If you're just after exercise, one possibility is to turn on Stepmania's auto play option and just make use of the pad's decent materials and construction

The construction seems durable, comparable to foam-insert pads I've owned before

Construction seems pretty much like all the 1" high pads -- it's basically a thin pad but with 1" of foam added underneath.

While the construction is nice and solid with the heavy foam insert, I get the feeling the sensors and innards are not quite up to par with the Red Octane predecessor, which lasted me a good 3-4 years