Bruno Independent Living Aids

It's a 36-inch normal stairwell and it's straight up and down, 15 steps. And that was one of the things, it had a more narrow profile and the rail was vertical rather than horizontal. It took up less room from the wall as well as it folded up to a much smaller amount of space, only 11.5 inches whereas some of the others took more clearance up. And on a 36-inch wide stairway, that leaves you 2 feet. That was another nice thing about the Bruno. It was the best clearance, basically, for those using the stairs.

When you get to the top, you swing it around and then when you go to come back downstairs, you swing it back. He told me if it doesn't click, sometimes it won't start down the stairs. But this one, I clicked it but it was still not going. He said I was rocking it a little bit. We're rocking it and, finally, it started going. But I didn't like that either. It seems like when you hear the click, you shouldn't have to sit at the top of the stairs and rock the chair back and forth to make contact. I felt like there was something wrong with the installation.

Other than that, it's very smooth. We bought the extra fold-down rail and fold-up rail at the bottom and it was kind of expensive, but it's really nice how it does that. When he first put it in, it jumped a little bit and was a little bit clicky. He fine-tuned it and made it much better. The lift is wonderful and I'm satisfied with the product except for that one issue.

It's nice having the double remote call buttons. I was surprised I couldn't find anything that didn't have to screw into the stairs where it wasn't wall mounted instead. But that's a major design difference on how the chair would have to be manufactured and the railings, etc. One thing I would change of the stairlift itself, mechanically, would be if they could figure out a way of making the footrest a little bit longer because my father has a size 14 foot. It gets a little hard for him to keep the foot on the little platform. About another inch longer when it's folded down and another inch or two wider might make it a little easier for a guy of that size to keep his feet on it. The other thing is one of the armrests could have a little hook on the bottom of it. This way, at least if somebody's trying to do something by themselves as opposed to having somebody helping, they can hook an item onto the handle so that their hands are a little more free.

You push the arms in the seat out of the way when you're not using it. You pull it down into place to use it, which is fine. I have three dogs that are learning to work around with me with it. They all have learned to sit back and watch until I'm in the stairlift and fastened into place then they go upstairs before I do and I follow them up.

I had to adjust to knowing how the stairlift worked. I had to teach my dogs what to do. You have to think about who's gonna be around it. I had an emergency and the fire department came and picked me up off the floor on Saturday night. I had the experience of, now how in the world do we get past that thing in the hallway to go to the hospital? We had it go around the corner there at the bottom of the stairs and move up out of the way. It was my husband who remembered that you could do that. On the whole, this stairlift has made me able to go back up to sleep upstairs. Prior to having the stairlift, I was still trying to do my best to get upstairs. I'd have to use the handrail and go up hand over hand and pull myself upstairs. That was really bad on my shoulders. I may have a rotator cuff tear.

Someone from Bruno came out and he was friendly, quick, and did everything he needed to do. Everything went great. He talked to both me and my son and went through thoroughly step-by-step how we were to go about doing this. On the installation day, it was spring break for my kids so they were home. The guy came and said he was gonna install the lift. He passed where it was going and made sure it was the right place. He got to work and was there for three and a half hours trying to get it done. Anytime my kids would go out, he would be very friendly with them. The kids wanted to go outside and watch him do it. We watched the camera on our TV. He did all of his work. We had some problems with my neighbors that were fighting. I apologized to the installer and he was very understanding about it.

The stairlift is great and my son loves it. It has impacted his life for the better. He is able to go from his wheelchair to the lift chair at the bottom of the steps. At the top, I would have to carry him in. Other than that everything works perfectly for him. If you're going down the steps, the lift goes along the left side and comes up to the top of the steps. It didn't come into the home. But with the way our steps are, that’s the way we wanted. It has a cover to it and we just store it upstairs. The only problem we really have is my stairwell is really narrow.

I use the stairlift four times a day going up and down and since I got it, I’m not sequestered to the first floor anymore. I'm disabled from a spinal injury and I had a massive fusion, so it’s very hard for me to walk upstairs. I can do one or two, but there are 17 stairs to go up, plus the landing. So, the stairlift gets me up to my shower and my bedroom. But when I would go down to the bottom level where there’s a back-to-back 90-degree turn, the stairlift would land at the bottom of my stairs. Then, it would turn around so it would not be in the way of the front door and it would bump a little bit. Their rep said that that was normal but maybe somebody could come out and take a look at that to see if that is the way it has to be.

Also, I know that there's an option for a larger footrest but they gave me the standard one. Nobody measured my feet and it's such a small footrest for me. My legs don't do a full 90-degree and I have to bring my feet up, then I got to push it onto the rest. And my feet hang over a bit, especially my left foot. It hasn't hit anything, but it's very uncomfortable to hold my feet. I spoke to JK Medical Supply about it and their rep said that he'd see what he could do. Other than that, I couldn't be more happy with this fine piece of equipment. The chair is great and very nice-looking. It matches my house nicely, too.

The installation did not take a very long time. It seemed to run along smoothly. I am on the second floor. My husband's business is on the first floor, which is ground level. I am 16 steps to get up into my house. This is why this chairlift appealed to me. My chairlift is straight up and down and I can pivot the chair. When I come up to the top of the steps to the landing, I just turn the chair and I can step right onto my landing. The chairlift is very well-built and I like everything about it like the way it operates. It works well. I don't wanna use the chairlift now as I wanna use my legs. But I have tested it a few times. About once a week, I get on it and try it. When my son or my niece is here, they like to put the groceries on it to help bring it up.

But there could be a better way to fasten the remotes someplace. I put one at the bottom of the stairs in a little holder thing. I tried Velcro but the Velcro keeps coming loose and it drops off. We have to get to ours because when it goes around the corner, we have to move the remote in order to point it back at the chair, so it'll continue down the stairs. We go down a level and it goes across a landing, down a step, cross a little bit of a landing, and then down to the stairs. Also, it would be nice if the chair would turn around at the bottom. It only goes one direction and we have to squeeze out in order to get out of the chair. It'd be really nice if it was able to turn the rest of the way around.