Best Ellipticals of 2024

We enlist a panel of people to evaluate exercise intensity and assess user comfort for a wide range of body sizes

An elliptical can be a great addition to your home gym, especially if you’re worried about stress on your joints or you want your workout to be pretty quiet.

By Catherine Roberts

An elliptical can be a helpful addition to a home gym for anyone worried about stress on the joints. Exercising on an elliptical gets you an aerobic workout without the impact that comes with running.

Unlike treadmills, ellipticals allow for a built-in upper-body workout. They’re usually quieter than treadmills, too.

But while treadmills allow you to move however you like as you run or walk on them, ellipticals constrain you to the movement of the machine. The spacing and positioning of the pedals and the elliptical path they take can vary a lot from machine to machine. That’s why CR’s experts say it’s especially important to try out any elliptical you’re considering in a store to make sure you find it comfortable to use.

To help you find the right machine, CR puts each elliptical through a battery of tests to assess whether it will give you a good workout that’s also comfortable and safe. (Read more about how we test.)

CR members can see eight of our top-rated ellipticals below, or access our full ratings.

Sole E95S

LifeFitness E5 Go

Sole E25

LifeFitness E1 Go

Schwinn 430

Octane Fitness Q35X

Schwinn 411

NordicTrack AirGlide 14i

How CR Tests Ellipticals

For our ergonomics testing, we use a figure proportioned to a man in the 95th percentile and a woman in the fifth percentile to evaluate comfort and reach for a wide range of users.

To evaluate the range of exercise intensity each machine provides, we enlist a panel of people of varying fitness levels to assess how easy or challenging they find pedaling at the lowest resistance setting, at 75 percent of the maximum resistance, and at the maximum level.

Our user-safety tests look at potential pinch points, pedal sizes, and coverings, as well as the design of the elliptical handles. If positioned poorly, the handles can cause accidental eye injuries.

Maintaining Your Exercise Equipment

No matter what kind of exercise equipment you have, a little regular cleaning helps to keep it in tip-top shape—as a bonus, it also helps prevent germs from spreading.

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