rating of 2022 and which one is better to choose for home

The step­per is one of the most pop­u­lar home exer­cise equip­ment in 2022. At first glance, a sim­ple device has cer­tain fea­tures that are impor­tant to con­sid­er when choos­ing a mod­el for your home.

For whom is a clas­sic step­per suit­able, and for whom is it bet­ter to pur­chase a rotary mod­el? Are spac­ers required? How can the load be con­trolled?

So that you are not com­plete­ly lost in the vari­ety of man­u­fac­tur­ers and options, we have col­lect­ed data on the most pop­u­lar mod­els, com­pared their tech­ni­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics, and iden­ti­fied weak­ness­es and strengths.

Rating of the TOP 11 best steppers for the home in 2022

This rat­ing includes the best step­pers in terms of qual­i­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty, accord­ing to experts and ordi­nary users.

How to choose a stepper?

If you decide to buy a step­per, when choos­ing, eval­u­ate the fol­low­ing para­me­ters:

• Val­ue for mon­ey. Low cost does not equal low effi­cien­cy. The step­per is a sim­ple sim­u­la­tor, this is one of its main advan­tages.
• The size. The dimen­sions of the device must fit into the room where it will be installed.
• Handrails or expanders. Helps main­tain bal­ance dur­ing train­ing and devel­op the upper mus­cle groups.
• The weight. The device must be suit­able for the loads that it will reg­u­lar­ly encounter.
• Train­ing pro­grams. They are reflect­ed not only in the final result, but also in the cost and dimen­sions of the device.

Model overview

HyperFit Supertrainer G‑90

the func­tion­al­i­ty of the sim­u­la­tor and allow you to use lit­er­al­ly the whole body in train­ing.

Hyper­Fit step­per ped­als are con­sid­ered some of the best in the world. They are height adjustable, have a wide shape with an inno­v­a­tive non-slip sur­face and 3D tread, edges for max­i­mum sta­bil­i­ty.

The user can increase or decrease the load depend­ing on their phys­i­cal capa­bil­i­ties..

Light weight and com­pact dimen­sions allow you to store the step­per any­where, even in lim­it­ed space.

The sim­u­la­tor is equipped with a dis­play that dis­plays calo­ries burned, the num­ber of steps tak­en and the train­ing time.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• Type is clas­sic.
• With­stands weight — up to 120 kg.
• Dis­play read­ings — calo­rie con­sump­tion, total steps and cadence per
• work­out, work­out time.
• Dimen­sions and weight — 51 x 48 x 23 cm, 8.3 kg.

DFC SC-S032

The sim­u­la­tor will help increase phys­i­cal activ­i­ty with a seden­tary lifestyle and reduce per­for­mance

over­weight.

The steel con­struc­tion is reli­able and durable, able to with­stand loads up to 110 kg. Includes hand expanders. For greater ver­sa­til­i­ty and to achieve good results, the sim­u­la­tor is equipped with a hydraulic sys­tem.

The dimen­sions of the device, as well as the weight of 6700 grams, make it easy to move the device from place to place and choose a cor­ner for stor­age for it. A small dis­play shows basic infor­ma­tion — how many calo­ries burned per work­out and what fre­quen­cy of steps the ath­lete has. Well loads the mus­cles of the legs, increas­es endurance, expanders allow you to work out the mus­cles of the chest.

The oper­a­tion is com­plete­ly autonomous and does not require a net­work con­nec­tion. It is allowed to adjust the load and height of the ped­als of the sim­u­la­tor.

With reg­u­lar lubri­ca­tion of parts, there is no squeak or rat­tle dur­ing oper­a­tion. The com­put­er runs on bat­ter­ies, turns on auto­mat­i­cal­ly imme­di­ate­ly at the start of the work­out. You can con­nect a car­dio belt of the same com­pa­ny. Sep­a­rate­ly, we note the sur­face of the plat­form — it does not slip, pro­vid­ing good grip with the soles.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• Type — swiv­el.
• With­stands weight — up to 110 kg.
• The dis­play shows the fre­quen­cy of steps and calo­ries burned.
• Dimen­sions and weight — 51x55x24 cm, 6.7 kg.

DFC SC-S085

Despite the fact that this mod­el was released in 2017, it remains one of the most pop­u­lar, imi­tat­ing

Nordic walk­ing.

The rotary mini step­per is well suit­ed for use by the elder­ly. The design is sta­ble, with com­fort­able han­dles, the body is durable and can with­stand the weight of an ath­lete up to 100 kg.

Works smooth­ly and silent­ly due to the hydraulic sys­tem. Well loads the mus­cles of the legs and but­tocks, keeps the body in good shape. The installed com­put­er with the scan­ning func­tion is pow­ered by bat­ter­ies, the sim­u­la­tor itself is com­plete­ly autonomous.

Only eight lev­els of load, allow­ing for train­ing of vary­ing effec­tive­ness. The small dis­play will show you how much time you have been exer­cis­ing and with what fre­quen­cy of steps, as well as dis­play the calo­rie con­sump­tion.

Handrails are easy and sim­ple to remove / install, can be replaced with expanders or sim­ply bor­rowed with­out them. The foot plat­form is tex­tured, non-slip, com­plete­ly safe. The height of the ped­als, as well as the load, can be adjust­ed to suit your needs.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• Type — swiv­el.
• With­stands weight — 100 kg.
• Dis­play read­ings — calo­ries, step fre­quen­cy.
• Dimen­sions and weight — 46x41x138 cm, 9.5 kg.

DFC SC-S083

Train­ing the but­tocks and mus­cles of the legs is the main task of this bright green hand­some man of com­pact size. Its use

absolute­ly safe due to a reli­able design that can with­stand a load of up to 100 kg, and the relief sur­face of the plat­forms, which excludes any slip­ping.

The sim­u­la­tor is equipped with a com­put­er with a scan­ning func­tion. It turns on auto­mat­i­cal­ly once at the begin­ning of a work­out, just take the first step. The inter­de­pen­dent ped­al trav­el due to the hydraulic mech­a­nism pro­vides a smooth step with­out jerks and exces­sive noise.

The device has a small dis­play show­ing all the nec­es­sary infor­ma­tion to eval­u­ate the effec­tive­ness of class­es. You can track the time and calo­ries spent, how many steps and how often you did it.

The com­pact dimen­sions will help you to find the opti­mal stor­age place, where the machine will not inter­fere with you while wait­ing for your next work­out. The work is com­plete­ly autonomous, with­out con­nect­ing to the net­work, based on the efforts of the ath­lete.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• The type is clas­sic.
• With­stands weight — 100 kg.
• Dis­play indi­ca­tions — step fre­quen­cy, calo­ries.
• Dimen­sions and weight — 42x32x20 cm, 7.2 kg.

DFC SC-S9010D

When buy­ing this mod­el, keep in mind that the step­per’s handrail is sta­tion­ary, only its ped­als are swiv­el. Design

sta­ble and reli­able, does not creak dur­ing oper­a­tion, does not slip due to sil­i­cone feet on the bot­tom, pro­vid­ing good grip on the floor.

The DFC SC-S9010D does not have inde­pen­dent ped­al trav­el. There are no spac­ers includ­ed. The oper­a­tion of the sim­u­la­tor is autonomous, it is reg­u­lat­ed only by the efforts of the ath­lete.

It is easy to assem­ble and dis­as­sem­ble, but before start­ing work, be sure to check the qual­i­ty of all fas­ten­ers in order to pre­vent dam­age to the sim­u­la­tor. With reg­u­lar use of the lubri­cant, extra­ne­ous sounds will not appear.

A stan­dard com­put­er with a scan and auto-start func­tion will help you keep track of your work­out. The device counts the num­ber of steps per work cycle and per minute, with what fre­quen­cy of steps you did, how many calo­ries were expend­ed. You can use the step­per with­out han­dles, or by using a suit­able expander.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• Type — swiv­el.
• With­stands weight — up to 100 kg.
• Dis­play read­ings — calo­ries, step fre­quen­cy.
• Dimen­sions and weight — 53x42x128 cm, 10.2 kg.

DFC SC-5901

The SC-5901 mod­el com­pletes the line of lead­ers of DFC step­pers. One of its advan­tages is that the han­dles of the handrail are placed

sen­si­tive sen­sors to mea­sure heart rate dur­ing exer­cise.

There is also a hold­er for a glass or water bot­tle. The sim­u­la­tor is slight­ly larg­er and heav­ier than its coun­ter­parts described above, there­fore it is equipped with trans­port rollers to sim­pli­fy mov­ing around the apart­ment.

The load car­ry­ing capac­i­ty has also increased. This sim­u­la­tor can be used by ath­letes weigh­ing up to 130 kg. The com­put­er runs on bat­ter­ies, starts up with the start of a work­out and dis­plays infor­ma­tion about the pulse, calo­ries, fre­quen­cy and num­ber of steps.

The SC-5901 is equipped with 12 load lev­els, which is very good for stand­alone step­pers. The load­ing sys­tem is pow­ered by two hydraulic cylin­ders. The course turns out smooth and silent, the sur­face of plat­forms is pro­tect­ed by an anti­skid cov­er­ing. For 2022, this is one of the best step­pers for home use.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• The type is clas­sic.
• With­stands weight — 130 kg.
• Dis­play read­ings — steps, calo­ries.
• Dimen­sions and weight — 117x80x147 cm, 36.5 kg.

Xterra RSX1500

Due to its effi­cien­cy and wide func­tion­al­i­ty, such a mod­el can be found not only in an apart­ment, but also

in the gym. The oper­a­tion of the device is autonomous, it can with­stand a load of up to 120 kg.

Of the fea­tures — 24 lev­els of load, which allows train­ing even for pro­fes­sion­al ath­letes. It has 21 built-in pro­grams, they are divid­ed into two types — user and with main­tain­ing a con­stant heart rate.

The car­dio sen­sor is mount­ed on the steer­ing wheel, name­ly on the han­dles. The device reads the read­ings and dis­plays them on the screen. Con­stant heart rate train­ing can be done in five types, the rest are based on the inten­si­ty of the user’s move­ments.

It is pos­si­ble to con­nect a smart­phone. A spe­cial appli­ca­tion dis­plays train­ing data, saves the results, ana­lyzes progress. At the bot­tom of the sim­u­la­tor there is a com­pen­sator for uneven floors. In com­bi­na­tion with a reli­able frame and anti-slip sur­face of the plat­forms, it ensures com­plete safe­ty dur­ing oper­a­tion.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• Type — hor­i­zon­tal.
• With­stands weight — 120 kg.
• Dis­play indi­ca­tions — pace, cadence, calo­ries burned, heart rate, mode.
• Dimen­sions and weight — 132.4 × 73.7 × 126.9 cm, 59.9 kg.

Torneo Tempo S‑221

Rotary step­per with a com­fort­able han­dle for sup­port dur­ing train­ing. The front post can be adjust­ed by the user

accord­ing to its height or com­plete­ly removed. The sim­u­la­tor can with­stand a load of up to 100 kg of weight, is placed sta­bly, does not slip on the floor dur­ing move­ment due to reli­able adhe­sion to the sur­face.

The oper­a­tion of the device is autonomous, a small com­put­er runs on bat­ter­ies and dis­plays indi­ca­tors of tact, calo­ries and the num­ber of steps. The step­per is quite com­pact in size and does not take up much space in the room. Once the han­dle is removed, it can eas­i­ly be placed under a bed or sofa.

The height of the ped­als, and there­fore the load dur­ing train­ing, is man­u­al­ly adjust­ed by the user using a spe­cial bolt. With prop­er oper­a­tion and reg­u­lar cal­i­bra­tion and lubri­ca­tion, the step­per oper­ates silent­ly.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• Type — swiv­el.
• With­stands weight — 100 kg.
• Dis­play read­ings — steps, calo­ries.
• Dimen­sions and weight — 53x48x129 cm, 12.3 kg.

Torneo Twister S‑211

The sim­u­la­tor will help increase phys­i­cal activ­i­ty with a seden­tary lifestyle and reduce excess

weight.

The steel con­struc­tion is reli­able and durable, able to with­stand loads up to 120 kg. Includes hand expanders. For greater ver­sa­til­i­ty and to achieve good results, the sim­u­la­tor is equipped with a hydraulic sys­tem, you can change the stride length.

The dimen­sions of the device, as well as its rel­a­tive­ly low weight, make it easy to move the device from place to place and choose a cor­ner for stor­age for it. A small dis­play shows basic infor­ma­tion — how many calo­ries burned per work­out and what fre­quen­cy of steps the ath­lete has.

Well loads the mus­cles of the legs, increas­es endurance, expanders allow you to work out the mus­cles of the chest. The oper­a­tion is com­plete­ly autonomous and does not require a net­work con­nec­tion. It is allowed to adjust the load and height of the ped­als of the sim­u­la­tor.

With reg­u­lar lubri­ca­tion of parts, there is no squeak or rat­tle dur­ing oper­a­tion. The com­put­er runs on bat­ter­ies, turns on auto­mat­i­cal­ly imme­di­ate­ly at the start of the work­out. The sur­face of the plat­form is respon­si­ble for high safe­ty — it does not slip, pro­vid­ing good grip with the soles.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• Type — swiv­el.
• With­stands weight — 120 kg.
• The dis­play shows steps and calo­ries.
• Dimen­sions and weight — 51x55x24 cm, 12.6 kg

Stingray ST-S011

The prin­ci­ple of oper­a­tion of this sim­u­la­tor is very sim­i­lar to climb­ing stairs, only in the com­pa­ny with a com­fort­able han­dle. Equipped

a com­put­er with a small dis­play that shows the num­ber of steps and calo­ries burned, the dura­tion of the work­out. There is a but­ton to reset all indi­ca­tors.

It oper­ates smooth­ly and almost silent­ly, the cush­ion­ing sys­tem reduces the load on the mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem, so the device is well suit­ed for the elder­ly or those recov­er­ing from an injury.

The sim­u­la­tor is placed on sta­ble legs with a sil­i­cone gas­ket, thanks to which the floor cov­er­ing does not dete­ri­o­rate and there is no dis­place­ment dur­ing active move­ment. Light weight allows you to move the device freely, it does not take up much space even in small rooms.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• Type — swiv­el.
• With­stands weight — 100 kg.
• The dis­play reads calo­ries.
• Dimen­sions and weight — 55x39x24 cm, 11 kg.

Torneo Deluxe S‑232

The design of this sim­u­la­tor is sta­ble, with com­fort­able han­dles, the body is durable and can with­stand the weight of an ath­lete up to 110 kg.

Works smooth­ly and silent­ly due to the hydraulic sys­tem. Well loads the mus­cles of the legs and but­tocks, keeps the body in good shape. The installed com­put­er with the scan­ning func­tion is pow­ered by bat­ter­ies, the sim­u­la­tor itself is com­plete­ly autonomous.

Only eight lev­els of load, allow­ing for train­ing of vary­ing effec­tive­ness. The small dis­play will show you how much time you have been exer­cis­ing and with what fre­quen­cy of steps, as well as dis­play the calo­rie con­sump­tion.

Handrails are easy and sim­ple to remove / install, can be replaced with expanders or sim­ply bor­rowed with­out them. The foot plat­form is tex­tured, non-slip, com­plete­ly safe. There are soft inserts for increased com­fort. The height of the ped­als, as well as the load, can be adjust­ed to suit your needs.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• The type is clas­sic.
• With­stands weight — 110 kg.
• Dis­play read­ings — calo­ries, step fre­quen­cy.
• Dimen­sions and weight — 55x39x24 cm, 11 kg.

What are the advantages and benefits of a stepper?

Using a step­per has many advan­tages:

• sim­plic­i­ty — no com­plex exer­cis­es, habit­u­al walk­ing with a small load;
• com­pact­ness — small dimen­sions of the sim­u­la­tor are suit­able for small apart­ments and office premis­es;
• load adjust­ment — you grad­u­al­ly get used to phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, grad­u­al­ly increas­ing the load, and con­se­quent­ly, increas­ing endurance;
• auton­o­my — the sim­u­la­tor does not require a net­work con­nec­tion;
• afford­able price for any wal­let;
• safe use with a low risk of injury;
• Works both upper and low­er mus­cle groups.

Such train­ing will increase your endurance, sta­bi­lize the work of the heart and blood ves­sels, strength­en the mus­cles of the press, chest, arms and legs. You will notice that the qual­i­ty of the body has improved, and the weight has decreased, it has become eas­i­er to breathe, and resis­tance to colds has increased.

Types of steppers

Step­pers come in sev­er­al types and are divid­ed into them accord­ing to the fol­low­ing para­me­ters:

• mechan­i­cal and mag­net­ic — that is, the load­ing sys­tem;
• ped­als — inde­pen­dent or inter­de­pen­dent move.

The mechan­ics is equipped with two hydraulic cylin­ders, is silent, easy to main­tain and oper­ate and is sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er in cost.

Mag­net­ic step­pers work on the prin­ci­ple of the mag­net­ic resis­tance of ped­als and are con­trolled by a pan­el. Mod­ern elec­tron­ics are installed here, more func­tions, train­ing accord­ing to an indi­vid­ual or built-in pro­gram is pos­si­ble, but they are larg­er and much more expen­sive.

Depen­dent stroke is car­ried out with the help of a mechan­i­cal dri­ve and two mov­able stages. The load on both legs is direct­ly pro­por­tion­al and does not require much effort. It is impos­si­ble to adjust the load, but such devices are easy to use, autonomous and inex­pen­sive.

The built-in elec­tron­ic com­put­er is respon­si­ble for the inde­pen­dent ped­al trav­el. There­fore, the user can adjust the load inde­pen­dent­ly or fol­low the train­ing pro­gram, dis­trib­ute the load on each leg sep­a­rate­ly (that is, spare the leg after injury). Such devices are safer and more effec­tive, but more expen­sive.

Which stepper is better — rotary or classic?

The clas­sic step­per mim­ics reg­u­lar stair climb­ing and pro­vides reg­u­lar low-impact car­dio work­outs.

Rotary has a dif­fer­ent prin­ci­ple of oper­a­tion. It is more like Nordic walk­ing or ski­ing. The load here is slight­ly high­er, the mus­cles of the press, arms and chest are acti­vat­ed. But even at a price, such devices are slight­ly more than clas­sic mod­els due to the num­ber of func­tions and addi­tion­al devices.

Which is better — an exercise bike or a stepper?

When train­ing on a sta­tion­ary bike, the mus­cles of the arms and back are not involved, despite the fact that the num­ber of calo­ries burned is the same as the results of train­ing on a step­per. There­fore, for a uni­form result, it is bet­ter to choose in favor of a rotary step­per.

In addi­tion, the load on the knees is sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er. This fact should be tak­en into account if you are an elder­ly per­son or have dis­eases of the knee joints.

Which is better, treadmill or stepper?

It is worth not­ing that when choos­ing between these two sim­u­la­tors, you choose between two degrees of load.

The tread­mill will burn more calo­ries per hour of train­ing, but the mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem is also ful­ly involved. After a seri­ous injury or in old age, it is best to use the step­per, grad­u­al­ly accus­tom­ing the body to activ­i­ty.

Useful video

How to choose a step­per: