Hi, I’m dabbling with the idea of getting an electric wheelchair. It would need to be something I could use both indoors and outdoors, possibly portable as well, and have decent ground clearance so I could still go and watch my son play football. Any thoughts. I’m also considering exchanging my Motability Fiesta for a WAV. Any advice? Thanks in advance, Heather
Hi Heather,I know it is a bit different from what you are considering,but I’ve just bought a Shoprider Malaga powerchair.It is amazing in that it fits around my titchy flat but can cope with the ‘Rally Cross Pavements’ around here.The only glich has been that because it has solid tyres the vibrations through the foot plate are causing me horrific pain.As I write I’m waiting for it to be brought back with pneumatic tyres fitted.This should really help when I’m playing out.
Be lucky,
Wb
Hi Heather,
First of all the portability issue.
If you want a power wheelchair that will come to bits and go in the back of a car you will be limiting the robust outdoor capabilities. I wanted a chair that was portable but found that even the lightest ones were still very heavy and my daughter could not lift them. The ultra ultra light ones were small and not able to cope with the cobbles and uneven pavements in my old market town – let alone football!
In the end we decided on a WAV so we could choose a wheelchair without worries of lifting it. The WAV is great (although my daughter hates it!) For me I can just drive on in my chair – no problem.
Like scooters there are oodles of chairs to choose. I went to the William Merrit living foundation for an assessment. It was very helpful to try out chairs that I had short listed from the web.
I bought my own chair initially because wheelchair services would only allocate an indoor chair. However I have just been reassessed and now have an indoor/outdoor chair from them (Hooray ) It is a quickie Salsa with midwheel drive and I absolutely love it. It is very maneuverable in the house and copes with lumps and bumps outside. Mind you they cost upwards of £4000 so it was outside my budget. I don’t know if wheelchair services would be able to help you. You need a referral from your dr,
Please feel free to PM me if you have any question because like most wheelchair uses I could bore for team GB on the subject!
Jane
Hi, dont mean to sound like a wet blanket on your plans, but please be careful when buying wheelchairs.
Thinking I was doing the right thing, in saving the nhs money, (and having funds from taking early retirement on ill health) I bought an expensive powerchair and used it for 3 yrs, then bought another.
When they were worn out, i bought a different type from e bay.
result…badly rotated hip, knee and ankle, as all the chairs were wrong for me.
The last 2 chairs I`ve had were from wheelchair services, after having a thorough assessment of my needs.
Some sales men and ebay dont know what we need and just want to make sales.
luv Polllx