If you have a particularly narrow staircase you might need a slimline stairlift. Some stairlifts are designed specifically to fit in narrow and tight, awkward spaces. The go-to stairlift for us when this is the case is the Flow X stairlift from Access BDD, formerly Thyssen. We have fitted this particular stairlift to many a staircase which otherwise wouldn’t have managed to house a stairlift.
That’s because the Flow X is rather special. Let us explain why!
Slimline Stairlift – The Flow X
The Flow X is a german engineered marvel which is designed especially for very narrow staircases and difficult, awkward spaces. Here you can see one fitted to a narrow staircase. There’s a door at the base of the stairs and an awkward turn.
But the Flow X has a few “aces” up its sleeves! Not only does it have a single, elegant rail, but it comes packed with technology which allows it to manoeuvre where other stairlifts don’t dare to tread! It’s patented ASL technology allows it to pivot and move simultaneously, facing the user downstairs, while avoiding obstacles such as the handrail and newel post of your stairs.
In this short video you can see the installation process and the stairlift in action at the end of the video:
Slimline Stairlift – Single Rail
The single rail also has a few versatile features, such as the “drop nose” design. This allows the lift to be placed almost anywhere and avoid obstacles such as doorways and corridors. You can even avoid the bottom floor, using the first step as the starting point if this helps. Here’s a picture of the drop nose rail avoiding a door at the bottom of the stairs:
The Flow X is a top of the range stairlift which we often use for awkward fittings where other stairlifts simply can’t be installed. Checkout our case study for a narrow stairlift here, where we explain just how tricky this particular fitting actually was. In fact, another stairlift installer passed this project to us because they didn’t use these speciality stairlifts, and their models of stairlift simply wouldn’t fit this staircase.
Slimline Stairlift – When Do You Need One?
As you would expect this stairlift is considerably more expensive than a standard model which would generally do the job for a lot less money. So, if you don’t really need it, another model would often be more than adequate. Still, we do recommend our reconditioned stairlifts. When in stock a reconditioned Flow X or Flow 2A can shave a hefty sum from the final price. See our stairlift prices.
We usually only recommend this particular brand when no other stairlift would fit your stairs, particularly if you’re on a budget.
Book a free, no obligation assessment and one of our engineers can measure your staircase.
Call us on 0800 046 3438 or visit our contact page.
Summary
There’s many makes and models which fold down and are fairly unobtrusive to other users of the home. But we feel the Flow X takes the award here for the slimmest and most unobtrusive stairlift available today! It folds down to just 38cm in width when not in use and is capable of navigating stairs as narrow as 62cm in width. It’s patented ASL technology (Advanced Swivel and Levelling) sets it apart as one of the nimblest machines available – allowing it to navigate very tight corners, bannister rails and newel posts!
You can park the Flow X anywhere on the rail which means it’s out of the way of corridors and doorways. With the Flow X, the rail can be manufactured to be as unobtrusive as the stairlift. The “drop nose” design cleverly avoids basement doors and corridors where necessary. Some other brands don’t allow for this; particularly if their rail system needs a “run-off” at the end.
Interested in this model, or any other of the stairlifts we offer? Give us a call on 0800 046 3438 or visit our contact page and leave us a message.
You can also visit our YouTube channel here and check out some more of our videos of installations.
