How is a stairlift operated?

Stairlifts Newcastle are a mobility aid for anyone who needs help going up or down stairs. Having been around since the 1920’s, stair lifts have come a long way and changed a lot since they were known as Inclin-ator’s and nowadays with full electrical capability the controls are also much different.

Newcastle Stairlifts are usually operated using a control system on the arm of the lift itself. In most modern stair lifts, this comes in the form of a switch or a toggle lever. The larger toggle switch enables uses with severely limited mobility or painful conditions to use stair lifts both easily and safely.

These electronic controls are used very extensively with many stair lifts having radio frequency or infrared remote controllers. It is well known that radiation from things such as fluorescent lighting can interfere with the infrared stair lift controls and head and incandescent lights can in some circumstances have an adverse effect.

The control circuit design though needs to vary between different manufacturers and models of stair lift. For example, curved rail stair lifts have more complex controls than those with straight rails. This is because the seat of a curved rail stair lift needs to tilt to remain horizontal whilst making its way around curves and different angles of incline in the stairwell which requires an additional motor and link system to work. The carriage also slows down for bends but travels faster in straight lines, meaning again it needs the more complex control system. Modern day controls have small micro compressors which can remember the characteristics of the journeys it makes and keep the data for a service engineer making a maintenance call.

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