Advice about a stairlift please

[Twoflags]

Twoflags seems a good person for advice. He might also recommend which make of lift can be easily and cheaply (relatively speaking) be serviced and repaired. A friend had a stairlift that was made in USA (or Canada), a beautiful unit, but the electronics control panel reputed to cost £1000 alone! In addition, no one could be found who was familiar with the make and model.

 

Let me guess the make....

 

ACCESS INDUSTRIES model being either Euroglide (a straight track) or a Stairglide (a curved track) both units had three different type of control boards and two different types of motor, one being AC and the other a soft start DC.

 

I have worked on literally 100's of these and they are in my opinion the worst product ever to hit the market.

 

Mild steel track and a steel roller, meaning excessive track wear which can eventually lead to the chair driving off the track. Control boards blow for no apparant reason on them. Many many motor issues aswell. The list goes on, the reason they were so popular is the fact that for the likes of a decent lift that would cost maybe £3k - £5k (assuming it is a curved stair case) they would supply and fit for £1500 - £2500, but the unit would last 5 years at the most.

 

As said before if anyone including the op wants advice or indeed work carrying out please do contact me and I'll do my best to help.

 

The best bit of advice I can offer without going into any detail is beware when purchasing from certain companies, whilst they may promise the earth you usually tend to find that once your lift is out of warranty they will want to tie you into a "service package" costing in some cases £500 a year, in which they will service the lift (once, twice if lucky) and any labour charges for breakdowns are covered (labour being the cheap part).

 

Most stairlifts rarely breakdown and usually when they do it is a simple case of resetting a switch or safety device which takes no time at all to do and can usually be done by the user, so effectivly what you are paying is £500 a year for one maybe two services as labour charges would rarely if ever come to more than £400.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited May 30, 2009 by Twoflags

[carosio]

Twoflags -I think it was, seemed to go under several different names or ownership (German?) It was a neat I section track which made a very tight curve on the bend. The winder key was very slow so I made another one for an electric drill! I've deleted my info on it as the owner (a friend) is now deceased. Someone left the fold up section of track at the bottom out of lock and caused the chair to lock up when it rode onto it, I wound the chair back up but the "roller sensor unit" that tracks beneath the seat seemed to have been upset.

Edited May 30, 2009 by carosio

[LinzAlonso]

Thanks for everyones help - I think she has tried Stayput but I'll check with her. I'll be in touch with Twoflags as well for advice. I'm still interested in anyone else's experiences of different stairlifts and costs involved, so if you have any I'd be grateful.Cheers

[Twoflags]

Twoflags -I think it was, seemed to go under several different names or ownership (German?) It was a neat I section track which made a very tight curve on the bend. The winder key was very slow so I made another one for an electric drill! I've deleted my info on it as the owner (a friend) is now deceased. Someone left the fold up section of track at the bottom out of lock and caused the chair to lock up when it rode onto it, I wound the chair back up but the "roller sensor unit" that tracks beneath the seat seemed to have been upset.

 

the roller section you mention wiill be the safety gear and speed sensing taco unit. Easy enough to repate and the only part that is really accesible. If it does need repairing or indeed removing fell free to drop me a line.

[Elmambo]

Stay Put is certainly the best option, you will find them very helpful. Don't forget Argos, sell them, couple of years ago you could get a straight run for a grand, no idea about the quality though. If you go to one of the larger companies that advertise a lot, don't forget there is a huge mark-up, you will need to negotiate down.

[Twoflags]

Stay Put is certainly the best option, you will find them very helpful. Don't forget Argos, sell them, couple of years ago you could get a straight run for a grand, no idea about the quality though. If you go to one of the larger companies that advertise a lot, don't forget there is a huge mark-up, you will need to negotiate down.

 

Fred brroks are the Argos ones, not the most attractive of units. Reliabiltity is ok though parts are expensive.

[leggy_lydz]

Try Clark and Partners, they are in Sheffield and fit stairlifts and have done for years.

[Bilge]

Secondhand ones can be bought very cheaply as people are usually very keen to get shut of them when they are no longer needed. So if you know someone reliable who can collect and install it properly for you then it's a good option (if it fits your stairs). My family disposed of 2 in this way when we no longer needed them - because of the cost of buying them new we were very happy to virtually give them away and the people that took them were very pleased too.

 

Check the adverts in the newsletter of Sheffield Carers centre:

 

http://www.sheffieldcarers.org.uk/site/dload.php?id=16

[Twoflags]

Try Clark and Partners, they are in Sheffield and fit stairlifts and have done for years.

 

This is true, although they are very kean on the service package scheme as far as I am aware.

[Twoflags]

Secondhand ones can be bought very cheaply as people are usually very keen to get shut of them when they are no longer needed. So if you know someone reliable who can collect and install it properly for you then it's a good option (if it fits your stairs). My family disposed of 2 in this way when we no longer needed them - because of the cost of buying them new we were very happy to virtually give them away and the people that took them were very pleased too.

 

Check the adverts in the newsletter of Sheffield Carers centre:

 

http://www.sheffieldcarers.org.uk/site/dload.php?id=16

 

This is a very good option, however I have known many issues with this in the past. The reason being you cannot gaurentee as to the quality, reliability and overall safety of the unit.

 

I recently had a customer that had done this and was having problems with the unit, when I checked it over 10 of the 12 rollers were shot, the safety gear had been removed (this is THE most important safety device on the entire lift, in the event of a gear box failure it stops the lift plummeting down the stairs) and the track wasn't correctly aligned or secured.