Fitness Machine Technicians of Northeast Cleveland can keep your home gym functioning at peak performance so you never have to miss a workout
By Patricia Nugent
As the sophistication (and prices) of high-end exercise equipment grows, so does the need for expert technicians to care for the machines. Jennifer Houghton started her locally based business—Fitness Machine Technicians of Northeast Cleveland—five years ago, and has helped homeowners, gyms, health clubs, police and fire stations, physical therapy practices, senior living communities and hospitals stay up and running through assembly, repair and preventive maintenance plans.
“We have been growing in our client load, expanding our team of service technicians and taking on a bigger service area that now stretches into western Pennsylvania,” says Jennifer. “Since our area is known for its healthcare sector, word of mouth has spread, and we service equipment in hospitals and rehab centers. Commercial clients now account for more than half of our business.”
The firm services everything from treadmills and ellipticals to stair machines and climbers, rowing machines, stationary bikes, spin bikes, air bikes, ski machines and Pilates reformers, as well as home gyms with strength training for single and multi-stations.
“We are always looking for new people to fill our growing need,” she says. “Since we offer our own training and certification program, a good candidate wouldn’t need any particular background, just to have a mechanical aptitude and understanding of electricity. A lot of our techs come from the automotive industry.”
Keeping the JCC in Tip-Top Shape
Jennifer’s first commercial client was Mandel JCC, an award-winning fitness, wellness and community center in Beachwood.
With 6,000 members putting in more than 40,000 workouts each month on 200-plus pieces of equipment, the facility is one of the largest in the Cleveland area. Its cardio equipment ranges from treadmills to ellipticals, Airdyne bikes, recumbent bikes, Arc Trainers, rowing machines and Versa Climbers, as well as cable pulley strength machines.
“Our priority is timing and dependability, so the state-of-the-art equipment is operating at peak performance,” says Rich Zatta, fitness director at Mandel JCC. “The technicians pay weekly calls with a preventive maintenance plan, as well as when there’s an unexpected repair. They have always been timely, seasoned and very reliable, meeting and exceeding my expectation. I have full confidence in them and would recommend them to anyone.”
He mentions they have the capability to collect data on each machine’s usage, which helps in understanding utilization trends and areas of the gym that may need to be addressed, or equipment replaced.
An Ounce of Prevention
Jennifer says clients appreciate the expense of equipment and respect a preventive maintenance plan.
“We make our preventive maintenance service contracts attractive and affordable,” she says. “Service contracts are available on a monthly, bimonthly and quarterly basis.”
She explains the equipment is highly complicated, and made up of many intricate parts, such as cabling, pulleys and bolts. Cleaning, lubricating and making adjustments as well as replacing worn parts are all necessary tasks for ensuring the safety, reliability and long life of your machinery.
“And the equipment is only becoming more sophisticated,” she says. “The trend is data capture and online connectivity. Peloton bikes are popular, as is the ability to hop on a treadmill and plug in video capture of one of your favorite runs.”
Headquartered in Shaker Heights, Fitness Machine Technicians of Northeast Cleveland services residential and commercial equipment on the east side, south to Hudson and east into western Pennsylvania. For more information, call 216-367-9417 or visit FitnessMachineTechnicians.com. Fill out an online service request on their site.