Sunny Health & Fitness SF-E3865 Magnetic Elliptical Trainer

BUYER BEWARE. You are basically giving amazon and sunny health $350+ for useless product that cannot be returned or repaired. I have never written a review on Amazon. But I feel the need to let everyone know DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE. You literally get what you pay for. I bought the elliptical September 12, 2020 for me and my roommate to use during the pandemic lockdown. We are both females under 150lbs that only use it for light cardio. It was adequate for the price, noisy but we wanted something quick and cheap. Little did we know how cheap the machine actually was. By November the elliptical was making a VERY LOUD whooshing/whirring noise like a train horn. I reached out to amazon for help and they sent a YouTube video from sunny health to "level" the machine. A month later, the machine returned to making the noise and we couldn't even move the pedals. It sounded like something was scraping internally. We reached out to amazon and because we were out of our 90-day customer support window, I needed to reach out to sunny health for any additional resolutions. I tried calling Sunny health and no one picked up the phone. Then I emailed for support and they waited a whole week to get back to me. Below is the response I received, despite filling out their entire help form with all the information once already! Clearly a stalling tactic to giving me any form of customer service. I am still within the 180-day warranty period but clearly I will need to fix the machine myself. I spent an additional $100 on tools: three different types of socket wrenches, 2 different kinds of crank pullers to try to remove pedals. For every one’s information, the socket required is 16mm for the pedal and the crank puller must be either 25 or 26mm, I gave up trying to take the pedals off and instead ripped the cover off like another reviewer did. (If sunny health is requiring everyone to take apart their own machines, they should provide an owner’s manual that tells exactly tools and sizing you will need.) When I finally took apart the machine, the magnetic wheel was installed crooked and rubbing against the post, causing the scraping noise and prevent the pedals from moving. The drive belt was also installed half-way off it’s wheel which caused the flywheel to be misaligned. I took apart the entire machine and have not be able to manage to put it back together because the tension spring is too strong for me. I have spent every other weekend in 2021 trying to fix this elliptical, sinking more money and time into something that supposed keep me healthy during a pandemic. We have given up on fixing this machine and Sunny Health’s lack of customer service. Their business model must be to intentionally sell products that are constructed only enough to “work” until the machine breaks right out the warranty window so you must buy the parts and figure out how to become an exercise machine mechanic. We have decided to spend our money and buy a Peloton and NordicTrack. Amazon stop selling this garbage product to your customers.