Two weeks ago I talked about options for renting a wheelchair for your vacation. This week I’m going to talk about buying a wheelchair. This article is going to be a little different than my usual ones for two reasons. One, while you might be buying a wheelchair for your vacation, I’m going to talk about some things outside the world of vacations and theme parks. Two, I have a coauthor! My friend Pink sent me some notes for this article, and frankly she’s funnier than I am so I’m leaving a lot of her stuff intact. But before I get into how to buy a chair, I’m going to talk about the two wheelchairs I own. 

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Back in April, I found myself in a situation that left me unable to walk unassisted. While I had crutches, and have been on them multiple times in my life, I knew they weren’t going to be enough for getting around theme parks. Which is where I spend most of my free time, and I go too often for renting to be cost effective. Looking for a quick and easy solution, I went to Amazon. I found a Drive Wheelchair that was super affordable and had over twenty thousand positive reviews. And it was at my house two days later. 

For what I paid for it, it’s a good chair. It’s cheap, it’s fairly lightweight, and it gets the job done. All those positive reviews come from people buying this thing for vacations. How do I know this? We now play Bingo with how many we can spot when we’re in the parks, because other than park branded rental chairs, it’s the most common wheelchair you will see. It’s a great chair if you’re just trying to get through a one-week trip or for occasional use. But it’s really not comfortable after the first day, or even the first few hours. The wheels aren’t the greatest for self-propulsion (rolling yourself in the chair) and the handles hurt the hands of the person pushing it. And this probably isn’t true of all models of this chair, but mine is somehow in desperate need of an alignment. It pulls to the left. 

But I made it work with the help of my friends who are happy to push me around. 

It just so happens that while I’ve been going through all this, my friend Pink has been going through a similar situation. Except she uses her chair more than I do because my job is more crutch friendly than it is wheelchair friendly, while hers is the opposite. And throughout our decade plus friendship, she’s kept me sane on a lot of things and coaching me through navigating life with a wheelchair has been no different.  

Towards the end of June, I went to see Mickey for the first time while using my chair. And it was a bit of a mental flip because I normally just walk up to Mickey and hug him, it’s a little trickier in a wheelchair. Still doable, but I had to think about it a bit. My Overdrive chair isn’t super conducive to hugs because the arms and sides of the chair get in the way, and I was terrified I’d accidentally hit Mickey in the ankle. But we made it work, and I got my hug. And I didn’t think anything of it when I relayed this story to Pink later. 

The next thing I knew, I had ten years’ worth of birthday presents show up at once when a Medwarm Wheelchair arrived at my door. I cried so hard when she told me the arms flip back for hugging Mickey. But beyond its functionality for hugging mice, this chair is a night and day difference in comfort compared to my other chair. The best comparison I can make is comparing a store brand $100 computer chair with a top-of-the-line gaming chair. You think it can’t possibly be worth the price difference until you sit in it all day. It’s wider. The cushions are better. It’s more supportive. It breaks down into smaller pieces for getting it in and out of the car. The handles are easier to grip for someone pushing the chair. It’s easier to wheel myself. This chair is just so much better in every way, and I don’t know how I’m ever going to repay my friend for getting it for me. It’s made going to the parks so much more enjoyable again, and easier for everyone in my party. 

I told you that to tell you this. You may think you’re just buying a chair to get through a one-week vacation. As I write this, my last knee surgery was fourteen years ago today. I never thought I was going to need crutches again. I never thought I’d need a wheelchair for more than a few days, which is why I got a cheap one. I was wrong, and now I’m only comfortable due to the generosity of a friend that I’m not quite sure I deserved. Look at all the options before you just go the cheap and easy route. Because disability is fluid and you never know what’s down the road. 

Now I’m going to turn this over to Pink and her guide for buying a wheelchair. 

I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this, you’re not looking to get a custom-made wheelchair. If you have the money to get a custom fit ultra-light rigid chair for daily full-time long-term use, go to a place that specializes in that and get it from them. This is for people buying chairs on Amazon and Ebay. 

So, first of all, know what you kind of want. I’m going to just list things that were important to me. Your list might be different. 

1. Weight: If you’re loading your chair into your car and unloading it, you NEED it to be a weight that is safe for you to do that. The general rule with wheelchairs is that the lighter it is, the more it’s going to cost. You’re going to be on your own for balancing cost and safety.
2. Total width and seat width: The narrower your wheelchair, the more places it’ll fit. But a chair where the seat is too narrow is going to be annoying to sit in. 
3. Getting into and out of it. Your mobility level is going to decide for you what kind of entry and exit things you need. 
4. Self-propel vs friend-propel. Who makes the chair go? If you make the chair go, your needs will be different from if your friend makes your chair go. If both of you make the chair go an equal number of times in this world, you’ll need to balance both needs. 
5. The other final bits: what wheels do you need? What about foot plates? Real wheel size? 

I suggest using all of these to build your mental ideal wheelchair, even if you know you won’t buy it. Why? Because wheelchairs are durable medical equipment. A wheelchair is sometimes going to last longer than someone’s disability, and they’ll reach a point where they no longer need it. A reasonably-cared-for 10-year-old wheelchair is not that different from a new one, except in price. So, figure out what your ideal thing is, and then go see what’s available used on Facebook Marketplace and Ebay Local Pickup. You probably won’t find your ideal chair, but you’ll maybe find one you like for much cheaper than new. 

I use my chair at work for like 9 hours a day. My opinions on the five criteria I just made up: 

1. Weight. If you can’t get a lightweight wheelchair, the next best option IMO is to get one with quick-release wheels. Putting the frame into your car in three pieces will always be giving you three pieces that weigh less than the weight of all three pieces together. Magical science there. It also makes it easier to fit in smaller places. 
2. Width. There’s a guide to fitting a wheelchair that you measure your booty when seated and add 2”. My chair is actually a little bit small for me, but I’m comfortable with it because of the convenience of being narrower on the total chair. However, I also set my wheels to have 2 degrees of camber, which makes the bottom of my chair about the width of an 18” seat with straight wheels. The first wheelchair that I used regularly was a 20” seat and honestly it was pretty fine for the two months that I used it. Just in general, bigger seat is more comfort, but more inconvenient. Measure your butt and get what you need. As a note, ADA law requires pathways be at least 36″ wide but in California that law is 48″ so you may have a slightly different situation at Disneyland than Disney World. Most places in the world are 36″ and that’s where you start getting into issues in stores with people blocking the aisles.
3. Transfers. I’m generally pretty able bodied except that only one leg works, so I don’t worry too much about getting in and out. If you’re likely to stumble over things, or have to get into or out of the chair using only one foot, getting foot rests that fold up or swing out is important. If you’re going to transfer into the chair by putting a chair next to the wheelchair and sliding over, you need arm rests that get out of the way. 
4. Propel. Cambered wheels make it easier for you to push you. They make it harder for friends to push you. No push handles make it easier for you to turn sharply, definitely impacts how friends can push you. A more forward center of gravity makes you easier to push you, but more likely for your friends to accidentally tip you over. I self-propel most of the time so I have cambered wheels and a forward center of gravity, but still have push handles because sometimes I need help. 24” wheels are easier for you to push but harder to fit in a car, so if someone’s always pushing you, smaller wheels can have an advantage. If you usually have someone pushing you, they might want hand brakes. If you live somewhere with a lot of hills, you might want anti-tippers. The first thing I did was take those off, (and Chelsea is getting rid of hers as soon as she finds a wrench the right size). If you have a pusher that lives on the edge and believes curbs were made to be conquered, you might want to look for something that has a tipping pedal for them to be better able to pop you into a wheelie and get places.
5. I’m a big caster and full tread kind of girl because I go outside and I don’t want cobbles to stop me. I like the steepest foot plates so that it’s more like sitting in a chair, but if I had an injury, I’d want an elevating leg rest to elevate my leg when it’s resting. 

I didn’t talk about folding vs non folding because you rarely find non folding chairs aimed at the very entry market. Rigid chairs are easier to self-propel, but are more annoying to transport. I drive a Honda Fit and need my wheelchair to Honda fit in it. 

Since I knew what I wanted, I found a used wheelchair on Ebay for $500, and I knew it’d be a good (Honda) fit for me. If I hadn’t known what I wanted, it would have been a waste of $500 to get this chair and then find it unsuitable. This particular chair has a ten page ordering form that almost everything can be customized and I lucked out finding one used that matched what I would have wanted almost exactly.

If you’re buying a new chair off Amazon or somewhere else, I’ve had good results with this one by Medwarm on Amazon, good balance of price and features. This is the one I sent Chelsea. The friend I borrowed it from for my first two months in a wheelchair has had it for over three years and it’s still looking good. If you’re loading and unloading and you’re a little less stable, the Feather Chair has really good ratings and only weighs like 20lbs with wheels on. I know a lot of people who’ve used Drive Blue Streaks for years and been totally fine. My only recommendation is that, no matter what chair, get yourself a wheelchair cushion that fits it. Butts weren’t meant to sit on a fabric sling. If you live in a hot place, be aware that cushions that advertise easy wipe clean or good for incontinence WILL turn your butt into a swamp. Those things do not breathe. 

For reference, my chair: Quickie 2 Lite, about 35lbs with wheels, 80 degree swing away foot rests, no arm rests, no anti-tip, 2 degree camber (adjustable) 15wx17l seat, handmade fenders, 3” cushion. Back adjusted to be lower so I have more mobility. 

And now we’re back to Chelsea. I could have rewritten what Pink gave me, but she does a better job of explaining than I could in this case, and I’m still snickering over Honda Fit. 

I use my Medwarm 99% of the time now. I still have my Drive chair; its currently sitting in my entryway holding a stuffed giraffe. It’ll eventually make its way into the garage until we have to fly somewhere again. And yes, while there are circumstances where you don’t have to check your wheelchair, a flight attendant friend of mine told me I’d be better off not taking the good one and I trust him. 

• Larger investment. Can cost more than renting. 
• You have to transport it not just from the hotel to the park, but from home to the hotel. Which means loss of trunk space and risk of damage while flying. 
• If you have a problem with it or it breaks, you have to fix it yourself. 
• You have to store it long term and while on vacation. 
• If you don’t like the one you buy, you’re stuck with it. 

If I didn’t live where the rest of the world vacations (see what I did there?), I’m not sure I would have chosen buying over renting. But I do live here, and I now own not one but two wheelchairs for meeting my needs. And friends coming to visit won’t have to rent since I have a spare. But my needs and my disability are not everyone’s, and I sincerely hope this article helps you reach the decision you need to. 

I have one more article planned before I start getting into the park specific guides about wheelchair accessories and why gloves are important. See ya next time!