I remember my neighbor’s father. He was a stubborn man. For almost six months the new recliner for his living room sat in the corner, still half wrapped in plastic from the shop. Eventually his hip surgery took longer to recover from than expected and one afternoon he sat down in it. Now it is his “command center” and he uses it every day.
The story of my neighbor’s father sitting in a chair that his family had bought for him for almost six months is one that I often think about when people ask me whether or not electric recliners are worth the cost of older adults.
What “practical” actually means here
What “practical” really means here, is whether or not a product will actually work for someone in their daily lives and make things easier for them. For someone with arthritis, chronic back pain, or recovering from hip surgery, getting up from a low sofa can be a real struggle. An electric recliner can make a huge difference for someone in this situation, as the chair can lift up and down for them, taking a lot of pressure off of their knees, hips, and lower back.
Supporting People Down and Up. There are many people with arthritis, chronic back problems and other mobility problems who find it very difficult to get down into a sitting position on a low couch or sofa and then get up again. An electric recliner with a lift function can take a huge amount of pressure off of the knees, hips and lower back of such people when they are sitting down and when they are standing up.
In summary, there are a number of older people who are still quite mobile. They are not in need of a chair that will ‘lift them up’ in a recliner. They are looking for a comfortable reading seat and a chair to sit in for long periods of time. A good quality manual recliner would probably serve their purposes very well indeed.
The remote control. Genuinely, this matters more than people realize.
The remote control. This could be a major issue for older people with limited mobility. The remote control will be held for long periods of time by the person using the recliner. Therefore, the remote control needs to be easy to hold, easy to use, and to have big, clear, simple to read buttons and / or controls. A remote control with a small screen (touchscreen) and multiple buttons is probably not going to be any good for an older person with limited mobility. Ideally, the recliner would be controlled by a single button on the armrest, with the remote control being used as a backup, in case the button on the armrest fails for some reason.
That’s it. Full stop.
There is a problem with the motor noise of an electric recliner. Most people do not even think about it until they have bought the recliner and found out that it is too noisy for comfort. Some electric recliners are so quiet that you will not even know that they are on. Other models can be so loud that they sound like a small appliance that is having a rough morning. If the person using the chair to take naps then a quiet motor is very important.
What to Look for in an Electric Recliner for Older Adults
- Seat height relative to the user’s leg length, so feet rest flat on the floor when upright
- The firmness and depth of the seat cushion, since overly soft chairs can paradoxically make it harder to stand up even with lift assistance
- Armrest height and padding, which shapes how much the person instinctively uses them for support
- Whether the power cord placement works with the room’s layout without becoming a trip hazard waiting to happen
This is another problem that has been encountered by many comfort solutions designed for the elderly, in that they have created a new problem in place of the original problem that they were trying to solve. A seemingly perfect comfort solution for the elderly can, at the last moment, be ruined by the simple fact that the power lead for the comfort solution needs to go somewhere. This is not a particularly difficult problem to solve but it is one that is not often considered by those designing comfort solutions for the elderly.
Room placement and the spatial question nobody thinks to ask
To check for clearance of an electric recliner for the elderly, allow on average of 15 to 20 cm of space behind the chair for the chair to recline. Ideally this space would be between the back of the chair and the wall, but it’s better to have less space here and have the back of the chair rest against the wall, rather than have too much space and the back of the chair not go back far enough. However, it’s worth noting that having too little space between the chair and the wall can result in damage to the wall as the chair slowly but surely creates holes in the plaster of the wall over a period of months.
Measure first. Then measure again. Consider this your warning.
The best electric recliner for elderly is outlined in this resource.
A quick comparison worth making
| Feature | Manual recliner | Electric recliner with lift |
| Ease of standing up | Requires personal effort | Chair assists the movement |
| Adjustment control | Lever or body weight | Remote button |
| Best suited for | Mobile, independent users | Limited mobility or post-surgery recovery |
| Maintenance | Minimal | Motor and power cord need occasional checks |
So is it actually worth it?
The lift function of an electric recliner for elderly can be of great value in reducing the fall risk of people with arthritis. The act of standing up from a low sofa can be a hazardous activity for people with mobility problems. However, an electric recliner can help in this respect as the chair’s mechanical burden is absorbed by the chair when it tilts forward and the person is lifted upright. When the chair is set up correctly, with the correct seat depth, arm height and firmness etc. then the comfort can last for long periods of time and feel real.
For someone who doesn’t currently need a lift function but expects to in the future, it would be better to wait until the need for a lift function has already become apparent rather than to purchase a chair that could be ‘wasted’ in anticipation of a need that may never materialize.
My neighbor’s father had been looking exhausted and defeated for a while. One afternoon, he sat down in the chair and looked relieved. “This is my command center,” he said, and from that moment on the chair was not a symbol of his decline, but a reminder of his resourcefulness. Sometimes the most practical thing to do is to remove an obstacle between a person and the help they need.
