Acorn Stair Lifts

Video of me Riding a Acorn Stair Lift

There is a lot of manufacture of stair lifts, but one you will probably hear about often due to their active advertising programs is Acorn.  You will find Acorn stair lifts advertised on the internet, in newspapers, magazines, post cards, trade shows, carnivals, even on the side of buses.

About Acorn Stair Lifts

Acorn advertises themselves as the largest manufacture of stair lifts.  The Acorn company was formed in 1992  as an international, privately owned company, whose headquarters and manufacturing facility are located in the heart of Yorkshire, in Northern England.     The company originally started by buying, reconditioning and reselling pre-owned stair lifts, as well as buying  new lifts from other  manufacturers.  Later they devolved their own design calling it the Acorn Super Glide featuring a battery operated system (BOS) and a rack and pinion gear motor.  By placing charging stations whenever the stair lift is at rest at the top or bottom of the rail, the batteries  recharged whenever it not in use.  Also by using the BOS system, the Stair lift would operate even if the electrical power goes out.

Today Acorn has offices in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Germany and currently manufactures in excess of 50,000 new units per year.  The core business of Acorn has always remained the same; the manufacture and supply of Acorn Stairlifts.

For years Acorn offered only one model, and one color selection.  This was straight rail with 15’ 8” of rail, weight capacity of 294 lbs, swivel seat at the top of the stairs, and a mauve color seat on the chair.  They also had several options available.

Acorn StairLifts and options available

These days, or currently, Acorn is now offering straight stair lifts and they have now introduced a curving stair lift.  Some of the options available on the current stair lifts is a Perched Seat (Designed for users who have trouble bending at the knee),  Sit and Stand Frame (Designed for multiple users with different requirements, the Superglide Sit/Stand Stairlift allows the user to either sit or stand),  Outdoor Stair Lift (For those who require a stairlift outside their home, Acorn can provide a fully weather-proofed stairlift ideal for outdoor use, supplied with a durable waterproof cover for extra protection),  and the new Acorn 80 is designed for more complex staircases with intermitted landings, curves, or spirals.

Features on all Acorns   

   

All Acorns have digital read outs that basically let the user know what their stair lift is doing.  You can see more on this in the video Acorn Stair Lift at the bottom of this post.

Installing a Acorn StairLift

When the stair lift is installed, the rail is either custom cut from the factory, or cut on the job site by qualified installer.  In some states permits are required, so always inquire to see if you live in one of those areas.  As someone who makes a living installing stair lift for other companies,  Acorn are very easy to install, and one of my favorite ones to install.  In most cases I can install a Acorn within a couple of hours, I tend to work a little slow sometimes.  If I have to cut the rail on the job site, it may take me a little longer due to having to relocate the charging stations on the rail.

Acorn includes  a install manual for those who want to install it themselves.  Acorn can custom cut the rail in the factory and when you recieve the stair lift, the main tools you need to install a Acorn will be two (2) #10 metric wrenches (highly recommend at least one of these to be a ratchet wrench) to join the two rails together (Acorn’s rail comes in 2 piece and is joined together during install), one (1) #13 wrench, a #2 phillips screw driver, a #3 phillips driver and a drill to attach the rail to the stairs.  Also a very small tip flat screw drive is very helpful to attach the charger wires.

My personal thoughts and experiences about Acorn 

Acorn Stairlift Folded

My personal thoughts about Acorn is this is one of my favorite stair lifts to sell and install.   I like Acorn because as a someone who makes a living at installing and servicing many different stair lifts for several companies through out the country, I can always depend on Acorns to work as they are suppose to.  Whenever something does happen, I can call the customer and ask them what is on the display, and by whatever code is showing, I can determine what is wrong, and quite often tell the customer what to do without making a trip. This saves the customer from a service call, plus saved me from having to make a trip.

The first Acorn I installed was around 1999.  At that time they had lights on the armrest, and it depended on the sequence on the lights on how to trouble shoot.  Later they offered a single display 1 through 9, and it depended on what code as to what they stair lifts was doing.   The number 1 code most always showed whenever the stair lift was sitting on the charging station, charging, and ready to go.  Code 2 meant the stair lift is not charging, Code 5 means the key switch is turned off, and so on.  Each code means different things.

Today Acorn has a double digit display, which allows even more codes to be used.  When you purchase a new Acorn, you will get a manual that shows all the codes and what they mean.

One of my customers called a couple of weeks ago and said his Acorn had a Code 5 and it would not work.  Over the phone I told him to turn check to see if the key switch had been turned off, and over the phone was able to get his stair lift back in operation.

Recommendations

Most of my business is service on stair lifts, elevators, and dumbwaiters.  Every once in a while I can’t repair something, and the customer has to buy a new stair lift.  In most cases I recommend Acorn because of their reliability and ease of use.  So, would I recommend Acorn as a good stair lift for most stairways?  Yes I would recommend Acorn.  Highly.