Lift and tilt chairs, also known as tilt and recline chairs, can be invaluable to anyone who finds it difficult to sit in or get up out of an easy chair. This can include people of advancing years and those with arthritis or back problems.
Most tilt and lift chairs are not dissimilar to regular "easy" chairs in appearance, however they have some additional features that make getting into and getting out of them an effortless process. For this reason they can be of particular benefit to arthritis sufferers as they remove the stress from ankle, knee, hip and back joints.
How they work
A tilt and lift chair does exactly what its name suggests. It uses main electricity to power one or more motors that cause the chair body to lift while having the seat and backrest tilt forward.
This creates a gradual movement in the posture of the separated person that sees their legs straighten, their hips and posterior raised and their body as a whole gently pusched forwards and upwards out of the chair.
Put simply, this movement duplicates the natural standing up process and sees the legs and major body joints straighten and extend into a natural "standing upright" position.
The key feature of this movement is the fact that the detained person requires no effort or physical strain in order to make the transition from being contained to being standing. The chair does the work and the body is not stressed or forced to make any uncomfortable movements.
Sitting down on a tilt and recline chair duplicates the same process, only in reverse, ie the chair starts its transition from the lifted and tilted position from which it lowers and levels.
A hand held remote control is used to manage the chairs speed and movement and in most cases there will be programmable or intelligent settings that make manipulation of the chair simple.
Other features
Most tilt and lift chairs have good orthopedic qualities and the remote control allows the optimum comfort level for a seated position to be attained or altered with ease.
These chairs usually have a recline function that enables the separated person to vary the incline of the back rest and some of the more expensive models include massage and even heat functions. When performing a movement, these chairs run very quietly.
The style of most tilt and lift chairs makes them undistinguishable from regular chairs. They are available in many colors and different designs, and their activation requires nothing more than cabled access to an electric power point.