob further more clockwise! And voila! When you can’t turn the knob anymore this time the stepper height was set on the height that I want! And it worked brilliantly! So I am a lot more happier with my purchase now! The counter is also working as well. So incase anyone is like me finding the steps being set too low and struggled, then you could try my way and it should work wonderfully I am sure! I can finally get on with my exercise routine now, next step is to see if it will help me to lose them post pregnancy weight!

Review by S. Cunningham:

This product is heavy and bulky. Once set up according to the instructions, it did not work and had to be returned. Took me over an hour to repackage it because of size and weight of the machine. Not worth the hassle.

Review by Dave Redmond:

I have had a few steppers over the past couple of years and this one has lasted the pace. It is solid and better made than a lot of others I have tried. The options to vary the tension and depth of the step are both good. This stepper doesn’t come with the elasticated tension ropes which some others do and that’s a bit of a miss. One thing though, my stepper left oil/grease stains on the carpet so use it on a mat or hard floor until you know this isn’t a risk.

The day after writing this review, the chain broke. Seems it’s not a bike chain and the prospect of finding the right size isn’t appealing so I am giving up on it.

Review by Mr. Christos J. Kyriazis:

I used to live in US and went the gold gym and thought they produced a good service and thought i might buy the mini stepper because it had the golds name.

To anyone thinking about buying one of these don’t. I weight about 80kg about 20kg under the maximum weight limit of 100kg.

I might of been unlucky with the unit I got but on the day that I tried it out for the first time brand new unit broke. The welding between the foot pannel and the rest of the union broke off. It just revealed how poor the construction was and how thick the metal was paper thin. Just simply dissappointed that it couldn’t last more than half an hour.

Review by C. Pearce:

I was absolutely appalled with this product, within 2 months of having it it completely collapsed under my feet whilst using it. I only use it a few times a week and am not heavy and cannot believe how poor quality it was. I wish I could return the product but sadly the return date has just passed. I am extremely dissapointed as it will be a while before I can afford another one.

Review by Elspeth Sissons:

I am not very impressed by this, its isn’t very adjustable, the counter doesn’t work and I’ve had to mess about adjusting the ‘power cords’ that aren’t designed to be adjustable.

Review by soppy:

The item was delivered at 10 am, by 10.20 it had broken. I used it for 20 mins which was 1000 steps. A big bolt fell out of the inside and i was unable to access the inside to put it back together. All the bolts were loose and it left an oil mark on my carpet. No warning of this in the instructions. A poorly constructed item!!

Review by Susan:

This is good value for money and very light and easy to store away. However after using it for just one day it developed a very loud screeching noise which means that I can no longer use it whilst I am watching TV as the noise makes it impossible to hear the TV over!