Stannah Stairlift

[Jano69]

Hi

My elderly parents (81 and 87) are looking to purchase a "round the bend" Stannah Stairlift.

Can anyone give me an idea on price (they live in West London) and whether it's a good buy.

There are no prices available online, just the option to request a quote.

Thanks.

No experience with buying new. You can buy reconditioned stairlifts, which makes sense because the average stairlift isn't used for very long, and so is in good condition when it's reoved. With a curved rail you need a bespoke rail but can have a reconditioned seat. We've recently had a rail fitted which had a different gradient at the bottom because of wider steps, and a curve at the top so that it went round the half landing before going up the last step to the landing proper - cost just under £3000. Stannah, but bought through a company specialising in fitting reconditioned stairlifts. Comes with a service contract and a 24 month guarantee.

My parents have just bought a new stair lift but not Stannah. Their's was a straight up one but with a lifting arm so as not to be a trip hazard on the bottom landing.

It cost £2500 and included an electrician inserting a dedicated socket.

Hope that gives you some idea of cost. And they both love it.

Thank you Mere and Yellow. Your responses are helpful.

My parents have agreed to pay £6,000 for a reconditioned curbed stairlift which seems incredibly expensive (London prices?). It certainly doesn't sound right.

I'm hoping to negotiate something lower as we're still within the 14 day cooling off period.

Thank you again. I'm pleased both your families are pleased with the end result.

Depends how awkward the curve is, and how long the stairlift is (my father's was a flight of 13 steps plus half-landing), but that does sound a lot. If they're willing to overcharge, I would worry that they were milking a vulnerable market, and I would be apprehensive about customer service.

Stairlift companies are geared up to getting stairlifts in very quickly, often less than a week between quote and fitting, so you should have time to get a couple of quotes.

Beware - one guy who came to quote waved a piece of paper with the quote in front of me and said "now I just need a signature from you there" - when I looked at the small print it was a contract to purchase! - needless to say, we didn't got with that company.

Yellowcar2 - I presume by "lifting arm" you mean that a piece of the rail was hinged so it could be moved out of the way? You seem to have got a very good price.

When we had my mums stairlift fitted (SE) we went through Dolphin as they do a whole variety of different makes and can hence advise on the best one to have . Stannah is not necessarily the best and that quote does sound very high , we paid less than 2k for a new straight bariatric stairlift although that was a few years ago .

That sounds incredibly high!

Have they contacted their local council - even if they own their home the council can give them the names of companies they use for stairlifts and quite often you can hire one rather than buy one. Admittedly my mums one wasn’t curved but she hires one for £40 a month - it cost £250 to have installed.

The stannah we installed for my mum was nearly £5000 and once the guarantee was up the call out charges were astronomical

I've shared your extremely helpful replies with my dad, along with the Which? stairlift report. Clearly, they're being overcharged by Stannah's outsourced local supplier.

Dad's current view is he doesn't want to upset the apple cart by renegotiating the price as some of the electrical work has already commenced.

There's still time to turn this around so will update you lovely people when I have news.

Jqn - we had a "round the bend" stairlift installed about 2 years ago, not Stannah, we paid about £4,500 (London prices) so I think your quote is very high. It is serviced every year and costs £45. You can also hire stairlifts if you do not wish to purchase one .Hope this is helpful.

Mere yes hinged rail is exactly right and put much better thank you.

I can't think of the company name right now but my mum saw an advert for it in a magazine. We are in London and it was actually the most expensive one he quoted - but was the one my parents like best.

Yellowcar2 We found it helpful to translate stairlift costs into "weeks of care home" - if ours keeps my dad out of residential care for 3 weeks (which it already has) it's paid for itself. (In monetary terms - the benefit of keeping him independent is less easy to quantify)

Could you contact Age Uk they might have some useful advise, lists of reputable companies

A simple, straight stairlift can be bought for around £2,000. Prices can jump to as much as £7,000 or more if it's a curved staircase or you especially long stairs, or need additional features like a powered swivel (to help you get off the chair)
Source: www.stairlift-forum.co.uk/buying-a-stairlift/