I've been looking after my elderly dad for the past 14 years. He's 94 now. Thankfully, he's remained mostly independent, doing most daily activities for himself (e.g. showering, bathroom, laundry, dressing himself, etc.). However, as the years have gone on, his body is slowly giving into its age.
Recently, he's begun straining hard to stand up off the toilet. After he called out to me in the family room a few weeks ago to help him because he didn't have the strength in that moment to get up off the toilet, the situation became an immediate urgent need. I didn't feel comfortable leaving the house for more than 30 minutes at a time, in case he found himself in the same situation.
I researched various options and found that toilet lifts were a thing. Unfortunately, what I saw initially was extremely expensive ($1000+). Then, I came across the MCombo option, priced at half that and with strong reviews. I took the chance and am glad we did.
I ordered this toilet lift Feb. 22nd. It shipped two days later from California via FedEx and arrived at our home in Virginia on March 3rd. So, altogether, a fairly quick turnaround of 9 days.
One suggestion I have for MCombo is to provide some kind of handle or holes in the box to provide a grip. The box is extremely heavy and bulky with no way to easily carry it. As a matter of fact, the FedEx delivery person just dropped it off in the middle of our driveway far from the front door. At first, I was rather angry at such terrible delivery service, but when I went to retrieve it, I quickly understood why they did that. I couldn't lift it or even push it along. I ended up having to "roll" it end over end to the door, hoping I wasn't damaging any parts to the device inside.
In any event, I was able to put the lift together within a couple hours. It was mostly easy, but the instructions only provide picture drawings, little to no word descriptions, so there were a few guessing games during the build, but it worked out. That would be a second suggestion to MCombo: Make the instructions manual easier to understand by adding word descriptions to each step. The pic drawings alone can be somewhat confusing.
Also, there's no actual toilet seat included, so you either have to transfer over the one already in use on your toilet or buy a new one, which we did (we went with the round padded kind, not the elongated kind) since his current seat was a bit worn out.
Once the device was put together and the new padded seat attached on top, I placed the lift around the toilet bowl, plugged it in and tested it out. It worked great, though slow (which can be a good thing) and seemed to rub against the bowl slightly at its lowest point, making a quick brief initial shake and noise going up and down, which I had to warn Dad would happen. Otherwise, it's been a wonderful help.
Dad is beyond happy and thankful. I didn't realize how much anxiety and strain the toilet situation had been giving him. He feels free again with it, and so do I. Very happy customers after one week of using it. Highly recommended in this very early stage.
