Stairlift - How they work

Stairlift manufacturers such as Acorn, Ameriglide, Bruno, Summit and a few others are the brands to consider when looking for a home stair lift. Designed to take you safely up a flight of interior or exterior stairs, lifts provide safety, mobility as well as convenience. For many people, these mobility chairs provide the opportunity to continue living independently at home.

How stair lifts work:

There are four drive types of stairway lifts:

chain
worm or screw
rack and pinion
cable

Of these four drive types, by far the most popular stairlifts are the last two: (rack and pinion and cable drive). Of these two types, some lifts have visible gear racks in the middle of the rails, others have hidden gear racks.

Transportation upstairs/downstairs:

To transport you up /down your staircase rails are attached directly to your stairs. These are made from either aluminum or steel and are very durable. You will find that many of the basic stair lifts online are designed as kits and can be put installed by a skilled handyman. These kits typically include straight rails. (See Ameriglide). In the case of Ameriglide, rails are cut and sold in a variety of lengths, perfect for a straight indoor staircase. Learn more about Ameriglide

Another feature to the chair lift is the "swivel seat". This seat is designed to safely access the upper-staircase landing, where the seat can swivel onto the landing. The seat is designed to swivel by way of a lever lock release arm that releases the lock, and allows the seat to turn.

Electric vs battery operated chair lifts?

Now, your stair lift won't work without power. You can choose to buy one that is AC electrically powered or DC battery powered. If battery powered your lift will have a charging station area or two; this keeps your battery fully charged. With electrically run lifts, you may have a battery back up on board, but your lift will run on home electricity.

If you cannot walk without assistanc up or down stairs, you may want to buy a battery operated lift. This is because, should there be a power outage, sans electricity, the battery operated stair lift will continue to work, getting you safely downstairs. This will not be the case for the electric lift; although there are those that come with battery back up.

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