One of the joys of an Acorn Stairlift – and one of the things which most surprises and delights our customers – is that it fits right in!
In other words, in the vast majority of cases a new Acorn Stairlift can be installed in your home without disruption or upheaval, with no messy and potentially damaging structural work, and no rewiring or redecoration needed.
Our customers are also routinely astonished at just how quickly an Acorn Stairlift is installed by our highly trained engineers. A simple straight stairlift can usually be up and running in around an hour. A more complex curved stairlift will take a little longer, as our industry-leading FastTrack® curved stairlift rail is assembled on site to precisely follow the unique contours of your staircase.
Even then, it can be done in just a few hours, and the real joy of FastTrack® is that it massively slashes the waiting time from order to installation for a curved stairlift. Traditionally it would take several weeks for a bespoke curved rail to be manufactured in a factory then shipped to your home. A FastTrack® rail is assembled on site from a wide selection of interlocking rail sections, each with the necessary degree of rise or curve.
Your initial free home survey will establish which sections our skilled Acorn installer needs to assemble your bespoke rail, and his well-equipped van is his mobile warehouse and workshop. It all means that an Acorn curved stairlift can be installed within a few days of your order being placed. We’ve even done it the very next day in exceptional circumstances where urgency is uppermost.
All Acorn Stairlifts fix securely to the stairs, not the wall, so there is no drilling through plaster and into masonry, or fixing wall plugs or masonry bolts which could work loose over time. It also means there’s no need to redecorate once the stairlift is in place. In some cases, such as where the staircase is unusually narrow, we may need to remove an existing bannister rail. You might also need to move any framed pictures hanging on the wall closest to the stairlift, to avoid catching them when riding up and down, but that’s about it.
You won’t need to rewire either, which would also mean redecorating. Acorn Stairlifts run off the normal domestic electricity supply – all you’ll need to do is free up an existing plug socket close to where the stairlift rail will be fitted. The power supply runs to the rail and then to two charging points within it, one at the top and another at the bottom. Whenever the stairlift carriage (the part you ride on) is ‘parked’ at either of these charging points, the electricity supply ‘tops up’ the powerful batteries located inside the carriage.
Because power is only needed to top-up the batteries, Acorn Stairlifts are very cost-efficient to run. It also means that if there’s a power cut, your stairlift will continue to run on its powerful batteries, so you’ll never be left stranded on the stairs. A set of fully charged batteries in good condition will hold enough power for more than 10 return journeys on straight stairs and more than eight on a typical curved staircase, which should allow plenty of time for your power supply to be restored.
Our Acorn engineers also clean up after themselves, so you shouldn’t even need to get the vacuum cleaner out. If it wasn’t for your brand new Acorn Stairlift being in place and ready to use, you’d hardly know we’ve been! Incidentally, all of our installers and home surveyors are employed and trained directly by Acorn. We don’t use subcontractors because we are committed to maintaining the highest standards ensured by our in-house and regularly revised training programmes.
Finally, because our Acorn Stairlifts fit in so quickly and easily, they also come out the same way. If you no longer require your stairlift, it can be unplugged and removed with barely a trace that it was there. The only evidence will be some drill holes in the stair treads, which won’t show if they are under a carpet or can be easily filled and finished if they’re not. Acorn also operates a tried and trusted Relocations programme to help you sell your used Acorn stairlift, which can also be expertly removed and reinstalled in its new location by trained Acorn engineers.
For more information about any aspect of buying, installing and using an Acorn Stairlift to enhance your daily quality of life, give us a call for free today on 0800 016 9760.