Stannah stair lift removal

[Harry Bloomfield]

OK, I have already done this the hard way, just a few weeks ago to decorate the stairs. Then I disconnected the rail from the brackets and lifted the two rail sections (straight run up the stairs) over with the chair still attached leaving the lower brackets in place. It wasn't an easy job to lift it and move it across and refit due to the sheer weight of it, but I couldn't see an easy way to lift the chair off the track at the time.

Now I want to change the stair carpet and the lower part of the brackets are fixed to the stairs through the carpet, each bracket has four large screws into the wood.

This time, I am thinking - remove one of the two sections of track, and run the chair off the end of the track. My original assumption was that the chair could be dropped onto the track anywhere, then just have some sort of bottom retaining clamp fitted.

I have spoken to Stannah, who are not very helpful, quoting Elphin safety/ the world will stop spinning etc., they will remove for a fee and reinstall for a fee etc...

Anyone know for sure the process please?

[Bob Minchin]

Have you looked on Youtube? I've not but it seems like the sort of thing someone somewhere will have documented? It tends to be my first port of call when starting something like this.

[ss]

Utube, many more on there.

[John Rumm]

I did a minivator one... that involved manually winding the chair off the end of the track.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Yes, it is all pointing towards doing that - thanks, if I it does in fact have to be taken all the way out.

I have several times looked on Youtube for a video for the Stannah process for my model and found nothing yet.

However - The carpet guy has just been to look and what he is saying they usually are able to do is...

Wind the chair to the top, undo all but the top bracket, lift the track plus chair to do the bottom, then chair to bottom to release top bracket for the top carpet laying.

[Peter Parry]

There is no clamp. The chair is fitted from the top. To remove it run the chair up to the top under power. When it stops fit the manual winding thing provided (or better a socket and ratchet handle) and wind it off the top of the stairs. There may be a mechanical end stop or trim you have to remove at the top before it will come off.

[Adrian Caspersz]

If it helps, these "electricians" do a great job of chair removal...

[newshound]

In my case, Stannah on fancy custom curly rails on what was in effect a spiral staircase fitted in a rectangular space, the removal method was to run the chair off the top. The "hand wind" supplied is incredibly slow, and even making a matching tool for a cordless drill was very slow. I ended up powering it with a Li-ion car jump starter unit (the lead acids were completely dead, but I could not figure out how to remove them until I had actually removed the chair). Obviously, you have to remove the limit switch and mechanical stop, but that is fairly trivial.

[Michael J]

replying to Peter Parry, Michael J wrote: There seems to be a long metal block which is up against the rubber wheels on the chair and the metal block is pushed tight against the wheels but the block which is held in place by large Allen Screws which a 10mm key fits but the screws will not budge, even though I have put a long tube onto the Allen key for leverage, help

[k8lfox]

Need to remove a stannah chair from 600 model to get furniture moved. How can this be removed?

[k8lfox]

Stannah 600, looking to remove the chair to be able to move furniture, how is this taken off without having to call an engineer?

[Chris Hogg]

Lots of help here

[Andy Burns]

You can lift the seat from the main unit after removing the DIN connector, then run the main unit off the top of the rail by unscrewing the top stop block and winding it off the pinion rack.

Or if you've got sufficient room and manpower (two strong people lifting and perhaps another one guiding) simply unscrew the top and bottom mounting plates from the stairs and shift the whole thing as one.

[newshound]

Agreed, but hand winding is *very* slow especially if unit is stuck at the bottom. Make up a suitable adaptor to go in a cordless drill.

[Andy Burns]

To the point that I can't really see how they can actually class it as a suitable emergency method of operation.

I didn't need any adapter, just grip it in the chuck of a battery drill, tighten well to ensure it doesn't slip and round the shaft.

[derossi1055]

Remove all the stopping limits and the physical over limit. If the lift is dead you need to remove the break and use a drill to winds the lift up, if you still having trouble get in touch with

thy can remove it free .

[ARW]

Why not? 2 grands worth of free kit.

[samuel]

replying to k8lfox, samuel wrote: I had to remove a old Stannah Stairlift 300, and it was a pain to do. It took a couple hours to figure it out, but I finally removed it. I had to destroy it, but I'll explain what I did.

Tools needed:

- Power drill

- Hex nut driver set

- Adjustable wrench _ Hex Key allen wrench set (metric)

- Tin snips

- WD-40

I removed a straight section which was about 8 ft. The stairlift was powered and still worked. The idea is to move the chair to the top of the lift, then remove it somehow.

If you watch some videos on Youtube, you'll see that some stairlifts have a removeable track section at the top of the lift. This lets the installers drop in the stairlift without even removing it from the track. Which means, you don't have to open the unit to remove it.

So, if your stairlift has this removeable portion, you can try moving the stairlift to the top, and then remove the entire top section, chair and all. There should be a metal plate underneath the track that holds both sections together. Use an adjustable wrench to remove the plate.

Or, if you don't have a removable track section at the top, then there's plan B.

At the top of the lift, there's 3 things you'll have to remove. There's a small rectangular metal piece attached on the topside of track, along the track teeth. It looks like some kind of limiter. Use an adjustable wrench to remove it.

At the bottom of the track, I found two more limiters. It's a white plastic piece that triggers the stairlift to stop. Use an adjustable wrench to remove both.

Also, at the top of the lift, remove the plastic end piece. You'll need a hex allen wrench to remove it. Then screw back the hex bolts, as they hold a cable wheel pulley in place.

You have 3 options to move your stairlift up:

- Power it on, and move it up by motor.

- Use a hand crank to move it up.

- Use a special nut driver that fits into the crank hole, and use a power drill to move it up.

I was able to move the stairlift to the top using its own power. It got to the end, but the unit didn't come off all the way. The back rollers still held the unit. So, this is where you destroy the unit.

- Unplug the power.

- The seat was in the way, so I removed 4 hex bolts with an allen hex wrench that held down the seat.

- To remove the seat completely, I had to use tin snips to cut the wires attached to it.

- I rocked the unit back and forth and made some progress, but it still wouldn't come off.

- I used tin snips to cut a heavy counterweight cable that held the unit down.

- I sprayed the track underneath and the back rollers with WD-40.

- I rocked the unit back and forth for several minutes, and the unit finally came off.

- The track at the top was totally chewed up. All power cables have been cut.

The unit itself weighs over 100 lbs, so you may need a 2nd person to help you carry it down.

To remove the track bolted to the stairs, I first sprayed the bolts with WD-40 to loosen them up. Then used a hex nut driver and power drill to remove them.

And that's how I did it.

[bert]

And in the immortal words of the Hayes manuals Reinstallation is the opposite of de-installation.

[FMurtz]

After you repair the parts he destroyed.