How To Clean Chairlifts

Chairlifts can be dust magnets the best method and products to use to clean your stairlift are described below. Cleaning your stairlift should be a simple straight forward job. A quick dust down twice a week with a cloth duster or feather duster should be more than adequate.

Avoid using water or cleaning solvents at all costs. For straight stairlifts with aluminium tracks/rails can be wiped over with a damp cloth (Damp Not Wet) Then buff dry with a clean cloth.

The seat chair/carriage can be cleaned using house polish! Spray the polish onto the cleaning cloth then rub and buff to a shine. (Never spray the polish directly onto the chair/carriage)

Spraying house polish directly onto the stairlift carriage could cause damage to components and circuit boards! If too much polish is applied it can find its way (Drip) through air vents etc. And cause S/C Short Circuits or corrode delicate components on the printed circuit boards.

Curved stairlift rails/tracks should never be cleaned with any type of solvents. Avoid house polish and DWD (Engineering oils) like the plague. Curved stairlifts use a system where the speed of the stairlift is monitored using an RMU! A roller sits on the rail and as your stairlift moves this roller rolls along the rail sending pulse information to the operating system.

Cleaning the curved rail with solvents will cause the roller to lose friction and skid. This action causes the stair lift to receive wrong pulses and the stair lift will stop/shutdown. Typical symptoms intermittent stop starting! The stairlift will travel a few inches then stop. This symptom could also be caused through flat batteries.

If you have to remove marks from the rail a good rub with a damp cloth should remove most marks. For stubborn marks a light rub with wire wool or light gauge emery paper is all that is required. The rail should appear matt/ dull not a shiny gloss colour.

The cleaning of your stairlift should be undertaken by a qualified engineer who should clean and lubricate the stair lift following the manufacturer's specification and guidelines on its annual service inspection.

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