Enjoy an efficient full-body workout without heading to the gym with the Sole E55 elliptical trainer. Boasting a heavy 30-pound flywheel, a high gear ratio not found on most comparable models, and a pair of upper body handles, the E55 delivers an extremely smooth workout with plenty of top-end resistance. Users will also appreciate the unique oversize and adjustable foot pedals, which were designed in collaboration with a leading physical therapist and sports enthusiast. The pedals are not only extra large, but also feature a 2-degree inward slope that reduces the ankle and knee stress that’s common in other elliptical machines. The collaboration also produced a revolutionary foot pedal angle adjustment not found on any other elliptical. Taking into account that not everyone walks the same way, Sole engineers made the E55’s pedals adjustable to fit the way you walk. This also reduces the likelihood of numb toes and sore Achilles tendons.
Workout specifics include 16 resistance levels, 10 total programs (including two custom and two heart-rate programs), and a 20-inch stride length. Perhaps the handiest feature from a user perspective, however, is the easy-to-use electronic console, which integrates a blue backlit LCD display, a cooling fan, and a water bottle holder. The E55, which offers a maximum weight capacity of 350 pounds, carries the following warranties: lifetime on the frame, five years on all parts and electronics, and two years on the labor.
Specifications:
- Assembled Dimensions: 82 by 27 by 68 inches (L x W x H)
- Arm Spacing: 23 inches
The E55 offers an LCD display on the console to track your key workout metrics.
- Arm Stride: 30 inches
- Step Up: 15 inches
- Foot Spacing: 5.5 inches
- Stride Length: 20 inches
- Front Drive: Yes
- Steel Frame: 38mm
- Resistance Type: ECB
- Adjustable Pedals: Worm Drive
- Articulating Pedals: Yes
- Flywheel: 27 pounds
- Resistance Levels: 16
- Power: Plug in
- Upper Body: Yes
- Molded Hand Grips: No
- Pulse Grips: Yes
- Handlebar Adjust: Yes
- Display Type: LCD
- Heart Rate Control: Yes
- Heart Rate Telemetry Belt: Yes
- Auto Pilot: No
- HR % Graph: No
- Windows: 1
- Track Display: Yes
- Color Backlit: Blue
- Audio System: Yes
- Incline: Power
- Six Standard Programs
- Two User-Defined Programs
- Two Heart Rate Programs
- Cooling Fans: Standard
- Water Bottle Holder: Yes
- Rear Rail Shroud: Yes
- Weight Capacity: 375 pounds
Manufacturer’s Warranty
Frame and brake – lifetime, parts/electronics – 5 years, labor – 2 years
About Sole
Sole brings over twenty years of treadmill and fitness product design and manufacturing to the table in their line of innovative equipment designed for fitness-conscious people. The company’s treadmill line is simple in design, with an emphasis on quality and warranty all at a great price. Sole’s easy-to-use treadmills offer a great value and feature a convenient, space-saving portable design. The treadmills have a very stable base with four wheels for ease of movement, folding decks to conserve space, and a 30-year motor and lifetime deck and frame warranty. Sole is always looking for ways to make their equipment better, more efficient, with higher quality at a great price.
About Elliptical Trainers
Elliptical trainers represent the next wave of advancement in low-impact cardiovascular exercise machines and continue to grow in popularity. By simulating motions experienced through walking, stepping, cycling, and skiing, elliptical machines allow for a smooth and fluid motion while building strength in the arms and legs. Similar to the exercise position for treadmills, elliptical trainers are used by standing in an upright position while holding the handrails of the machine. With elliptical trainers, however, your feet remain in the foot pedals throughout the exercise regimen and circulate in a smooth and seamless motion, resulting in little to no impact on the knees, back, and hips.
Elliptical trainers are compatible for all ages and fitness levels and allow you to select the difficulty level through the incline and intensity settings. Additionally, elliptical trainers allow you to determine the complexity of your workout based on your needs, all while listening to music, watching television, or reading a magazine while exercising in the comfort and safety of your own home.
Although different types of elliptical trainers offer an assortment of features, many of them include an array of challenging programs, forward and reverse directional movement, EKG grip pulse handles, a lightweight portable design with easy fold-up capability, and a monitor displaying calories burned, distance, speed, time, and heart rate. Other types of exercise machines, namely treadmills and bikes, offer excellent cardiovascular exercise and muscular training for the legs in a forward-motion exercise. Elliptical trainers take this to the next level by offering an upper and lower body workout with dual motion, challenging and diverse programs, and a low-impact exercise machine that won’t strain sensitive joints.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Great Elliptical machine for the price! very sturdy!
I did a LOT of research on ellipticals earlier this year, and after all of this, decided on the e55 from Sole. This thing is sturdy! I am 6′4 about 250 and was worried about the sturdiness of an elliptical, especially after tyring so many crappy models in different stores. Most of them rocked and felt like they were coming apart when I really got going fast. not this one. This thing was delivered in a HUGE box and is very heavy and akward to assemble. I didn’t have any help to get this thing inside or assembled, however, I managed to open the box in my garage and take it inside piece by piece. A little warning though: don’t plan on moving this thing AFTER you get it together, because it would be near impossible. Just bringing the components inside was awkward, but once inside, it took me about 3-4 hours to assemble. It’s not that difficult to figure out, but it’s awkward with no help.
I have now owned this model for 7-8 months and couldn’t be happier. I only have one complaint, and it’s probably my own fault, but it squeeks a little when I’m working out on it. The manual says that this is most likely due to a nut not being tightened as much as it should be, and to be honest, it isn’t THAT annoying. the squeeking is coming from the pedal, and isn’t a sign of cheap quality, just that I probably didn’t tighten it enough. for the money, I don’t think you can buy a better elliptical.
3 Stars Very Poor Assembly Instructions
If you are “assembly challenged” get someone else to assemble this machine because the instructions are very poor and you will go nuts trying to put this together. The very first bolts didn’t line up. There were a few instances where the part or bolt numbers were wrong (Try finding the part #25 in step 4 it’s really #24). Particularly frustrating was the electrical connections to the console. This was not diagrammed and poorly described. Then there were the screws from the inside of the machine. They do give you a little screw driver for those. Good luck if you have big hands.
The good news is – after three weekends assembling this thing, it does work very well and feels nice and solid.
4 Stars Great Machine!
I ordered this elliptical after months of researching on-line reviews and considering used equipment. I decided on the Sole thanks to good reviews on Treadmill Doctor and others and the E55 particularly because I got a good deal on it on Ebay (new and direct from Sole for the cost of the E35). It shipped in about 5 days; took another 2 or 3 to get it to my house. They delivered it to my garage and took away the pallet. The box was huge and looked filthy and beaten up. The product inside was fine but heavy. My husband and I took it out piece by piece (thanks to another reviewer’s recommendation) then pushed the box with the heaviest parts into the spare bedroom. It took a few minutes with two of us shoving the box across the floor and we were sweating before we even got the box into the room. Assembly took probably 3 hours (easily). What took us so long was getting the wiring through the mast; we used a wire coathanger taped to the wires and that was easy but in doing so we disruped two little wires that stick out of small holes in the mast–getting them back to their proper place took awhile. Also the small rubber grommets that protect those wires we found after we put everything together (they are in the package with the electrical cord–not in the box with the parts. Anyway, we got it all together and the ride is so smooth and quiet! We (husband and myself) are out of shape so for the first few days, we used only the weight of the flywheel (no incline no resistance) and 15 minutes was tough! Slowly we are getting stronger and increasing our time and endurance. This is a sturdy machine. The reviewer who said he felt it was unstable–I can’t imagine that. We love the machine; took off one star for the assembly difficulties but would give five stars for the machine after assembly.
1 month update:
Have used this elliptical every day for the last month and it’s still as quiet and smooth as the day we put it together. I use the manual setting to set my own incline and resistance; my husband uses the cardio and fatburner settings and it kicks both our butts. No problems with anything so far. BTW, we have it set up in a room with 8′ ceilings and we have ample headroom for a 6′ tall person to work out on.
1 Star So Far Not Even A 1-Star
The elliptical went together alright. There are some mislabeled items in the directions and a few parts that aren’t included or talked about. I used it for 20 minutes the night I put it together to test it out, some minor noises. I went through all of the documentation on noise problems and did everything it suggested. Nothing really improved. On top of that I now have a rattle noise coming from the Incline and Decline controls on the swing arms. I contacted Sole Customer Service about my problem on 9/7 and the only thing I can get is that my ticket has been ’sent to a technician’. I’ve had it for a week and so far it is one expensive clothes rack. Hopefully someone from Sole will get back to me soon.
9/23/09
Someone from Sole actually called me about a week later on the 16th. By that time I already arranged to have it exchanged with Amazon. Finally scheduled a date and time with CEVA to pick it up, made arrangements to be home, get the customary “We’re 30 minutes out” phone call, and come to find out they’re going to the wrong address, in the wrong state. So someone is ’supposed’ to get back to me to setup another day to have it picked up.
9/25/09
CEVA (Amazon’s Shipping Company) came today. No appointment, no phone call. They just showed up out of the blue. They destroyed my elliptical mat and I carried down just about everything myself, but hey it’s gone. They weren’t all that careful moving stuff either, as in probably more parts are broken now. Kinda disappointed nobody came with a sorry or we’ll replace it for you in regards to my elliptical mat being destroyed by CEVA.
10/6/09
My replacement Sole E55 Elliptical was dropped off today. Scuffed up like crazy, scratches on the black parts and huge black rub marks on the gray parts. To anyone putting this together I suggest using your own tools (metric ratchet will help out a lot if you have one) and an easy way to feed the wires through the center mast piece is to use your cellphone charger cable. During assembly keep in mind that you really want to get things right the first time so if you mess up and have to take things apart you’ll find the fit isn’t as snug (mainly the plastic protective pieces).
10/7/09
Well, 2-3 minutes this time before I found something wrong. Not a huge problem, but the incline buttons on the left swing arm don’t work. I looked back at all of the places where you plug in wires during assembly, disconnected, reattached everything, and double checked that everything was snug. Still didn’t work. Popped the swing arm top off (it’s soft plastic so flat tip takes it off easy) and saw the wire was unplugged. So I have about 4 hours of assembly and maybe 25 minutes of actual use over 2 machines. Hopefully it works great after I get that wire plugged back in, but not impressed so far.
10/16/09
Received a kit today to fix the swing arm incline button. It consists of a 2.5-3′ wire that runs through the swing arm (plugs into the incline button on one end and wire on side of center mast on the other), a thin spool of wire to snake wire, and an incline button (it’s just a paper thin piece of plastic). Invoice states if everything isn’t return I will be billed $600. Nice.
10/22/09
(2) 40 minute sessions on it and it’s back to making loud noises. Creaks like an old house at anything over a resistance level of 4 and makes a clapping noise at anything 3 or under. In my experience that either leads to some major being broken in the long run and in the short run black out rage fits. I talked to Sole today and asked for it to either be fixed or taken away. At this point I wouldn’t recommend a Sole brand anything to anyone. I hope this isn’t simply a case of you get what you pay for. My $400-500 treadmill lasted 7 yrs until it broke and it was cheaper for the company to give me a new one over fixing it.
5 Stars eliptical
I am 100% pleased with the Sole elliptical. It was relatively easy to put together, very heavily constructed, and operates as advertised.
