MangarArchimedes Bathlift

This review was written back in July 2022 and I've lived with it for over seven months now so by all means read my first reactions but go to the ps for my reactions having had it seven months.Not had it long so this is first imprssions; what faults that may arise are yet to be discovered.Anyway very first impression; it looks and feels very sturdy and well made but looks wise it's a bit utilitarian, looks like something out of an institution and is old fastioned, something left over from the fifties. But looks arn't everything solong as it does the job.Sitting on it, it feels very sturdy and give one confidence it can handle a very heavy weight. The action is smooth, both going down and coming up again. The motor is not totally silent, there is a slight whiring from the mechanism, but nothing you can't live with and it tells you everything is working as it should.Once in the bath, for actual use, the seating postion is too upright for my likeing, I like to lean back, relax and have a good soak. The seating postion, bolt upright like a dinning chair, preventing leaning back which is some what frustrating but does induce you to get on with the matter of bathing and not waste time just lazing till the water goes cold; bath time now takes much less time than it used to.While in uses there is a constant plastic rattle, at first if sounds like somethings broken, it's okay, it's just the side flaps rattling their hinges and taping the bath sides with the motion of the water, you soon get used to it.Now today, a big problem occured, I came to run a bath only to find the bath lift battery was totally out of power, zilch, nothing. A recharge takes hours, overnight is the recommended time, so it was bath without the aid of the lift or nothing. But silly me I left the seat in the bath. So I had a bath without the meccanical aid to get out again and the inconvenience of not been able to lean back. But once I wanted to exit the bath, where it had (in the past) been difficult for me to climb unaided from a normal bath it was now doublely difficult to get out with this inert bath lift in the bath with me restricting my movements.I am now looking to aquiring a second battery pack so I can have a charged one in reserve.The instruction video does say if the seat is in the up postion it won't go down if it doesn't have sufficient power to get back up again. Which is fine if you left it in the up postion in the first place but not if you left it in the down postion which I do as it looks that bit neater.So if you are not into just lying back and lazing in the water and just want to get in, clean your self and get out again. Then if you remember to keep the battery charged this will do the job.But if I ever need to replace it I won't be getting another. I'll belooking into one that allows me to lean back or even one of those canvas strap ones that once they've lowered you in take up practically no room at all and you can uses the bath as normal.P.s. After seven months now I am really missing not being able to lean back in the bath and just relax and soak while listening to the radio.Back in the day, of just jumping in and out of the bath unaided, I would lay in the water for up to and sometimes longer than an hour; until the water got cold, just daydreaming and listening to the radio and it was very therapeutic and calming.Now with this ridged chair keeping me sitting bolt upright, once I've washed every part of my body, which only take a couple of minutes, I've no desire to remain in the bath as sitting upright is not conducive to relaxing and/or meditating.So bath times are now much shorter; which in a time saving sense is good, but in a relaxation sense is not so good and I'd rather have the relaxation over the time saving.So next time, if there is one, I'll try to get one of those belt type ones, where you sit on the belt and it lowers you in and lifts you out again but while you're in the bath it takes up no more space than if you were sitting on a plastic sheet and it allows you full mobility in the water and to lay back and just relax.I did get a second battery pack and it as worked well as a back up and is reasuring to have it in easy reach so I can if necessary change battery packs even while still in the bath. Because that time I used the bath when the seat's battery was flat it made getting out even harder than had there been no seat there at all.So in all said and done after seven months of living with it I'd now reduce my star rating from four down to three.

The bath lift is what I needed so that I can once again enjoy taking a bath, however after about a month of use the remote battery will not take a charge. It even stopped working when I was lowered into the tub. It would not raise me back up and it was very uncomfortable getting up from the lowered position. I had yo purchase a new remote after only being used for a very short time. The new remote is working fine, but I don't believe that I would repurchase this lift.