Stairlift Reviews

Most countries have laws that require public places like commercial centers, malls, airports, train stations, schools, hospitals, and places of worship to provide the elderly and the handicapped a means to access these places. In fact, the construction blue prints for these structures must already include a provision for handicap access. Otherwise, the government will not issue the required building permit. The most economical option to comply with the handicap accessibility requirements of the law is by installing commercial stair lifts in public places.

A commercial stair lift is basically a motorized platform that travels over a straight flight of stairs to carry wheelchair-bound people from one floor level to another. These can be installed on the right or left side of the stairs and its tracks are attached to the walls. While it has internal switches to allow the rider to operate the lift, it also has wall-mounted call-send controls at top and bottom of the stairs, which can be independently used. Its heavy-duty AC motor usually runs off the standard electrical outlet of the building and is powerful enough to carry a load of up to 500 pounds up to 20 feet of stairs at a speed of 20 feet per minute.

Generally, commercial stair lifts are not fitted with swivel seats because it does not address the accessibility needs of wheelchair-bound patients and other handicapped people who are unable to bend their knees. On the other hand, a stair lift that is fitted with a platform can accommodate wheelchair-bound people, cane-users, those on crutches the elderly and other people who are too weak or handicapped to climb up or down the stairs.

The technology and mechanism of a commercial stair lift is just like a stair lift chair that is installed in residential housing units. They run on the same aluminum tracks; powered by the same electric motor; operate under the same rack and pinion drive system; and, have the same “soft start and soft stop” technology that gives the lift the smooth gliding action as home stair lifts. The only difference is that commercial stair lifts have heavy duty mechanism to withstand the wear and tear of constant public use. A commercial stair lift is cheaper to put up than constructing a fixed ramp alongside the stairs. Moreover, it has installation flexibility in the sense that it can be placed anywhere inside or outside the building premises.

While a commercial stair lift is generally very safe and useful mobility equipment, some security precautions should be exercised by installing the lift in an area where no unsupervised children will stray inside and play with the lift and mount the controls high enough so that no child can reach it.

Tags: Acorn, Chair Stairlift, , Disabled, Bruno, Stair Lifts, A1, Handicapped, Electric, Concord