Lightweight Wheelchairs

If you're a wheelchair user, one of the new lightweight wheelchairs available might be better for you than one that's of a heavier weight. That depends on your situation, of course, but if you're active and want a wheelchair that's easy to maneuver and get around in, one of the newer model lightweight wheelchairs might just be for you.

Advantages to Lightweight Wheelchairs

Today's lightweight wheelchairs are every bit as sturdy as their heavier weight counterparts, but they're much easier to maneuver and transport. So, you get strength and lightness in one chair, which is an advantage. It's much easier to push this type of chair in outdoor situations, too, and the frame and wheels adapt themselves to rough terrain much easier so that you don't just have to limit yourself to the indoors.

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Popular Brands

Perhaps the most popular brand in lightweight wheelchairs today is the Quickie. In general, these chairs are going to cost around $1000, but they're made of aluminum titanium, which is very sturdy and should last several years for even the most active user.

Popular Frames

Most lightweight wheelchairs come with two types of frames for you to choose from. That is, rigid or folding. Both of these have advantages and disadvantages.

Folding wheelchairs have many of the advantages of rigid frames, but they're generally easier to transport. That means, if you're driving in your car and you need to sit down in the front seat, pull your wheelchair up to fold it, and stick it behind your back seat, you should have a much easier time doing so with a folding lightweight wheelchair. The wheels can stay on your folding lightweight wheelchair, which means it's less messy to take in and out of your car, too. With these types of chairs, generally, the foot pedals fold up so that they can stay on the wheelchair when you fold it; they'll also detach if this is easier for you.

Rigid frame lightweight wheelchairs are generally more stable on rough ground than are folding lightweight wheelchairs, so they're better for lots of outdoor use. One of their disadvantages, though, is that the frame itself does not fold, so it's a little tougher to transport. Folding frame wheelchairs, for example, fold up to very narrow dimensions so that they can fit in small spaces like the backseat of a car. By contrast, the rigid frame wheelchair's dimensions are its seat width plus a couple of inches for protuberances. With the rigid frame wheelchair, you take the wheels off by what are called "quick release axle" options to make it "narrower" for transport; although the wheels are very easy to release, remember that wheels do come into contact with the ground and can be dirty. This can mean that it's quite messy in bad weather or snow, for example, to disassemble and reassemble your wheelchair when you're getting in and out of your car.

Finally, some people use both rigid frame and folding lightweight wheelchairs, depending on the user's needs. For example, rigid frame wheelchairs are better for very active sporty-type activities, while folding frame wheelchairs are much easier to transport, as previously discussed, and therefore may be better used when you're going to work at a relatively sedentary job or are going to be indoors.