The quietest walking pad has no motor.
The Office Walker measures 33 to 45 dB in daily use, measured at one meter in a 22 m2 room with a wooden floor and the windows shut. There is no motor in it, so there is no hum under your voice. no one can hear it on the other side of the call.
Quiet is half the reason I designed it this way.
I wanted three things: quiet, durable, repairable, with no electrical part in it that could fail. Taking the motor out gave me all three at once.
What you hear is your own foot landing on wood. That is why it still gets used at nine in the evening, in an apartment with a thin floor, with someone asleep upstairs.
How quiet is a walking pad, in decibels?
Measured at one meter, 1.8 m height, in a 22 square meter room with a wooden floor and the windows shut.
Can you take a call while walking on a walking pad?
Yes. At 33 to 45 dB the pad sits below normal conversation, so your microphone picks up your voice rather than the floor. There is no motor, so there is no hum for a microphone to lock onto, and nothing that gets louder as it wears.
There is no motor in it at all, and that one decision is where three things come from at once. It is quiet, it draws no electricity, and there is no part inside that wears out and ends its life.
Nothing to plug in and nothing sitting on standby. Your legs move the belt, which is the only power a walk ever needed.
The Office Walker, recorded in daily use.
Same room, same microphone, same gain, same session.
The two recordings, one after the other.
Where the noise of a walking pad comes from
Stop and step off at any time
Nothing is dragging the belt along, so there is no hum underneath your footsteps. Stop walking and the sound stops with you.
If it is that quiet, is it actually doing anything?
People ask me this a lot, and the answer is that noise never had anything to do with effort. An electric pad is loud because of the motor, not because it is working you harder. Take the motor out and the effort is identical, because you set it with your own legs.
What you lose is the hum, the standby light and the part most likely to break. What you keep is every step. And quiet is what makes it stick: a pad you can use during a call, next to a sleeping child, or late at night is a pad you actually use on the days a loud one stays switched off.
Quiet enough to use while the house sleeps.
A machine you have to think about before switching on is a machine you skip.
Noise is not a comfort feature. It decides whether you use the thing at nine in the evening, in an apartment with thin floors, or during the call that matters. A hum you can hear is a hum you have to plan around.
Take the motor out and the planning goes with it. You step on and walk, with nothing to switch on first and nothing to apologize for on a call.
Quiet walking pad questions
One without a motor. Most of what you hear from an electric pad is the motor and the belt it drives. Independent tests of electric under desk treadmills have measured roughly 42 to 65 dB at walking speed. I measured an electric pad at 60 to 68 dB and the Office Walker at 33 to 45 dB, in the same room with the same microphone. Take the motor out and the loudest thing left is your own footstep. More on how a manual walking pad works.
Listings rarely say how they measured: from how far away, at what speed, or with anyone walking on it. A figure taken next to an idling motor says little about a person walking on a hard floor. Look for a stated distance and speed, or better, a recording. Mine are further up this page.
Yes. The Office Walker has no electronics, so there is nothing to beep. Most electric pads beep when the belt starts and at every speed change, and only some let you turn that off.
They hear two things: motor hum carried through the floor, and the impact of your steps. With no motor, the first one is gone. The second depends on your floor and how you walk. A rug or a dense mat under the pad softens it, and so do soft shoes or socks and a steady pace instead of heavy heel strikes.
Put it on a flat, level floor with a rug or a dense rubber mat underneath. Walk in soft shoes or socks and keep a steady pace. On an electric pad, keep the belt tensioned and lubricated as the manual says, because a loose or dry belt adds noise. The biggest single change is taking the motor out, which is why I built the Office Walker without one.
Get your name down for one.
Backers get theirs first. After that the waitlist orders, below the price the store will charge once it opens to everyone. Tens of thousands of people are already on it, so it is worth putting your name down now.