Bath lifts (and bath belts)

The purpose of a bath lift is to enable someone who finds bending, sitting or climbing (over the rim of a bath) difficult, to be able to enjoy bathing in safety. The bath lift allows the bather to sit on the elevated bath lift seat from the outside of the bath tub. They can then swing their legs into the bath and activate the lowering mechanism of the seat. There are many different variations on the bath lift (and bath belt) design. Some use hydraulics whilst others use inflation, some have backrests and some do not. The important thing is to get the bath lift that suits your bathing needs and bathroom layout.

What is a bath lift?

Most bath lifts take the form of a plastic chair seat (and often a backrest) that is suspended over and supported within the bath. This lift can then be lowered or raised in and out of the bath so that the bather can enjoy a lying, seated or partially suspended bathing experience.

Some bath lift seats may have arm rests which can be used to help the bather ease themselves in and out of the seat and a reclining backrest may also be an option. Wings, that are hinged and project out either side of the seat before folding as the seat is lowered, are common on many bath lift models.

Bath lifts can be manual or motorised and controlled remotely by the user. Some lifts are fitted as permanent fixtures, some require a small amount of set-up time to position and locate them, whilst others can be quickly and easily removed to enable the bath to be used without the lift in place.

How the lift works

The basic motorised bath lift is suspended over the center of the bath and it requires the bather to be able to step over the side of the bath in order to sit on the lift. (This is not true of bath lifts in walk-in baths.)

However many modern bath lifts are designed to allow the bather to sit on a secondary seat section that projects onto (or over) the side rim of the bath. Once sat on this the bather can easily swing their legs over the bath rim whilst in a seated position and then gently slide themselves into the centre of the lift’s seat.

Once the bather is safely sat on the chairlift, they can remotely control the lowering (and any reclining) of the lift into the bath. Most lifts will lower themselves down to the base of the bath allowing a normal bathing posture to be enjoyed.

Lifting and lowering mechanisms

As bath lifts have increased in popularity so have the means by which they are powered and operate. All adopt a lowering and raising principle, but the way in which this is achieved can vary dramatically.

A manual lift can use a folding or a hydraulic action and may require the help of a second person or a carer.

An electric lift (the most popular type) uses a motor to effortlessly raise and lower the bather and it may have fixed or "infinity" stopping positions.

An inflatable bath lift takes the form of a chair which can be inflated and deflated to lower and lift the bather in the bath. Compressed air does the work and this type of lift has a spongy (air filled) seat. Importantly, this kind of lift can often be highly portable making it ideal to take to a hotel or a friend’s house that is not suitably equipped for a less-abled or mobility restricted person.

A combination of the electric chair lift and the inflatable lift is the bellows lift which looks like a chair, but that uses compressed air in an inflatable bellow between the chair and the base of the bath. A motor either fills or empties the bellows of compressed air and this in turn either raises or lowers the bather. Like a seat based lift and a belt lift this king of aid will usually have a side rim seat section for the bathers to use when getting into or out of the bath.

To find out how a bathing belt lift works, please see the next section on this page.

Bath lift versus bath belt or band

The difference between a seat lift and a band or belt lift is very simple. Unlike a seat, a belt or band is a flexible band of material that is suspended between a fixing (and a motor) on the bath-side wall and a trestle and a bath-side seat on the open side of the bath.

The belt slowly lets down the person seated upon it by releasing a further length of the material which in turn lowers the bather into the bath. The belt is then “wound-up” to lift the person back out of the bath into a suspend position. This type of bath lift is very effective, but requires some permanent fixings and this means that it cannot be removed easily.

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