Stair lifts were first developed in the early 1900’s, but for many years were very expensive and required professional installation. Recently due to several manufacturing and technological innovation, stair lifts for straight staircases have become much more affordable and easier to install.

A quality stair lift will provide many years of dependable service and greatly helps to reduce stair related injuries. A chair or small platform is sent up and down the stairs on a metal track that is bolted to the steps. Today most stair lifts either use a rack and pinion system or are cable driven. A circular toothed gear, called a pinion, engages a toothed bar that runs the distance of the stairs. The pinion is located underneath the seat and the teeth of the pinion interlock with the teeth of the rack. An electric motor causes the pinion to spin and as it spins it moves the chair up and down the stairs. A cable driven system makes use of high test aircraft cable to lift and lower the chair up and down the stairs.

Typically rack and pinion stair lifts require a little more maintenance than a cable driven stair lift. It is important that the track remain clean and greased, so rack and pinion lifts require more frequent cleaning and lubrication. It is still necessary to lubricate and clean a cable driven systems track, but most of the drive system is enclosed, so it is not as prone to getting dirty.

If you own a straight staircase, you can usually install a rack and pinion or cable driven stair lift in an afternoon. They are designed to be quickly and easily installed. Typically most, if not all, of the installation can be done by a single person using household tools. The track system attaches directly to the stairs in most cases and is installed first. Since the track needs to be firmly bolted to the stairs, special mounting bolts are needed for installations into brick or concrete steps. If you do not have a wooden staircase, make sure you mention this at the time of order, because it will be necessary to ship special mounting hardware with the lift.

The car, which contains the chair, electric motor, and in some cases batteries, typically weighs around a hundred pounds though and must be brought to the top of the stairs, so it is usually a good idea to have someone on hand to help with this part of the installation. Usually the car comes installed on a short piece of track. After the main track has been installed and leveled, the piece of track that holds the car is temporarily attached to the track at the top of the stairs. The car can be plugged in and backed onto the track. After the car is on the main track, the short piece of track that the car was shipped on can be removed and discarded. Special stops are then added to the end of the track, which will let the stair lift know when to stop.

A stair lift is a great way to keep a person secure and safe on the stairs. They can be installed quickly and easily in most cases.

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Often the inability to bend the knee is one of the leading reasons that people can not walk easily. This inability is quite frequently as a result of a joint disorder, like osteoarthritis, but there are many other things that can make it difficult to bend the knee. Usually those affected are over the age of 65, but as is usually the case with most things in life, there is no definite rule that governs who will or won’t be affected by a mobility related problem. Not being able to easily or safely bend the knee can affect many aspects of life and can make it very hard and dangerous to climb the stairs, so it is important to take steps to prevent falls on the stairs.

Commonly, much more so in the past, people had simply avoided the steps when they were no longer able to safely use them. Unfortunately this often also meant avoiding a large portion of their home and led many people to sell their home and move to a place that had elevators or no stairs. This however is not necessary and one of the easiest and least expensive ways to reduce the risk of an accident on the stairs is to use a stair lift.

Basically a stair lift is a medical device that is able to carry a single person up and down the stairs. To straight stairways, a stair lift can be easily installed and is much more affordable than a residential elevator would be. They can make it easy for a person to use the stairs on their own, without having to rely on someone to give them a hand, which means there is often no need for a paid nurse and you are never on someone else’s schedule when it comes to climbing the stairs.

Even though stairway lifts are able to greatly reduce the risk of a fall, they can still be dangerous if not used properly. Most modern lifts include features that help to even further reduce accidental injury when using the lift. Most have multiple sensors that are designed to detect things on the staircase that might damage the lift or keep it from moving. Most also can only be moved while the occupant is applying pressure to the switch. This works in a manner that is the opposite to how an elevator works, which will go to the desired floor after you push the button. Instead on a stair lift, you will need to constantly push the button for the unit to move. This makes certain that it only moves when you are ready and that the lifts movements are always intentional. Most lifts, either included or as an optional feature, come with seat and chest restraints, which are especially important for caretakers who use the stairway lift to transport their ward between floors.

There are several resources that are available to those that are mobility challenged and not able to easily climb the stairs, but among them the stair lift is often the least expensive and easiest. By reducing the risk of falling and injury, a stair lift can be a powerful tool in the home.

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Stair chairs have become increasingly popular over the last few years. This is in part because of reductions in manufacturing costs that have been passed down to the consumer. A stair chair, or stair lift, is a device that is used to allow people to easily traverse a set of stairs. It consists of a chair or small platform that travels up and down the stairs via a track that is secured to the stairs or walls. There several companies that sell stair chairs, and one of the more popular companies is Acorn Stair Lifts.

Acorn Stair Lifts is an international company that employs over 800 people worldwide. Established in 1992, Acorn began by buying new and used stair chairs and reselling them. They completely refurbished the used ones at their facility in the UK, but were quickly overwhelmed by the demand for their products. In order to meet demand, and to guarantee that the customer was receiving a quality product, they began manufacturing their own stair chairs, and have not looked back since.

While Acorn Stair Lifts had been refurbishing other company’s stair chairs, they had become alarmed by the number of design flaws in these products. By manufacturing their own, they were able to guarantee high levels of safety and reliability. Their goal was to provide a stair lift that was easy to install, simple to use, and required little maintenance. The result was the Acorn SuperGlide Stair chair, which continues to be one of their most well known products.

Until Acorn began manufacturing stair chairs, they had traditionally been powered by AC current. The engineers at Acorn realized that there were many advantages associated with DC, battery, power. DC power many advantages include higher safety, smooth operation, and the ability to still operate during power disruptions. Acorn pioneered this technology, and currently almost all stair chair manufacturers now offer a DC powered stair lift.

Acorn Stair Lift’s main headquarters and manufacturing hub is located in Yorkshire, New England. They have facilities all over the world, including distribution centers in Orlando, Florida and Ontario, Canada. With over 30,000 stair chairs manufactured each year, they are the biggest manufacturer in the United Kingdom. They have dealers all over the world and supply stair lifts to customers in over 70 different countries across the globe. Their dealers are located in places like Argentina, Belgium, Japan, France, Ireland, Austria, Africa, and Portugal, and it is safe to say that they are the most diverse stair lift manufacturer in the industry today.

If you are in the market for a stair chair, then you have likely seen the many different manufacturers. Acorn provides quality products that are built to last and can be depended upon to provide many years of safe operation. With over 15 years of experience in the stair chair industry, they have continued to think of the customer’s safety first and have largely contributed to developing new and advanced technology that is geared towards creating a safe, reliable, and relatively maintenance free product.

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