Arc trainer vs elliptical: the gym machine and the one you can take home

For a home, buy an elliptical. An arc trainer can be kinder to some sore knees because it keeps your knee behind your toes, but it’s a commercial machine sold mostly to gyms, and it’s big, heavy and priced to match. If the arc trainer at your gym is the only cardio your knees put up with, keep using it there. Everyone else should start with the Sole E25, the elliptical we recommend to most people.

We don’t track an arc trainer in our database, so the arc side of this page is general and has no model numbers. Arc Trainer is Cybex’s name for the machine, which is why you see it in gyms and rarely in houses; what follows is about the motion. We haven’t bench-tested the E25 yet either, so this comparison runs on the published specs; we’ll add measured noise and assembly time after our bench test.

How the motion differs, and what your knees feel

On an elliptical each pedal travels a long, flat oval. Your foot goes forward and back with a modest rise, and on many machines your knee drifts forward over your toes at the front of the stroke. The E25’s oval is 20 inches long, which suits users from about 5 ft 2 in to 6 ft 2 in without a shuffle.

On an arc trainer each pedal swings on an arm, so your foot moves along an arc: more up and down, less forward and back. Your shin stays closer to vertical and your knee stays behind your toes. At low incline the arc is shallow and it feels like a glide. Crank it up and it gets close to a stair climb.

That knee position is the arc trainer’s whole pitch. For people with kneecap pain it can be a real difference, and for others it changes nothing. Neither machine has an impact, since your feet never leave the pedals. If a knee is the reason you’re shopping, ask a physical therapist to watch you on both.

Calories and effort

Neither machine burns calories. You do, and your heart rate is the honest meter. At the same heart rate for the same minutes, the two come out close enough that we wouldn’t choose on calories.

The arc trainer gets you to a hard effort faster. Its resistance tends to feel heavier and its incline turns the motion into a climb, while a gym elliptical at resistance 4 lets you coast. A good home elliptical closes most of that gap. The E25 has 20 resistance levels and a 20% power incline, and with both turned up it’s a climb. The Sole E35 swaps the E25’s 20 lb flywheel for a 25 lb one, which feels smoother under load. Ignore the calorie number on any console. It doesn’t know who you are.

Space and ceiling height

An arc trainer is long and heavy, with the drive at the back and the pedal arms swinging out front. Commercial units need two people and a clear path to get in. Home versions are smaller but still large, and we won’t guess at dimensions for a machine we don’t track.

The E25 is 70 by 24 by 64 inches, weighs 189 lb and doesn’t fold. Both machines lift you well off the floor at the top of the stroke, so a tall user can need more than 8 feet of ceiling. Measure before you order. If the room is tight, our compact ellipticals page lists the smallest machines we track.

Noise

Both are quiet, because there’s no foot strike, and foot strike is what travels through a floor. An arc trainer’s heavy commercial drive is close to silent apart from the pedal arms. An elliptical hums. How we test explains how we’ll measure the E25. Either one is fine at 6 a.m. above a neighbor.

Price, delivery and upkeep

This is where the comparison ends for most homes. Arc trainers are sold through commercial channels with commercial parts and service, and a home model costs several times what an E25 does. We wouldn’t buy one without a long trial at a gym first.

At time of writing the E25 typically sells for $999 to $1,299; check the retailer. It has a lifetime frame warranty, 3 years on parts and electronics and 1 year of labor, and it’s sold and supported like any consumer machine. The E35 typically runs $1,499 to $1,899 and stretches parts cover to 5 years.

Running costs are small on both, since there’s no motor dragging a belt under your weight. Upkeep is pedal-arm bolts, bearings and a drop of lubricant on the rollers. Assembly is the E25’s one real chore, since it’s a 189 lb machine that comes in a lot of pieces. An arc trainer usually shows up assembled, the way gym equipment does.

Who each one suits

The arc trainer suits someone whose knee complains on an elliptical, who already uses one at a gym and knows it helps, and who has the room, the floor and the budget for commercial gear. The elliptical suits nearly everyone else who wants a standing, low-impact workout, including older users. That’s why the E25 anchors our ellipticals for seniors page.

Which one we’d buy

The E25 for a home, or the E35 if the heavier flywheel and longer parts warranty are worth about $600 more to you. The 20% incline gives you the climb that’s the arc trainer’s best trick, in a frame that fits a spare bedroom. We’d happily use an arc trainer at the gym if our knees liked it better, and we’d only bring one home after a long trial and a hard look at the price. If impact isn’t your worry, treadmill vs elliptical is the better comparison. If you’d rather sit, read elliptical vs bike, and for the hardest whole-body session, rowing machine vs elliptical. Once you’ve decided, our full ellipticals list is the place to start.