Stairlift maitenance.

We use a local firm who sell and maintain stairlifts. The call-out is £30 + VAT.

Everything about Acorn is a rip IMO.

Bill

I have an Otolift stairlift provided free including an annual service by the local authority. The service, even after 5 years, takes about 30 minutes.

Far too much

Service Cost (includes 1hr Labour) = £85

After your first service, subsequent annual services cost £75"

Most of these companies try to make these pay just like selling and installing them. Obviously there are other people who can do the job. Are you suggesting that they will only supply genuine spares to their own engineers, I think that is restrictive practices and used to be against the law. Brian

Parts are probably available at much lower cost from Amazon, eBay or one of the electronic/mechanical parts suppliers such as Farnell

Chris Holford explained on 18/03/2018 :

A brand new Stannah, but now redundant (soon after install). It included a service contract, where they pop in every 6 or 12(?) months to service it. The service takes around 30 minutes. It seems to be just a wipe down with an oily rag and a run up and down with the engineer sat on it.

Rather than leave it unused with the battery on constant charge, I asked the engineer if there was any way to easily isolate the battery, so the PSU could be left off. He said the user switch at the rear was a battery isolation switch, suggesting it would be fine with that off and the mains off. WRONG!

The switch just isolated all the controls, plus the loss of mains alarm, but left the unit still powered and the brake powered. That resulted in flat and wrecked batteries. They replaced them on the following visit, free of charge. The only way to safely isolate the battery, is to go inside and pull the battery connection.

Would pay for someone an exorbitant fee to give it a wipe over with an oily rag, not likely!

Stairlifts are pretty simple devices and routine "maintenance" is limited to cleaning the rack and replacing the batteries every few years if they have started to fail.

Usually not difficult to find. Maintenance contracts are rarely worth the money.

In article , Chris Holford writes

Thanks for the helpful replies. Will suggest she uses local co. for annual service and any repairs; their charges seem to be about half the Acorn rates (and hopefully quicker as they don't have to come so far).

You should be aiming at less than a quarter of Acorn's rates. i.e around or under £75 for an annual maintenance. A replacement battery should be about the same amount.