The names are close enough that people order the wrong one, and the two solve completely different problems.
A stairlift
A seat on a rail fixed to your staircase. It carries somebody between floors. The problem it solves is the stairs.
A lift chair
An armchair with a motor that tilts the whole chair forward, bringing somebody from sitting to nearly standing. It does not go anywhere. The problem it solves is getting out of a chair.
It looks like an ordinary recliner and sits in the living room. Some models also recline fully, and a few lie flat enough to sleep in, which matters for somebody who cannot manage stairs to a bedroom.
How to tell which you need
Watch where they struggle. Standing up from the sofa, several times an evening, with a push off the arms and a pause? That is a lift chair.
Avoiding the stairs, or rooms upstairs that have stopped being used? That is a stairlift.
Both? Common, and worth knowing that a lift chair costs a fraction of a stairlift. Do that one first and see what remains.
What a lift chair is not
It is not a hospital bed and it is not a substitute for one. Sleeping in a recliner long term has its own consequences and belongs in a conversation with a clinician rather than a furniture decision.
It also does not help somebody who cannot bear weight through their legs once standing. For that, a sit-to-stand device or a full lift is the equipment, and our transfer aids guide sets out the ladder.
Sizing, which people get wrong
A lift chair has to fit the person, not the room. Seat height so their feet reach the floor flat when seated. Seat depth so the back of the knee is not compressed. Width that supports rather than swallows.
Buying one from a photograph without sitting in it is how people end up with a chair that is worse than the sofa. Sit in it first.
What Medicare covers
This is the useful difference. The lifting mechanism of a lift chair can fall within Medicare’s durable medical equipment category, because the chair is portable and not attached to the house. The chair itself, the upholstery and the recliner function generally are not.
A stairlift is attached to the building and is generally treated as a home modification, which is why it usually is not covered. Our Medicare guide explains the line.
Coverage turns on documentation from your physician. We do not yet bill health insurance, and we say so early.
The cheaper things to try first
A firmer cushion, or a chair raiser under the existing furniture, sometimes solves the standing problem for very little. So does a grab rail beside the chair.
Those ship free from our online shop, and if they do not solve it you have lost very little. Our equipment page covers the rest.
Where to put it
A lift chair needs clearance behind it to tilt, more than a normal recliner, and it needs to be near an outlet. Measure both before buying, because a chair pushed against a wall cannot do what it was bought for.
Battery backup is worth asking about. A powered chair that cannot lower in an outage leaves somebody stuck in a tilted position, which is exactly the situation the chair was meant to prevent.
Weight capacity
As with every piece of equipment on this site, ask for an actual figure rather than an estimate. A chair operating near its limit every time wears faster and is less stable during the tilt.
Our capacity guide makes the same argument for stairlifts, and the reasoning is identical.
Try it in person
More than almost any other item on this site. Sizing is the whole thing, and sitting in the wrong chair for ten minutes tells you more than any specification.
Our showroom is walk-in during opening hours, and personal consultations are available by appointment so the equipment you came to try is set up when you arrive.
If the chair is not the answer
A firmer cushion, a chair raiser, or a grab rail beside the seat sometimes solves the standing problem for very little, and all of it ships free from our online shop. Our order of work puts the cheap things first for exactly this reason.
The two together
A household with both is common and sensible: the chair for the twenty times a day somebody stands, the lift for the two or three times they change floors.
Buy the chair first if budget is the constraint. It costs a fraction, it addresses the more frequent difficulty, and what remains afterward is a clearer question.
Getting out of it, not just into it
The tilt brings somebody to nearly standing. What happens next matters: is there something solid within reach to steady on, and is the route away from the chair clear?
A grab rail beside the chair, or a piece of furniture at the right height, turns a powered stand into a completed one. Plenty of lift chairs get somebody almost upright and then leave them with nothing to hold.
Fabric and cleaning
Unglamorous and it decides how long the chair stays pleasant to use. Somebody spending most of the day in a chair will spill things in it. Wipeable or removable covers are worth specifying at purchase rather than regretting later.