New Electric Wheelchair Set Up Right, From Day One in Coventry

An electric wheelchair delivered to the door is rarely ready for its first journey. Batteries may need connecting and charging, the chair may be partly disassembled for transport, controller settings are usually generic, and small things — tyre pressures, seat position, armrest and footrest settings — are whatever the factory thought, not what this user needs. A proper setup visit turns the delivery into a working chair, and this page explains what that involves.

What a setup visit covers

Assembly first: any parts that arrived detached — seat, backrest, armrests, footrests, joystick — are fitted according to the manufacturer's instructions, with every fixing secured properly rather than hand-tight. Batteries are connected correctly, with terminals clean and secure, and the pack put on a proper first charge. Tyres are inflated to the pressures printed on the sidewall. The seat, backrest, armrests and footrests are set to sensible positions for the user's build and how the chair will be used — as adjustments within the manufacturer's design, not as clinical recommendations.

Then the electronics: we power up the controller, check its settings against the manual, confirm speed settings and any user profiles are appropriate for a new user learning the chair, and read the display for any fault codes the factory or transport may have left behind. The free-wheel or drive-engagement levers are checked. Finally, we test the chair under load — driving, turning, stopping, and the brakes holding — before anyone's full weight trusts it for the first time.

Teaching the controls

A new chair takes getting used to, and the setup visit includes time with the user: how the joystick responds, what the display tells them, how the speed settings change the chair's character, how to engage and release the free-wheel levers, how and where to charge, and what an error code looks and sounds like if one appears. We also cover the simple safety habits that matter from day one — brakes on before transfers, feet clear when folding, charging in a dry spot — and answer questions until the user is confident.

What we will and will not decide

We configure the chair to its manufacturer's design and to settings appropriate for a new user, and we secure everything properly. We do not make medical or clinical claims, and we do not certify the chair as suitable for anyone's medical needs — that decision belongs to the user, their family and carers and the manufacturer's specifications, including its weight limit, which we will always point out rather than advise around. If the user has healthcare professionals involved in their seating or mobility, their guidance takes precedence over our settings, and we will happily adjust the chair to match.

Early days

The first weeks of a new chair are when teething problems surface, and most are simple: the joystick feeling sharper than the old chair, range being lower than expected until the batteries bed in, settings that turn out to need tweaking in real use. We would rather you called us about something small than sat on it, and we will tell you honestly whether what you are noticing is normal running-in or something needing a look. Charge the batteries fully and routinely from the start — the habits set in week one decide how long the pack lasts.

Registration and paperwork

Keep the purchase documents, the manual and any warranty registration the manufacturer requires — warranties are between you and the maker, and we will not make claims about what one covers. We are happy to point out what the manual asks you to do on delivery, because missed registration steps cause avoidable disputes later.

Booking

When you book, tell us the make and model of the chair, whether it is fully delivered and unboxed, and anything about the user and the environment we should know to set it up sensibly — doorways, slopes, storage location. You pay a booking fee when you book, labour is hourly at a rate depending on how soon you need the visit, and the full cost of the setup is quoted and approved before we begin.