Best power lift recliner chair?

September 10, 2022 12:27 PM

Looking for a power lift recliner for a family member who is ill. This is the sort of chair that both reclines and tilts forward a bit to help the person stand up. They will want the foot and back to be adjustable separately. The user is short and in the US women's size 18-20 range. If it has heat and massage functions that is definitely a bonus. Any recommendations?
posted by rednikki to Shopping (5 answers total)

Best answer: So I'm just putting this out there, and your family member's medical team will know best, but my physician niece and physical therapist friend both advised against my mother getting a lift chair. According to them, once a person starts using it, their core muscles deteriorate rapidly and they don't keep their mobility long.

Again, your family member's medical team may feel the benefit outweighs the risk here. Good luck!
posted by cooker girl at 1:06 PM on September 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Is shopping in person an option? We are looking for almost the same thing for a family member a bit larger than your user and it’s boiled down to either La-Z-Boy or a medical supply center. The options at the latter will vary, but they were better than we expected in appearance and quality. La-Z-Boy definitely has separate foot, headrest, lumbar, heat, and massage options on most models they offer. Medical supply, it was more all or nothing for us.

You may be able to find one or two options at Costco.

In any case do be aware that these options may require ordering - with both we were looking at a 10-16 week lead time.
posted by hijinx at 1:09 PM on September 10, 2022

Best answer: My mother and my father-in-law both separately bought excellent power-lift recliners from Craigslist (or maybe it was Facebook Marketplace). They were relatively inexpensive, at least as compared to new models. Moving them required some effort, though, as they are heavy & bulky.
posted by alex1965 at 3:55 PM on September 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I cannot help with specifics but have skin in the game in that my 97 y.o. FiL now has an electric all-angles recliner / ejector chair since the beginning of June. There is debate in the family, not always vocalized, about the trade-offs [easy life vs muscle atrophy] alluded to by cooker girl. One potent metaphor from our OT team was that getting out of a chair for a 90yo is equivalent to running 100m for a 20-something. I've moved towards Team Cut-him-some-slack since hearing that. The opposite argument is that work keeps things limber and stronger and will result in a longer, fitter, happier life.

My 20-something daughter gave me another angle last week. If the elder expends all those calories on physical exercise, there will be less available [decision fatigue etc.] for cognitive work: leading to more confusion, which will adversely affect quality of life . . . for everybody.
posted by BobTheScientist at 6:21 AM on September 11, 2022

My parents have matching Miller Bronze Lift chairs from La-z Boy. They're basic model but are the smallest footprint chairs we could find which was important for our space. They're also, at least in Washington state, the ones that they tend to have in stock and can deliver rapidly in a nice but not super fancy fabric / color.

My mother is 5'6" and similarly sized and it works for her. One other consideration in the "lift chair" vs "use it or lose it" argument is if getting up from the chair is super hard, people are more likely to camp out vs get up and go get something from the kitchen or get a book from the bedroom, etc. Also, if the person is having a hard time getting up, bathroom trips can be an issue - people can put it off and then it's a crisis.
posted by macfly at 8:43 AM on September 11, 2022 [2 favorites]