Powered wheelchair that tilts for indoors and garden path UK

I am getting my first powered wheelchair, and would love to pick your brains.

I will be using it indoors and on a future garden path, which will have a ramp right up to the door. Further ventures haven’t been possible for 10 years so those are the priorities.

The OT is suggesting a mid-wheel drive and said I could get a narrow chair. The idea is to allow me to manoeuvre within the house without having to widen doorways and do other structural work.

Because orthostatic intolerance is such a prominent feature for me, tilt-in-space would be ideal. However, the wheelchair would need to really tilt close to horizontal to be worth it for me. Does anyone know of a UK chair that does that?

Any other recommendations of chairs you have found brilliant welcome.

 

How exciting @Evergreen!
Do you know what your budget will be or are you still considering that?
Will you be purchasing it privately?
I suggest ask @Kitty for some advice perhaps she can forward you some of the information she gave me. I owe all my knowledge to her!

 

Ps I think to manage turns in a non wheelchair adapted home with limited turning space it would need to be on the narrow side and mid wheeler as OT says. But mid wheelers can make you feel a little more motion sickness than front or rear wheel drive.

 

It is exciting! Bit daunting too.

We won't have funding but Mr Evergreen has a job and we will pay for what I need, within reason. So yes, we'll be buying it privately, but with a public OT providing assistance and a representative from a wheelchair company. Would rather buy a good one once than skimp on a less good one and use it less and have to replace it sooner.

Yes, I have been scouring @Kitty 's posts for info! And getting very jealous of all the nature-watching. My level of orthostatic intolerance and cognitive dysfunction/sensory issues counts me out of those adventures for now.

 

That's something to look forward to.

 

I think you’re right to think very carefully about what you want and need.

What I’ve learned is that as a moderate to severely affected person with ME I was right to assume that I needed I portable bed over a chair and that therefore it was going to be a little bit tricky finding a chair that would work out well.

I know that you can get power chairs that go completely flat, it’s just that these are add on’s to the chairs original price. I was quoted somewhere around +£1500 to get both a fully flat back and flat legs.

Can you try some out from home or at a store of some type?
Could you hire some?

 

Well a rep is going to come with the OT in a few weeks' time, and they'll be bringing 2 powerchairs apparently, just to start getting an idea of what might work for me. I don't know how big a range of chairs the rep will have access to.

That's good that you know of power chairs that go completely flat. Do you remember the company by any chance?

 

On the tilt in space, I think even if it doesn’t go flat it’s very much better than a non tilt chair for back and neck comfort so I’d say if at all possible get that type.

 

I would only be able to try some from home. I would have a very limited ability to try things out - just don't have the energy to organise my carers to organise it all.

 

Sunrise medical has them available on the quickie 300 M, which is a relatively small powerchair with a tight turning circle for indoor use. It’s an indoor outdoor chair, so less powerful than an outdoor only chair. This is sort of an entry level mini power chair but you’d still need a train or WAV to transport beyond local area for something this size and weight. Going up from this model and you get more expensive but more options for cushion systems and stuff.

 

Umm. I know this difficulty well. It takes so much energy to try stuff and to think about it all and learn the new terminology and stuff.

 

Yes! She mentioned a website the rep uses and I found that brand, so I'm pretty sure that will be available to me. I had to print out the brochure because I could not handle all the scrolling! I have no transport needs as I can't go anywhere. Pity that it wouldn't take me to medical appointments, but she's getting me a second-hand narrow transit chair which will work for that.

She was so good though, she said that if I can find a chair in the UK that fits my needs, they will try to get it for me. So I'm not limited to the contracts they have. But she did warn me that it can be tricky to have a chair that no-one locally knows how to fix.

 

How exciting, @Evergreen!

I'd advise that you try and arrange for at least one of the chairs to be lent to you for at least 24 hours, preferably two or three days. You can't know whether something's right for you by using it for an hour, and if you're buying new rather than secondhand, making the wrong choice is very expensive (and quite common).

My query about the lying flat aspect would be that if you're severely affected enough to be housebound, a powerchair may not be comfortable enough for you to want to spend long in it. Most aren't as comfortable as sofas and beds, which is why even severely disabled people often transfer out of them as soon as they get home/to their destination. But if you're only envisaging spending relative short amounts of time in it, or you can find a fully-upholstered day bed type, that'll be less of an issue.

In terms of the width etc: there are lots of chairs narrow enough to go through the doors of even small houses, so you may not necessarily need an indoor one. The problem in most houses is furniture, not doorways! And small indoor chairs—probably without exception across the market—are not made to be sat in for long periods. They have no suspension, less upholstery than a full size chair, and small wheels (so bumping over ramps and flagstones is more uncomfortable).


I've just re-read this, and it sounds as if I'm trying to put you off buying one! Sorry, I'm really not—powerchairs are brilliant and life changing, it's just that they're also a bit of a learning curve.

 

Sounds wise. I wouldn’t be able to do anything for an hour, though, not even close, so even if I have something for a week my time-in-chair would be low. So my ability to test this out will be limited. I do, however, have a similarly sized sister who I might be able to convince to roll around my house!

That won’t be an issue. I wouldn’t be able to spend long in it at all. It will be used to go to the kitchen, grab the plate they’ve left for me in the fridge (have never seen my fridge) and retreat back to a bed. With a tilt-facilitated lie-down en route if necessary. Or go from a bed at the back of the house to the end of the garden, where there’s an outdoor sofa type thing I can lie down on. Or go to the front door if something electrical has been delivered that might not like to be rained on. It will be very much a between-beds thing. I will have to walk to where the wheelchair will be, so these forays will only happen on pretty good days.

That’s fine – I have no capacity to sit for long periods!

Don’t worry – this is exactly what I need, thank you.

Can anyone throw out a bunch of UK wheelchair brands I can look at?

 

In my experience, the big ones are equally mediocre and uninspired!* But they work reliably, and in some ways there's not a lot to choose between them except price and seating options. I do it the opposite way when I need a new chair; I see what's on sale secondhand (it's usually thousands of pounds cheaper), and then see if it'll suit me.

If you're likely to want significant add-ons, there is an important distinction between general chairs and rehab models. Rehab's a weird description, but basically it means the chair is built with rails and attachment points to which you can add all kinds of things—specialised headrests, attendant controls (on the back of the chair), single leg rests for someone with a badly damaged limb, chin controls, trays for carrying food, etc. If you look at the back and the underneath of them they're put together with Allen bolts, Meccano-style, and look quite different to the sort that have a one-piece car seat on them.

General chairs don't have all this, and there's often not a great deal you can do to modify them. They're really intended for people like me: no complex needs, I just need to get around.

Also, with some manufacturers, the model number only describes the base and drive type of the chair. The seat assemblies and controls are separate, and you choose the sort that's best for your needs. So you might be brought something they refer to as a BX3000 (or whatever) with one type of seat on it, and see something in the brochure called a BX3000 that looks totally different—that's the reason for it.


* I'm not the industry's biggest fan! Specially as I know full well that some businesses in the 1990s got out of hawking double glazing and into flogging mobility gear because they could screw so much more money out of people who have no option but to use it. And manufacturers have no incentive at all to improve their products because hey, they can sell them anyway.

 

Forgot to mention this. It's not the rolling—it's things like whether you can get your head at just the right angle to be comfortable, whether you can get in and out of it relatively easily with the type of arms and footplate it has, whether the padding feels okay to you. It's very like buying a bed or a sofa, small things can make a lot of difference to an individual.

Also, it doesn't matter if you can't use it for an hour at a stretch. It's more about having the time to explore it properly with no one looking over your shoulder. Getting in and out of it, manoeuvring it, and operating the settings when you're feeling relatively okay by your standards, and when you're feeling absolutely crap.

 

Yep I should be able to do that.

 

That's very helpful.

 

I have a foldalite trekker which I am delighted with. It's not a large power chair nor is it small, somewhere in between.

It comes in two widths. I expect you will suit the narrower one which is easier to manoevre indoors. I don't use mine inside the house but find it very useful outdoors. I have a small hoist fitted to the car to lift it in. It manages hills with ease and also grass and slightly bumpier surfaces. We love visiting gardens and it is perfect. It opens up all sorts of opportunities so good luck with making your choice. My first attempt was an ( expensive) mistake. It was a luggie scooter and I hadn't realised I would be unable to hold up my arms to control the handle bars. Best of luck!

PS This would not adjust so that you can almost lie down. It's an upright chair with a slightly adjustable back. Rear wheel drive. Very comfortable for me but may not suit your requirements.

 

I don't have experience with the kind of chair you're looking for.

I do remember seeing that @Grigor has a chair that reclines nearly flat from one of his videos (see about 12:00 min in to this vid):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYLMqnEWRBg