Lift Chairs Explained: A Simple Way to Improve Comfort and Independence
When most people think about furniture shopping, lift chairs probably aren’t the first thing that come to mind—and honestly, they weren’t front and center for us either when it came to what we sell. That changed when we started hearing from concerned family members looking for a reliable, readily available solution for their loved ones. Their urgency shifted our perspective, and we knew we had to respond. That’s why we decided to include lift chairs in our stockyard program, ensuring they’re always either in stock or already on order—because whether you need a long or short term solution, you shouldn’t have to wait.
Lift Chairs as a Short Term Solution
One of the most common reasons people begin exploring lift chairs is the need for extra support immediately following a surgery or injury. Whether it's a short-term solution during the recovery phase or a temporary aid during physical therapy, a lift chair can make a remarkable difference in both comfort and mobility. After surgical procedures—particularly orthopedic surgeries like hip or knee replacements, abdominal operations, or spinal/back interventions—patients are often advised to avoid straining their core or lower body muscles. Simple actions like sitting down or standing up can become painful, challenging, or even risky. That’s where a lift chair truly shines. With the press of a button, it gently elevates and tilts forward to help the user ease into a standing position without exerting unnecessary pressure on healing muscles and joints. For many, it becomes an essential part of post-operative care, even if only used for a few weeks or months.
Lift chairs also play a critical role in fall prevention. The transition from sitting to standing—and back again—can often be one of the most unstable and risky movements, particularly for those with limited mobility, balance issues, or muscle weakness. Lift chairs are designed to provide steady, motorized support during these transitions, allowing users to move safely and confidently without the fear of losing balance or straining vulnerable areas of the body. But beyond safety, another major benefit of lift chairs lies in the comfort and pain relief they offer. Most modern lift chairs come equipped with multiple reclining positions, including zero-gravity or near-flat configurations. These positions are not just about relaxation—they serve a therapeutic purpose. Elevating the legs above heart level, for example, can significantly reduce swelling, improve blood circulation, and alleviate pressure on the lower back and joints. For people dealing with conditions like arthritis, edema, or back pain, or for those simply recovering from a recent procedure, this kind of positioning can be a game-changer in managing pain and promoting healing. Combined with plush padding, heat and massage features, and user-friendly controls, lift chairs become more than just furniture—they become a valuable tool in the recovery and wellness journey.
The Long-Term Benefits of a Lift Chair
For some, a lift chair isn’t just a temporary aid during recovery — it’s a long-term solution for ongoing comfort, mobility, and independence. In these cases, it’s especially important to invest in a high-quality chair that will continue to support your needs for years to come.
Beyond offering a cozy place to relax, lift chairs provide real functional benefits. As we said above, the reduction of fall risks promotes greater independence and dignity in everyday life, while also easing the physical demands placed on caregivers and family members.
For individuals with arthritis, chronic back pain, or joint issues, the adjustable reclining positions—especially zero-gravity—can significantly reduce pressure on the spine, hips, and knees. Many lift chairs also elevate the legs, improving circulation and helping to manage swelling, which is especially useful for people with diabetes, or other circulatory concerns.
Lift chairs can also make a significant impact on sleep quality, especially for individuals living with conditions such as sleep apnea, or acid reflux. For many people, lying flat in a traditional bed can actually worsen symptoms—acid reflux may intensify, breathing can become more difficult, and pressure points may cause restlessness or discomfort throughout the night. This is where lift chairs, particularly models with infinite position recline, truly shine. These chairs allow users to adjust the backrest and footrest independently, offering virtually limitless positioning options to find that perfect angle for restful sleep. By slightly elevating the upper body, users can reduce acid reflux symptoms and open up airways to promote easier breathing, which is especially helpful for managing sleep apnea. Additionally, the ability to raise the legs can help alleviate swelling and reduce lower body tension, contributing to a more restorative night's rest.
The Bottom Line: Why a Lift Chair Could Be Life-Changing
Whether used temporarily during recovery or as a daily part of life, a lift chair can be a long-term asset in maintaining not just comfort, but also overall health, safety, and independence. For individuals navigating the challenges of surgery, injury, or aging, the right lift chair can dramatically improve quality of life. It provides reliable support during physically demanding movements while also offering therapeutic benefits through customizable recline positions, improved circulation, and pain relief. Perhaps most importantly, it empowers users to regain a sense of control and autonomy in their daily routines, reducing the need for constant assistance and helping them remain confident in their own homes. In this way, a lift chair is more than just a piece of furniture—it’s an investment in long-term wellness, peace of mind, and dignity.
Transcription:
Hey, it's Mike with JaxCo Furniture. Today we were talking about reclining lift chairs. So, we're going to be assembling some of these. I'm going to show you how they work, show you some of the features and the benefits. We have two different models set up right here, we have a number of them. Almost every single company who does motion furniture has their own version of lift chairs. Lift chairs, lift chairs and recliners. Recliners start around $299 dollars, $399 in manual. And your lift recliners are going to start usually somewhere around $599, and they can go, you know, the sky is the limit depending on if you want leather, all the heat and massage, and all those kinds of bells and whistles.
A couple of features are going to be almost the same across the board, and all of them are going to lift like this. It's a very slow lift that comes up because you don't want to shoot grandma out of the chair and, you know, launch her across the room. You're going to have a remote that stays with the chair, so you don't lose it. You have the features like we have here so that you can be lifted out. You also have a recline feature where it goes back just like a traditional recliner and many of these have heat and massage that's kind of just standard across the board for people who are in these chairs, and they need some help getting up and out.
So, we're going to talk about assembling these now. This is a leather version, that's a fabric version. It doesn't really matter, the assembly is basically the same on most lift chairs and recliners, so we'll dive into that now.
OK, we're taking our recliner out-of-the-box. As you can see, you can read the labels. Here we are upside down with the arrows pointing that way. This is the easiest, simplest way to unbox a recliner. If you watched our nightstand video, we did the same exact thing with a nightstand. You can do this with most furniture, be very gentle about how you're putting it onto its head. This keeps you from damaging the furniture but it's OK temporarily. I wouldn't store it like this over a long period of time, but it's a very simple way of getting out if you're a one man show as I am today, or woman show. We're going to take all of the flaps; I'm going to pull them all the way out. Now when we do this, you can see the bottom of your recliner, lift chair, whatever you're opening now, some of your hardware is going to be in the bottom of this, OK? You're going to have to get your battery pack out of here a lot of times, like right now this is zip tied in here, so, if you want to zoom in on this, we have our battery pack zip tied in the bottom. It's always going to have a red little ribbon. This is so that you don't lose it or throw it away. As happens often whenever someone's setting up a recliner, or anything that has parts included. So it’s zip tied to the bottom. Just cut that zip tie and pull it out. With this particular piece, we have the battery pack and a cord and then we also have a second set of feet that's in here. So, for this particular model, this is a, this is a lift chair that we're obviously opening up. This lift chair has the ability to be adjusted with higher feet so make sure you have those, again, they're going to have a red ribbon. If it has a red ribbon, bring it out. It'll also be in the plastic bag. You'll see the difference besides that and just regular normal parts in here.
All right, we'll take our plastic and move it all the way out of the way. Put your knife down, and then we're going to flip this chair over onto its end. And we are ready to assemble our recliner. OK, we've got our recliner lift chair out of the boxes. The first thing that we're going to do is we're going to attach the back into the bottom and then we're going to attach all of our wires. If you just have a manual recliner that doesn't have any power that goes to it, then no need to worry about wires just connect the 2 pieces, recline it, and you're good to go.
So the first thing that we're going to do and we'll have some zoomed in versions of this, but we're going to take our female part, connect them to the male part from the bottom and once they lock in and you know the recliner is ready to be used. So, the first thing to do is get everything on the glides. This is not a place to be gentle. You can push this down hard and you will hear a very audible loud click. That means you did it right.
Now we're going to take this recliner and fold it back over. We're going to assemble, excuse me, attach all of our wires. We have three different particular wires for this one. This particular one says message. This is going to go into the back portion. This one says massage, this goes into the seat portion, so you have massage for the back and for the seat you also have a heating pad in there. So, all three of these are now connected. This has Velcro on either side and the and the back. So, we connect our Velcro in the appropriate places. We can stretch it nice and tight and bring the fabric down to the edges of the Velcro, steal it and make sure it looks good. And then we're going to bring this down.
The next step is to take our battery pack that we took out from underneath the recliner. We're going to connect that. We have again these male, female connection pieces right here. So, these need to be untied and then they are connected again, we'll show you a zoomed in version of what this looks like. We have a connection piece right here. This connection piece goes here and locks in. The other end of this goes to our battery pack as so. Lock and we're going to take this and we're going to put our recliner down, make sure it's where we want and plug it in.
The battery pack is now connected, and now we have got to determine if it passes what I like to call the sit test. Is it comfortable? Does it work? The heat’s already working. Message works. Now, can I get lifted out of my chair, again lift chairs don't move very fast you don't want to shoot grandma or grandpa over across the room so this lift chair seems to be working just fine all the plugs work great .
That's how you assemble a recliner and a lift chair if you have any questions leave them in the comments would be happy to help. I’m Mike with JaxCo.