Bathing Aids
Bath-Knight Easy-Access Showers: Comfort on a tight budget
Jun 10th
Many manufacturers build bath solutions for mobility impaired individuals. However, what if you are in the mood for a relaxing shower rather than a bath?
This is particularly true when it’s a hot & sultry summer’s day – after all, who wants a warm bath then? Or even a cold bath?
This is where mobility showers comes into play.
They allow you to either stand or sit inside a watertight chamber, and take a shower, without being concerned about the area getting waterlogged. Better still, these solutions need less space and less modification to your existing set ups than installing a full-fledged mobility bathing solution.
However, you must be careful when purchasing a mobility shower. There are serious safety issues at play. So, from the crew at Mobility Compare, here are a few simple guidelines:
First of all, make sure the shower floor is made of non-slip material, for obvious reasons. Wet floors can be more slippery than you think, and a nasty fall can easily cause permanent body damage. In fact, the Dept of Health cites slips and falls as the ‘biggest single cause of mortality for people aged 75 or over’.
He should have taken our advice…..
The shower we recently tested, Bath-Knight to be exact, had an excellent non-slip floor, which was also easy to clean. This product has attracted the attention of our team, but we’ll talk about that in a minute.
Secondly, it is always good to have a sturdy handrail on the shower wall that you can hold comfortably while standing straight. This will provide additional safety benefits, especially if you have difficulty standing because of your mobility impairment.
It is even better if the shower has a seating option. That way, you will be completely safe while you enjoy your shower.
Care-Knight, the manufacturer of the Bath-Knight shower range we just mentioned, seems to have thought of all these factors, and then some. The Easy Access Showers from this renowned manufacturer come with an option for getting instant hot water, from the moment you walk in. The shower panels are watertight and have a safety catch, ensuring that not a drop of water falls outside while you take your shower. A grab rail and seating arrangement further ensure complete safety to you while using the shower.
This was one of the very best showers that we found, especially for people on a tight budget and not much space in the bathroom. Do not forget to consider this shower in your hunt for the perfect walk-in shower solution.
Finally, if you don’t want to purchase a new shower or bath yet your mobility is failing, take a look at fitting a grab rail. Homecare from the Consortium sell a really good grab rail (and even a standing pole if you need further assistance from a static mobility aid). They can be reached by clicking here whilst Bath-Knight can be reached by clicking here.
No, it’s not for pole dancing…
Bath-Knight’s poets’ corner
May 17th
There are two poets’ corners in Britain. The first one nestles in the South Transept of Westminster Abbey where luminaries such as Tennyson and Robert Browning are buried. The other resides within the website of one of the UK’s leading bathing aid companies – Bath-Knight.
Yes, you heard correctly. The family run mobility company actually has a section of their website given over to customers who prefer to register their satisfaction with an ode or two dedicated to bathing aids. With 100,000 satisfied customers, Bath-Knight hasn’t been short of willing participants although as the volume of poems has risen, so has the obvious toilet humour – as one would expect from a poetry section given over to bathrooms, showers and baths. After all, there are only so many poems one can write about bath lifts.
Mobility Compare’s favourite poem was written by Mrs Pullman who wrote a surprisingly clever ditty:
Arthritis and a failing sight
Combined to spoil my bathing night
That gorgeous soak of utter bliss
Not something that I wished to miss
My life’s now changed-I soak with glee
Thanks Bath-Knight-You rescued me
Whereas Wordsworth, TS Eliot, Keats and Burns all have memorials at Westminster Abbey, by contrast Mrs Pullman was given a listing on Bath-Knight’s website and a free ‘soap on a rope’.
Still, it’s satisfying to see a mobility company interact with their customers in this way. In a UK business culture obsessed with profit & loss, revenue and offshore balances sheets, it’s good to have a family run business remind everyone that real success is based on satisfied customers. No more, no less.
It’s a Mini Marvel!
Mar 31st
From time to time the staff at Mobility Compare come across a product that puts a smile on our face….
The first one to pass our desks is from a company called Co-op Xest who sell the seated pedal exerciser. What’s that you might ask? Well, it’s like a bicycle without wheels – you just sit in your chair and pedal away to your heart’s content. Call it couch potato fitness as all the exerciser needs is a side pocket for the nachos and a microwave for the melted cheese.
It does have a serious point though – Deep Vein Thrombosis is a killer and is usually caused by people staying motionless in their seats for hours on end. That’s why airline passengers are particularly susceptible to DVT. So, for people who cannot leave their seats or are seriously disabled, we think this is rather a neat machine. Thumbs up!
Another product we like is the Mini Marvel from Aquability. The name sounds like something Cadbury’s would make as an Easter treat but it’s actually a tiny walk-in bath that fits into small, small spaces. For disabled people who have small bathrooms it’s a superb solution because it has all the options of a larger bath packed into one tiny space.
You can even get a 12 jet air spa option – just make sure you have the door shut when you turn on the jet, for obvious reasons.
So, those are our two products of the week. Please send us any further product news to Mobility Compare blog @ 4th Floor, River House, 143-145 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3AB.
Aquability, why I like them
Mar 22nd
Working behind-the-scenes in the mobility industry, as I do, sheds light on many practices employed by certain mobility companies. Some are good, some not so good. That’s why I’m always eager to flag up those companies in the field who actually care about their customers and deliver on their promises. Read: they don’t rip people off.
I feel passionate about this because most people who need a mobility product are often more vulnerable than other members of society. This is especially true of older people who are particularly susceptible to con-men, cunning sales tactics and generally being taken advantage of.
If there is one thing that you learn from this blog, it’s this: never arrange a product demo from anyone who is unwilling to give a guide price OVER THE PHONE. This is Mobility Rule #1.
What happens if you don’t follow this advice, of course, is that you might receive a home visit from 3 heavies who won’t leave until you’ve signed on the dotted line. At treble the price you expected. THEREFORE GET A PRICE OVER THE PHONE.
That’s why I like Aquability. Talking to other colleagues dotted about the industry, Aquability have a strong reputation for being reputable and trustworthy as well as manufacturing state-of-the-art mobility products. In fact they are the #1 manufacturer of walk-in baths and walk-in showers with tens of thousands of happy customers. They also provide a world-class handicap bathroom for people with severe disabilities.
All together…..aahhh
Of course, there are a number of other really good mobility companies out there, so what makes Aquability so special? Well, what I like about them is that they employ their own fully qualified and trained engineers which means that there are no ‘extras’ to the workmen who have noticed that you need a special plumbing ‘re-route’ which will be “an extra £grand, unfortunately, Sir.”
Factor in Aquability’s tendency to fit their products in just one day (typically) , I’m not surprised that other colleagues in the industry rate them so highly.
A family-run business based in Farnborough, in Hampshire, you could do a lot worse than check out their products out if you’re considering a walk-in bath or shower.
Oxford Dipper
Dec 22nd
At MobilityCompare we do everything we can to remain fit and healthy. After all, in our day to day work we’re frequently writing about the maladies that plague a significant minority of the UK’s population (alongside the mobility aid solutions to solve them).
We’ve since become acutely aware of the fragility of life and made it our mission to try and remain as healthy as we can before our own bodies start to creek and groan. Clue: it’s earlier than we thought!
In west London, near the M3 just over Chiswick bridge in London, there’s a superb health club called Roko which we’ve settled on as our gym of choice. Easy to get to and park, great staff and a relaxed atmosphere all make it perfect for the MobilityCompare team to try and maintain its health & fitness.
Our exercise regime? We prefer swimming to any other activity, although one of our number curiously enjoys Thai boxing as he tells us it is the best way of keeping fit whilst adding ‘self protection’ capabilities. By our reckoning, the cost of attaining ‘self protection’ abilities is the odd black eye or two…or three!
We tend to avoid running , not because we don’t enjoy it, but rather we know too many adults in their 50’s and 60’s who now have considerable problems with their knees as a result of running thousands of miles in their younger years. Swimming, because it doesn’t put excess pressure on the body or ‘jar’ the joints is the perfect alternative.
Imagine our surprise, therefore, when suddenly we visit Roko and find a huge contraption overhanging one of the swimming pool lanes. Upon further investigation it appears that the product in question is the ‘Oxford Dipper’.
The Oxford Dipper is produced by Dolphin Mobility, a respected name in mobility products based in Surrey, and is used to lift and lower people out of the water using a hydraulic lift. With a weight capacity of 22 stone it is the perfect way for individuals who have great difficulty getting in and out of the water to actually overcome the issue.
But what’s impressed us more than anything else is that a brand new health club, launching in difficult economic circumstances, has invested over £4k in equipping its pool with a mobility aid for just a few of its users. They needn’t have done that. The fact that they have is a sign that mobility products are becoming more mainstream and also a reflection of the club’s own standards in meeting the requirements of all its users, not just the fit and healthy.
Impressed? We were.
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