Which Shower Seat or Shower Chair Is Best?
What’s the difference? A Shower Seat is a stationery seat such as a clear plastic stool or maybe a shower chair. Confused? A Shower Chair is best referred to as a mobile chair, a Shower Chair on wheels.
Whenever we discover our mobility reduced from illness, aging or maybe a crash we run into many “issues” which confront & confound our everyday living activities. Notwithstanding every other concern, the day bathing regime of ours is perhaps the toughest to handle in a dignified fashion.
While we may suffer from some diminished mobility for some time and be able to cope using a regular shower seat and grab rails, from the experience of mine it’s better to accept the trouble we’re experiencing out of a beginning stage and to get ready for a gradual worsening of ours. It’s much simpler to handle the situation from a place of relative strength than to hold back until we are important.
Many of us are living in a home or maybe an apartment; we rent, without a handicap accessible bathroom. Great. But when we experience several mobility restrictions the bathroom we’ve been used to, hinders the power of ours to the bath. Most bathrooms aren’t created for the disabled.
The choices are to often do a bathroom remodel or even to conquer the barriers that the present bathroom has by finding a shower bench system that fits us and the room layout. A bathroom remodel is the very best long term feature but this will cost somewhere up to $10,000 and can’t be undertaken. Many bathrooms remodel are going to take between 7 10 days and disrupt the home during this time. This might not always be an issue, in case you have the resources out there and you have a second bathroom you can use while it undertakes the bathroom. Failing this it may be bothersome.
Now presuming you selected the bathroom to remodel you need to end up getting a good handicap accessible bathroom and wheel-in shower. Make certain you check all of the design parameters with the designer to make certain it creates the brand new floor gradient to drain to the shower drain and never out into the passageway carpet. Do not laugh; this matter is much more typical than you may well think. Yet another design step is to make certain that if not the entire room, then as big a location of the handicap accessible bathroom as you can is graded to slope to the drain. A slope of 1" to the drain is enough. This can permit you lots of room in the shower chair of yours with no water working off’ outside the drainage inclining area’. You ought to also make sure that a nonslip flooring surface area is installed. While tile and granite might look good these surfaces can be quite slippery when wet and are best stayed away from.
If you manage to complete a bathroom remodel into a handicap accessible bathroom design, or perhaps possibly you bought a home with this currently inbuilt then you have to select the very best mobile shower chair for you. There’s a great choice of mobile shower chairs in the marketplace nowadays. The best advice of mine is buying a quality product, one which is going to offer you many years of service instead of one that’s affordable these days but might not be the best or safest value for cash with the longer term.
I suggest you decide on a movable shower chair which provides you as a minimum the following features:
-Value for cash i.e. is made from durable, high strength substances like stainless steel as well as lightweight aluminum. There are many shower chairs on the market built from steel with epoxy paint coatings. Something built of steel and used in damp environments will break down and show signs of rusting over time. Rust is additionally a structural weakening issue on steel frames, therefore safety is going to be compromised.
-The shower chair should have safety features like all four castors locking, to enable secure transfers from the bed to chair. Castors must be 5" (125mm) not smaller as smaller castors don’t run too and can make maneuvering over thresholds etcetera tough. Check that the shower chair runs effortlessly without the castors wobbling.
Users as well as -caregivers should’ like’ the shower chair. It has to be very easy to make use of for the carer and comfy for the user, after all, they’re going to invest time in this shower chair every day.
-By’ liking’ the shower chair I refer to the general perception, very first impression of the shower chair by the carer as well as the user. I discover this way too many shower chairs are hospital such as on look as well as color. I wouldn’t want a black, grey, chrome or white chair. Some coloring brightens the day and also eliminates that clinical look while still performing the same features. A good example of using color may be observed in the Shower buddy shower chairs that have splashes of color that is orange with the orange areas also typically being adaptable.
-A commode system has to be integrated as well as the shower chair has to be in a position to roll with the toilet.
-The shower chair must be completely adjustable in seat height to match the user, the footrests ought to fold at bay and be removable and be height adjustable. Armrests must be lockable when in the down position to let the user balance as well as an anchor against in case they have to — plus be in a position to be folded out of how or even removed entirely if needed throughout side transfers.
-If you selected a tilting shower chair (and I completely recommend this) the tilt alternative must be infinitely varying out of a minimum of 0 degrees to thirty degrees. The tilt choice is best managed by locking struts rather compared to manual adjustment pins etc. Also, be sure that any tilt choice is sleek in operation and has a safety stop, in the event of a failure the end-user will just go back to the safety stop, not topple back.
-Any shower chair with a tilt feature should have a completely adjustable neck sleep to allow for the user’s head as well as the neck.
In case you’re not able to remodel the bathroom of yours due to the price, or even due to disruption and time constraints, then you definitely are going to need to think about the way you are able to enter the shower stall or even the way you are able to go on to get yourself over the bathtub, In case you presently shower with the tub.
There are many methods to transport you in a mobile bath chair from bed to bathroom, to then glide over the tub to get a shower. There’s just one patented system offered that’s created to transport you into the shower stall. Once again, the tip of mine is buying a quality, sturdy merchandise since you’re likely to be placing all of your trust and weight upon that bath chair as well as a shower chair as it slides you with the tub or perhaps directly into the shower. You can relate to the site below for some investigation into the kinds of bath chairs as well as shower chairs out there.
For transfer methods I also suggest you decide on a chair which provides you as a minimum the following features:
-All of the above-mentioned characteristics associated with a mobile shower chair.
-With transfer methods, the structural design of the rolling chair base, the transfer tracks as well as tub base device must be actually of probably the highest specification. There are many methods we have today that have been created around the price, not the safety of the user. The end-user should be safe during some methods and the transfer look as well as think under secure, having vertical leg supports with no horizontal bars or transverse to stabilize the devices during transfers. I do not see these devices as offering protection or safety or maybe a long term economic viability.
-The system must also have a tilt feature to lift the user’s legs as they transfer/slide with the tub.
sturdy base and -A safe device that fits into the tub, with a side stabilizer system to suit some width tub, but simple to remove as well as store enabling the tub to be worn by able-bodied users.
-A perfectly height adaptable tub base product.
-There are satisfactory non tilting transfer methods offered. The sole concern being the carer has to lift the user’s legs with the tub as they slide over. Ensure that the user has a footrest in the tub after they’ve been transferred. Only some methods include that element and this can be quite uneasy for the user with no foot support in the tub.
I am hoping this assists a person in considering the bathroom alternatives of yours.
