The Buyer's Guide to Treadmill Motors: Brushless vs. Brushed Explained

When you’re shopping for a treadmill or walking pad, you’re bombarded with specifications: deck size, speed range, connectivity, and the most prominent number of all—horsepower (HP). It’s easy to assume that a bigger HP number equals a better machine. But this focus on a single, often misleading metric, is like judging a car solely by its top speed while ignoring what’s under the hood. The real heart of any treadmill, the component that dictates its lifespan, noise level, and overall feel, is its motor.

And in the world of treadmill motors, there is a deep technological divide that most marketing materials gloss over. This is the divide between brushed and brushless technology. Understanding this difference is the single most powerful tool you can have to make an informed purchase, ensuring you invest in a machine that is quiet, durable, and perfectly suited to your needs.

This guide will demystify treadmill motor technology. We’ll use a modern walking pad, the YRUN UT-38AB IY with its 2.5HP brushless motor, as a tangible example to illustrate why this matters.

Two Paths to Power: Brushed vs. Brushless Motors

At their core, all DC motors on treadmills work to turn electrical energy into the rotational force that moves the belt. But they achieve this through two fundamentally different designs.

1. Brushed DC Motors: This is the classic, time-tested technology. It uses tiny carbon blocks called “brushes” to make physical contact with a spinning part of the motor (the commutator), delivering the electrical current that creates rotation.
2. Brushless DC (BLDC) Motors: This is a more advanced, modern design. It eliminates the physical brushes entirely. Instead, it uses sensors and a sophisticated electronic controller to precisely time and deliver electrical currents to stationary coils, creating a rotating magnetic field that pulls the rotor around.

On the surface, “brushed” and “brushless” might seem like minor technical jargon. But to truly understand why this single difference can impact your investment by hundreds of dollars, we need to go back to first principles. How do they actually make things spin?

First Principles: A Tale of Two Doors

Imagine you need to repeatedly push open a revolving door.

A brushed motor is like standing inside the door and physically pushing each panel as it comes by. Your hands are the “brushes,” making direct, forceful contact to keep it spinning. It works, but it’s noisy, creates friction, and your hands will eventually get tired and wear out.

A brushless motor is like standing outside the door and using a series of powerful, perfectly timed magnets to pull each panel around. There is no physical contact. You are using the invisible force of magnetism to create smooth, silent, and effortless rotation.

This fundamental difference—physical contact versus electromagnetic precision—isn’t just an engineering curiosity. It creates a cascade of real-world consequences that you will hear, feel, and pay for over the life of your machine. Let’s break down the five most important ones.

From Principle to Performance: The 5 Key Advantages of Brushless Motors

Using the YRUN pad as our example, here is how the “magnetic door” principle translates into tangible benefits for you.

1. A World of Silence: The primary source of noise in a brushed motor is the friction of the brushes scraping against the commutator. A brushless motor, having no physical contact, eliminates this source of noise entirely. While there’s still the sound of the belt and your footsteps, the underlying operational hum is drastically reduced. This is why a product like the YRUN can be marketed as “ultra-quiet,” making it ideal for apartments or for use during work calls. Industry data from manufacturers like Nidec shows brushless designs can be several decibels quieter than their brushed counterparts under similar loads.

2. Built for a Marathon, Not a Sprint (Longevity): The brushes in a brushed motor are designed to wear down and are the most common point of failure. They create carbon dust and eventually need replacement. A brushless motor has no wearing parts, meaning its mechanical lifespan is dramatically longer. For a device intended for daily use, like an under-desk treadmill, this translates to significantly better durability and reliability. The YRUN’s claim of supporting 8 hours of continuous use is a testament to the thermal efficiency and durability inherent in its brushless design.

3. Efficiency and Power: Friction is wasted energy. Because brushless motors eliminate this friction, more of the electrical energy is converted directly into rotational force. They are simply more efficient. This means they can produce the same amount of power while consuming less electricity and generating less heat, which is crucial for preventing overheating during long sessions.

4. Silky Smooth Response: When you adjust the speed on a treadmill, you want a smooth, immediate response. Brushless motors, governed by precise electronic controllers, can manage speed and torque with far greater accuracy than brushed motors. This eliminates the jerky or hesitant feeling some older treadmills have, especially at low speeds—a critical feature for a walking pad where subtle speed changes matter.

5. The Myth of Maintenance: With no brushes to replace, brushless motors are virtually maintenance-free from a mechanical standpoint. This lowers the total cost of ownership and removes a potential hassle down the line.

Your Action Plan: The Motor Technology Decision Matrix

So, which technology is right for you? It’s not always a simple case of “brushless is better.” Use this matrix to decide.

(This is where a visually designed Infographic would be placed)

It’s also important to touch on the role of the electronic controller. A brushless motor is only as good as its “brain.” High-quality controllers, which are a significant part of the cost, provide the smooth acceleration and reliability that make the technology shine. This is why two treadmills with brushless motors can still have different prices and performance characteristics.

Conclusion: Invest in the Heart, Not the Hype

In a market saturated with bold claims about horsepower and a dizzying array of features, it’s easy to get lost. But by focusing on the first principles of the machine’s core—its motor— you can cut through the noise.

A brushless motor, like the one in the YRUN UT-38AB IY, represents a significant engineering advantage that translates directly into a quieter, more durable, and more pleasant user experience. It may come at a slightly higher upfront cost, but for anyone serious about integrating walking or jogging into their daily routine, it’s an investment in a technology built to last. The next time you shop for a piece of fitness equipment, look past the HP sticker and ask the most important question: what’s under the hood?