Lift Chair Recliner

Medical supplies you didn't know you needed

You've probably never stopped to think about how many different types of grab bars you can get for your bathroom.

Many customers who walk into a medical supply store never have, either.

But places like American Home Health Care are full of surprises. You can find the perfect grab bar and other gadgets to make life easier for someone who has a health condition or is just battling old age.

"We get a lot of people who come in here for, say, a bath chair and they say 'hey, a bath grab bar would work good.' They see a walker tray that would work well with their walker," said Matt Topf, a rehab specialist at American Home Health Care, 214 W. Seventh St.

Walk inside, and you find the things you'd expect: canes, walkers, wheelchairs and comfy recliners/lift chairs.

But there's much more.

"This is just one of those simple things that a lot of people don't have," Topf says as he pulls out a half-bed rail, a metal tube that slides under a mattress and provides a railing that people can use to help them sit up or get out of bed.

There's a display rack of smaller items that can make a big impact for those who can't bend over very far or have trouble reaching: long-handled shoe horns and reachers.

"If you think about people in wheelchairs or limited arm reach, they drop something, they've got to be able to pick it up," Topf said.

Many customers are surprised at what they can find. They come in looking for one thing and leave the store with something they didn't even know existed before. Topf said bathroom accessories are huge. There are many types of lifts, risers and grab bars that fit many different body sizes and bathrooms.

Topf motions to a corner where a bath lift, a chair-like item that can raise or lower a person into a tub, is on display. It sits next to a much pricier tub that looks like a whirlpool. This is the item many people have heard of. The bath lift, not so much.

"We get a lot of people who come in and look at the tub and see the price. Then we tell them about this," Topf said, pointing toward the bath lift, "and they say they didn't know there was anything like this." That's usually what they wind up buying.

Other customers are surprised to discover they have alternatives. Maybe they bought their walker at a big-box store. If so, it's likely a one-size-fits-all model that doesn't adequately meet their needs. Little did they know that walkers, canes and other helpful gadgets come in various sizes and varieties designed for people of different heights and weights.

Lift Chair Recliner Can Make Life Safer for the Seniors – How to ...

The lift chair recliner is a fantastically designed piece of furniture that can be very helpful for the elderly. It can be a very handy tool for seniors with mobility challenges. Here is how the lift chair recliner works and why it can make life safer and more enjoyable for the elderly.

As we age mobility and balance and the ability to bend becomes more and more of a challenge. Of course there are wheel chairs and mobile scooters for seniors with the highest degree of mobility concerns. However, for those seniors that are still able to move about on their own or even with a walker a lift chair recliner can be a very helpful piece of furniture. In fact, this type of a recliner can be even more helpful for those seniors with the most serious of mobility needs.

A lift chair recliner is a big, comfy easy chair that tilts and reclines at the touch of a button. It makes it very easy for seniors to get in and out of the chair and they can just as easy change their positions of recline by pressing an electric switch.

These chairs come in different colors and various material coverings including vinyl, suede, leather and velvet. The objective with each fabric is to make the recliner as comfortable as possible and still take in personal tastes.

There are three versions of the lift recliner. They are all the same in that they lift a person to a standing position. Their difference is found in how far back they recline.

The real beauty in this style of a chair is that a person need not pull them self out of a seated situation or have to twist to enter the chair. The chair can be entered or exited in a standing position. That makes it very safe and easy for an elderly person to use the recliner.

The most fundamental of these chairs is the 2 position recliner. It will recline to a 45 degree position and any where in between. This works well for a person that doesn’t spend a lot of time in the chair, maybe just a couple of hours at a time.

The middle of the line is a 3 position recliner. This chair is capable of reclining even more, almost to a full recline. It is not quite a full 180 degrees and there is a slight bend where the back and seat meet. It offers variable recline positions up to the almost 180 degrees. This chair works well for a senior that likes to take naps during the day in an easy chair.

The final version is called an infinite chair. It has the ability to recline at any position all the way back to a flat horizontal surface. This chair also differs from the other two in that it has two motors instead of just one. The second motor allows for adjustment, electronically of the foot rest. This mode of a chair works exceedingly well for a human being that has the need to raise their feet higher than their heart for periods of time.

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Fabrication Instructions for a Van Mounted Lift Chair