Over recent years the attention of the mobility industry has been captivated by the rise and rise of mobility scooters, the futuristic transportation shows great appeal to anyone weather they suffer from a sever disability or a slight lack of mobility, with the potential to be used by everyone and anyone.

However we must not forget the importance and relevance of the electric wheelchair and power chair. Although they are often dearer and may feel a little hard to drive at first they offer the user a freedom that scooters could only dream of.

Power chairs and electric wheelchairs operate on a totally different concept. A mobility scooter uses one electric motor which has a forward and reverse motion, whilst the steering is operated by a tiller and handlebars.

This makes creates a large turning circle, whilst power chairs have independent left and right motors which are controlled by a joystick. This means they can be driven in opposite directions allowing the chair to pivot on its own axis giving a much tighter turning circle. The independant motors make power chairs very maneuverable and allows the user to be extremely accurate with the controls.

The down side to independant motors is that manufacturing costs are considerably higher, thus making the products themselves more expensive to buy than a mobility scooter. The increase in electrically operated items also drains much more power from the batteries meaning a scooter running from the same size battery of a power chair will generally allow a greater travel distance (usually around 30%).

For this reason power chairs generally appeal to people who have little to no mobility and rely 100% on the machine in these cases they are definitely worth every extra penny.

Like all of our products, there is no right or wrong solution as everybody’s disability is unique, if you require any help weighing up the best products on the market to suit your requirements then please dont hesitate to contact our customer services on 01472 488599 for friendly expert advice.

Tags: electric wheelchair, mobility scooter, power chair

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under Power Chairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.