[Erin524]

Anyone ever have their stair glide (stair lift) break and have the company that installed it refuse to come out on a friday night to fix it?

I'm scared to use ours now...and scared to walk downstairs with my knee all screwed up still. I still just walked down the stairs, but I cant see doing that several times a day because my other knee is slightly messed up too. Plus my back is killing me from having a bad knee and walking funny from that.

It's either walk down keeping one leg straight and bending the less screwed up knee. But the less screwed up knee is going to end up more screwed up if I have to walk down steps with it too often.

Why is it that whenever something important like a stair glide breaks, it's always at the beginning of a weekend, or late at night?

I guess I wont be using that particular pharmacy for any more handicap accessories since they wouldnt send someone out tonight. I called before 2pm. You'd think they'd ask someone to work late or have someone on-call to come fix it. They're pretty much the only company in town that installs these things. I bet they get called for out-of-order stair lifts all the time. What do they do? Tell people they're trapped in their house till someone comes out to fix it?

Before it broke, my dad had just used it to go downstairs and put something away. It was after he came back upstairs that it apparently broke. I went to get on it to come downstairs, and that's when I found out the hard way that it was now broken.

My dad just rode the stair glide down to see for himself what was wrong with the thing. He said that he thought it was safe. But then he always gets onto the chair the wrong way at the top of the stairs. (supposed to turn the seat to the side. Sit down, turn the seat back to the working position and then go down the steps) My parents never get onto the thing the correct way. I've seen how the lift bends forward on the track when they it that way too.


When I discovered it was broken, I was going to go downstairs, and when I got on it, the correct way, the arm rest went out from underneath me. The arm rest that just happens to be on the side of the chair that I'd have a long drop if I slipped out the chair. I almost fell and was really glad that the handrail for our stairs was there for me to grab. When we first got the stair lift, they took our handrail off our stairs and said we couldnt have one. (guy who originally installed the stair lift 5yrs ago was fired from the pharmacy for shoddy work and not doing things to code. We had our stair lift re-installed last year when we got new carpeting, so it should all be to code now)


I just checked, the whole right sided arm rest on the chair is loose, and the seat is bent in a weird way and wobbly. Last night when my dad was using the stair lift, he was putting the seat in an Up position so it was out of the way of anyone walking down the stairs. The seat made a weird noise when he lifted it up into the "out of the way" position.

Just not happy that the thing breaks on a weekend, and that the pharmacy doesnt have anyone on-call that can come out to fix the thing. I'm not really thrilled about the possibility of hurting my knee just so I can go downstairs and sleep in my own bed every night. (there's only one bed upstairs, and I outgrew sleeping with my parents when I was 5)

Plus, if it's broken, I no longer trust it. My dad said we'd get a new one next week, but that's going to be a huge expense. Think this thing cost $3k when we bought it 5yrs ago. Wonder what inflation has done to the price of these things.

I also wonder how many times you can drill the screws for these stair lifts into our steps before you compromise the structure of the stairs. (I've seen the underside of our steps with the bolts going thru them, and it looks pretty chewed up now)

[wkikta]

If you absolutely have to go down the stairs using the Bum Slide Technique usually works very well. Up is another thing. Unless hundreds of screws have been put in the stairs it probably won't affect them badly. The Track should not move in any way when in use, if it does it probably wasn't installed right after the new carpet. If it wasn't done by the Factory Certified people they probably won't cover anything.

It is extremely rare for any Service Company to come out on a Weekend and if they do it will cost extra, so you really can't blame the Pharmacy if no one will come out. You can't force overtime on employees, not like the 'Good Old Days'.

[Erin524]

The track doesnt seem to be loose, it's more like the seat/chair part of it is falling apart.

It's just irritating that it waits till friday afternoon to go all to heck. Why didnt it break on monday when I might have had a chance getting someone out here sooner?

[Jomar]

If it is the seat/chair part failing, it is under any warranty still??
or
Maybe a local handyman might be able to fix it up temporarily??

[SallyC]

I hear ya, Erin. I hate being at the whim of the repairman....grrrrrrrrrr

[Erin524]

I'm not going to trust a handyman on fixing the seat. I'd feel better to just get a new lift. My dad said we could get a new lift if we have to. I'll have the repair guy come out next week and tell me if we can replace the seat part of the lift, or if it has to be a whole brand new unit.

The wireless remote controls for the lift havent been working very well either, and I've tried several times to get new wireless remotes for it and keep getting told that they dont make them anymore. The pharmacy's website says I can get another brand new lift that looks just like the one we have, but they cant order me new remote controls?

The whole thing has been thru a lot of manhandling over the last year (had to dismantle it twice last year, once to fix something, and once for new carpeting) and it's 5 or 6yrs old. (maybe 7yrs old?) so I'm just wondering if it's reached the end of it's life as a lift.

I just know that once I start to not trust something because of safety issues, especially something like a stair lift, I wont ever be really comfortable with it again. I think I'd be more worried about it with my parents riding on it. I'm younger, and will probably heal easier than either one of my 70yr+ parents would if they fell off of it.

[Lady]

Erin,
Mystory: When I had stairs to go up or down, even with a baby in my arms, I sat on the stairs and went down on my buttski I could hold the baby in a sling. Same for up, one buttski move up at a time. It was safe, I could hold one railing and use the other hand to help push me up or down.

This was during relapses. When the relapse left, I would practice the stairs more and hold tight anyway. Never had the bucks for a lift.

I only went up and down when totally necessary. I would plan the day's events. Throw dirty clothes down in pillow cases to be washed. DH brought them up folded. He carried the kids or I made them walk early up stairs with me behind.

You do what you have to do. Sleep on the floor (sleeping bags) and porta-cribs, or on a couch downstairs until feeling better.

Eons ago we were poor but so was everyone else, so we didn't know it.

I didn't have elderly parents to watch out for, mine ran up the stairs for me when they visited. Even the dog and cats ran up. We had good times despite the lack of funds.

[Erin524]

well, so far my right knee is holding up to the walking up and down the stairs. The left knee (the BAD knee) I've been keeping straight and not bending it when I go down stairs. (going upstairs isnt bad with that knee)

I'm hoping that if I keep using the stairs and not relying so much on that stair chair maybe my knees will get better. So far, it's only a problem if I forget and try bending my left knee when going down a step.

[Lady]

Erin have you ever used an elastic knee brace that you slip on? Or the ones that wrap the knee around with Velcro? CVS has them, but buy a larger size so not to stop circulation. Support helps.

They feel great on bad knees, elbows, etc. I had surgery on my knee 12 years ago and it let's me know when the weather is humid or if I over used it. I take it on and off so not to get used to it doing all the work. Then I can go weeks or months with no knee problems, go figure.

[Erin524]

I've used the velcro elastic braces. It's been awhile since I've used one because I can never find one that's comfy around my fat knees. I've had knee problems all of my life. I was born with a weird birth defect that affected a couple of my fingernails and my knees. (weird that both problems were caused by the same birth defect)

My kneecaps are floaters. They dont exactly attach correctly to where they're supposed to be attached. I never knew that it was a problem. I thought everyone's kneecaps floated and popped and went out of place like mine. Didnt realize until I found out why I was missing a fingernail on one finger that the knee thing was a birth defect.

Older I get, the more annoying (and painful) my knees get. Oh well, at least I have knees and can walk. I need to do more treadmill walking at the gym to try to get my knee to heal. I've been doing the exercises that I learned in physical therapy earlier this year. I just need to do more walking exercise. (kind of hard to do that with the way my mom is...)

Starting to think that walking up and down the stairs is better than riding down on the stair chair. At least for now. It's at least exercise.

I still want to get a new stair chair/lift. I'm just not liking how wobbly the thing is now.