New disabled staircase?

[tabbypurr]

Plenty of people lose weight without exercise by learning to eat low calorie foods, and how to make low calorie meals that are enjoyable.

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

All you have to do is east *less*.

One potato, not two or three.

Chocolate biscuits once a week, not once an hour.

[tabbypurr]

if you don't mind being hungry. Most folk do.

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not minding being hungry is how you get to eat less.

[tabbypurr]

I'm glad you've worked that out.

[DICEGEORGE]

Is any exercise 'attractive' ?

at least nowadays if you're on an exercise machine you can listen to TED talks etc and so not get bored.

[g]

[Brian Gaff]

Most stairlifts are inside on the normal stairs and the platform folds away when not in use. Brian

[damduck-egg]

One benefit of a stair lift is that even if your legs and lungs still work reasonably well you can use them to carry things which for people who may suffer discomfort from lifting or carrying makes life easier. A stair lift was installed for my father when he became too weak to climb stairs but he probably only used it a couple of times a day, in contrast my mother used it up to a dozen times a day for moving laundry/vacuum cleaner ,medical supplies, kettle and supplies for morning tea and loads of other things. Without it she may have struggled to look after him so easily and exacerbated her own painful hip problems.

She has moved since and twenty years on has installed one for her own benefit, sometimes she feels fit enough to choose not use it but sending things like some library books or her IPad up first means she has two hands free to steady herself should it be necessary which could save a fall with all the attendant problems that can cause in elderly person.

That for me if we didn't live in a Bungalow would be good enough reason to get one sooner to make life easier/safer rather than wait till it gets essential. And being realistic you may get some decent wear out of an expensive investment rather than just a couple of years before you snuff it.

Someone mentioned up thread that a good local independent installers are more desirable and often less expensive than one of the national chains. This is probably true and they may fit a used unit more eagerly than a large firm and will maintain it cheaper, it is the route that my Mother took after having one recommended and having him service the previous lift. He would not fit refit the previous one as he said it was too old, 3 or 4 years rings a bell but don't know if this an Industry good practice recommendation or just his personal way of working. Anyhow he found an 18 month old chair that would suit though the track had to be all new as it had to go around a 180 turn as it rose. For that model a

the track is made to order and at the time there was a bit of a backlog so mothers installer went up to the factory from Devon to Yorkshire and assembled some of the parts himself to speed things up.

One caveat with an independent though is that they may be a sole trader. Good as he his Mothers installer was on Holiday between Christmas and New Year when the chair misbehaved and needed attention. He tried to talk me through some steps on the phone to resolve the issue but with the limited tool kit that mother has in the house I could not get into the innards beyond checking some micro switches had not shifted. So mother had to wait a week* , a national will have engineers available all the time though the service plans are costly.

• In dire need he probably would have attended but it was a case of "It's my only break I take each year,is there anyway you can manage?"

[Bill Wright]

loss of power, albeit it awkwardly, then mains is more reliable & avoids battery cost.

The battery is routinely replaced every two years. Total failure of a battery that is always on charge is highly unlikely. With the charger always connected the user would at most notice a slowing down of the machine. The discharge period is only about 60 secs.

An advantage of battery is that there is no voltage exceeding 13.6V on the machine or the track. This is good because the disabled can spill drinks and are sometimes incontinent.

The mains-only machines tended to have a power chain on the track and it was a source of trouble. The battery machines have a power strip with a brush running on it and this seems to work better.

Bill

[Tim+]

Indeed. An elderly aunt-in-law lived alone in a three story house until she was 98. She went from there into a care home. Toilet in basement, bedroom upstairs.

You could install all sorts of stuff "just in case" that might well turn out to be a waste of time and money.

Besides, I rather suspect that it was *because* my aunt-in-law lived in a three story house that she kept her physical fitness for so long.

Tim

[Blanco]

No it does not. All you have to do is put less food into your mouth.

But I can't exercise more, in ways

[Blanco]

Yes, I find walking for exercise in good weather is.

I don't bother in lousy weather.

You can do that with most exercise, and I do.

[tabbypurr]

Mains and motor being stationary avoids those issues. I'm not a great fan of what I've seen of the popular machines, they do seem so issuefully designed.

NT