I have been using a Permobil Chairman since January of 1999 (the same chair). I have found that there are pros and cons to ALL chairs. The feature that I do not like is that it sits way higher than all the other chairs. In other words, I have a hard time fitting under tables and can barely see out my van. Uncool.
I will be in the same boat looking for a new chair at some point and I have no idea what I'm going to do. The other problem with Permobils is that when something goes wrong - it is very difficult for a waiting process to get the parts in. The company is from Switzerland and, even though they do have one office in the United States in Tennessee, that does not seem to make much difference. I do not need a chin control but when I go to look for a new chair and whether I choose Permobil again as well... the chair will have to have a Recline AND Tilt feature again which I have now. I do not know what I would do without the tilt feature now for a myriad of reasons. And if I were going to go the Permobil route again I would choose the "up and down" feature. I did not get it with the current chair because that feature is used mostly for people who can access upper kitchen cupboards and things like that but I do not have enough movement to be able to open cupboards or things like that. However, when it comes to putting the batteries in -- it cannot be done without turning the chair on its side or whatever they have to do to get the batteries in. In my case, I have had to stay in bed while my husband has taken the chair down to a vendor for replacement batteries. If I had chosen the "up and down" feature -- they would easily be able to slide the old batteries out and the new ones in with me in the chair. Choosing a new chair is a tough call. Let us all have good luck when it is time! Lori Michaelson Age - 45 C4/5 complete quad, 29 years post Tucson, AZ On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 2:26 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Any Permobil users? > > I've always had an arrow or a storm. My new storm is not working out. I'm > thinking Permobil C 350 corpus or the C 500 RS. Is there any advice you can > give between these two. I know the 350 is rear wheel drive and the 500 is > front wheel drive. They both say they can go 6.5 mph. But are the motors the > same? Battery life the same? I do need a chin control. I'm not going to wear > that harness. I'd like to mount the chin control on a swing away arm. > Anybody out there like that? What kind of switch do you have to switch > modes? Any advice is appreciated. > > Sean > c-4 > 19 yrs post > > ------------------------------ >
