Should I get a prescriptive or basic powerchair? It’s a big question, and an important one for first-time powerchair buyers to get right. As with many mobility product topics, there’s more than meets the eye to the answer to this one.

Firstly, “basic powerchairs” often aren’t really what you’d call simple products. Second, there is a bit of a blurred line between basic and prescriptive powerchairs. How so? One example would be the options for the Quickie Q100 R and Q200 R. There are several “configured options” for those two Sunrise Medical powerchairs. Feel free to get in touch regarding pricing, components included within these configured bundles, and the reduced lead times, and we will be happy to help.

Even where it’s not a matter of a full bundle of add-ons, some of the most humble powerchairs do carry meaningful customisation choices. For one, attendant control, one of the single most transformative options which a powerchair can have, is available across the whole spectrum of these products.

One of the main attractions of basic powerchairs is that they tend to be on the lighter side of the weight spectrum, making them more appealing for travel use.

Why Go Prescriptive?

The greatest advantage and the greatest challenge when going prescriptive are both well-known. Prescriptive powerchairs tend to be much higher-performance (unless it’s a question of weight, where the basic powerchair wins out for those needing a lighter option) This performance comes at a price though. Fortunately, there are payment plans and finance options available for many of the prescriptive powerchairs which Lifestyle & Mobility provide. Charitable funding is another way to secure a prescriptive powerchair.

Regrettably, the technology and engineering skill required to produce a transformative product at the calibre of, say, the Permobil F5 VS Corpus, will never be cheap. That said, Lifestyle & Mobility always endeavour to make even the highest-level prescriptive products available to the widest possible number of users. So, you can be assured that you will get an extremely competitive price from us, in addition to decades of experience at your service.