Lift Chair Not Working? What to Check First

Few household moments cause as much sudden worry as a lift chair not working when someone depends on it. The person is seated, presses the button, and nothing happens — or the chair stops halfway through a movement and refuses to continue. It feels alarming, especially if the chair is central to getting up, lying back or moving through the day.

Here is the reassuring truth that after-sales teams will confirm: a large share of “broken” lift chairs are not broken at all. The cause is very often something simple and external — a plug nudged loose during cleaning, a cable pinched under a wheel, a switched-off wall socket, an object under the chair blocking the mechanism. These are things you can find and fix yourself in a few calm minutes, with no tools and no technical knowledge.

This guide is a step-by-step checklist to run through before you pick up the phone. Work down it in order, and either the chair will come back to life along the way, or you will arrive at the call to support already knowing exactly what to tell them — which makes their job faster and your repair sooner.

In brief

• Start at the wall, not at the chair: socket, switch and plug solve a surprising number of cases.
• Check the full cable path — transformer box, connectors, and any point where a cable could be pinched.
• Test the remote control: connection, buttons, and any locking function.
• Look under and behind the chair for objects blocking the mechanism.
• Know how your battery backup behaves — it exists exactly for moments like this.
• Never open motors or force the mechanism; if the checklist does not solve it, call after-sales support with your notes.

First: make the person comfortable, then troubleshoot

Before touching a single cable, look after the person in the chair. If the chair has stopped in a reclined or lifted position, help them settle comfortably where they are — a cushion behind the head, a blanket, a glass of water within reach. Troubleshooting goes faster and calmer when nobody feels stranded, and almost every situation allows a few unhurried minutes.

If the person is in an uncomfortable or unsafe position and the chair will not move at all, skip ahead to the section on the battery backup, which exists precisely for this scenario, and to when to call support.

Step 1: the wall socket

It sounds too obvious to mention, and that is exactly why it belongs first. Check:

• Is the plug fully seated in the socket? Vacuum cleaners, curious grandchildren and cleaning days loosen plugs constantly.
• Is the socket switched on, if it has its own switch?
• Does the socket itself work? Plug in a lamp or phone charger. If the lamp stays dark, the problem is the socket or a tripped breaker — check the fuse box.
• Is the chair on an extension lead or power strip? Test the strip’s switch and try the chair directly in a wall socket. Power strips fail more often than chairs do.

Step 2: the cable route and transformer

Follow the cable with your eyes and hands, from wall plug to chair:

• The transformer box (the block partway along the cable on many models) — check that cables enter it firmly on both sides. Many transformers have a small indicator light; note whether it is on, off or blinking, because support will ask.
• Connectors under the chair — the connections between cable, control box and motors can loosen if the chair has been moved or cleaned around. Press each accessible connector gently together; never force anything.
• Pinch points — look for a cable trapped under a castor, caught in the mechanism, or crushed between chair and wall. A pinched cable can cut power intermittently, which explains chairs that “sometimes work”.

Step 3: the remote control

The handset is the part of the chair that lives the hardest life — dropped, sat on, splashed and tugged. Check it in this order:

1. The connection. On corded handsets, follow the cord to its plug on the chair and make sure it is fully inserted. A half-seated handset plug is one of the most common findings of all.
2. A lock function. Some handsets can be locked to prevent accidental operation — a feature that is easy to trigger without noticing. Check your manual for a lock symbol or button combination.
3. Every button. Try each function, not just the one you need. If some movements work and others do not, that is valuable information: the chair has power, and the issue is likely one motor or one channel. On chairs with independent motors for the backrest and leg rest, one function can pause while the others continue working normally.
4. Visible damage. A cracked casing, a button that feels different from the others, or a kinked cord near the plug are all worth mentioning to support.

Step 4: look under and around the chair

Lift chairs are designed to stop when something obstructs their movement — a safety behaviour, not a fault. Check:

• Under the chair: slippers, books, pet toys, a fallen remote, the edge of a rug folded into the mechanism.
• Behind the chair: is the backrest touching the wall, a radiator or a windowsill? A chair pushed too close to the wall may stop mid-recline simply because it has nowhere to go.
• Beside the chair: bedding or clothing hanging into the gap between seat and armrest can reach the mechanism below.
• The chair’s position: if the chair has been rolled to a new spot, check that it is standing level and stable, and that no cable was stretched or unplugged during the move.

Remove anything you find, then try the controls again. If the chair stopped because of an obstruction, it will usually resume normally once the path is clear.

Step 5: the battery backup

Many lift chairs include a battery backup whose whole purpose is this exact moment: letting the chair return to a safe, neutral position during a power cut or cable fault. Two things matter:

• Know how yours works before you need it. Read the manual’s battery section on a calm day. Some systems engage automatically when mains power fails; others need a specific input.
• Remember it is a reserve, not a power source for daily use. Use it to bring the person upright and safe, then solve the underlying power problem.

Chairs built around battery operation — the Sollevita among them — follow different logic again — some run primarily on a rechargeable battery and simply need charging. If your chair moves around the home on battery power and wheels, a chair that “stopped working” may just be a chair that is asking to be recharged: check the charge indicator and put it on charge before assuming a fault.

Step 6: give it a moment

Motors on care chairs are designed for cycles of movement followed by rest. After an unusually intensive period of use — repeated repositioning, several transfers in a row — some control systems pause the motors briefly as a protective behaviour. If everything else checks out, let the chair rest for a while with power connected, then try again. If it resumes normally and the pattern only appears after heavy use, mention it to support anyway so they can confirm it is expected behaviour for your model.

What the symptoms are telling you

Before calling, it helps to translate what you observed into a clear description:

• Completely dead, no light, no sound: almost always power supply — socket, cable, transformer, or a discharged battery.
• Clicks or hums but does not move: the chair has power; the issue is more likely mechanical or motor-related. Stop trying and call — repeated attempts do not help.
• One function works, another does not: points to one motor, its cable or one handset channel.
• Stops partway, always at the same point: check for obstructions and wall contact at exactly that position.
• Works intermittently: classic sign of a loose connector or pinched cable somewhere on the route.
• New noises — grinding, scraping, knocking: stop using the movement that causes it and call support. Noises are information; forcing through them turns small issues into big ones.

Quick reference: symptom, first check, next step

What not to do

A few firm boundaries protect both the chair and you:

• Do not open motor housings or the control box. There are no user-serviceable parts inside, and opening them can void your warranty.
• Do not force the mechanism by hand or push down on a raised footrest to “help” it close.
• Do not keep pressing buttons against a chair that clicks, hums or strains — you may worsen a small fault.
• Do not improvise electrical repairs, tape over damaged cables, or swap in chargers and transformers from other devices.
• Do not tip the chair over to inspect underneath while someone is near it; if you must look below, do it with the chair unoccupied, unplugged and with a second person if the chair is heavy.

When to call after-sales support — and what to have ready

If the checklist has not revived the chair, it is time for professionals. Call promptly rather than living with a half-working chair; faults rarely improve on their own. Have this ready when you call:

• the model name and any serial number (usually on a label under the seat or on the frame);
• your proof of purchase date, for warranty purposes;
• a clear description: what works, what does not, when it started, any lights or sounds;
• what you have already checked from this list — it saves the support team repeating the basics.

This is also where the quality of the supplier shows. A chair is a long-term companion, and it deserves a manufacturer that answers the phone years after the sale. Sollevita chairs are covered by a defined warranty, delivery and service programme, with spare parts and aftercare available long after purchase — so a worn handset or a tired cable is a small order, not a crisis. Whatever brand sits in your living room, keep your supplier’s service contact somewhere findable, ideally taped inside the manual.

When to ask for a consultation

If your current chair struggles repeatedly — frequent stops, recurring cable trouble, a mechanism that never quite suits the person using it — the underlying issue is sometimes not a fault but a mismatch between the chair and the person or the room. In that case it is worth talking to a specialist before spending more on repairs. The Sollevita team offers a free fit check: a no-obligation conversation about the user’s needs, the room and the daily routine, which will tell you honestly whether your setup needs a fix, an adjustment or a rethink. You can also simply get in touch with a description of your situation.

Conclusion

A lift chair that stops working is unsettling, but it is rarely a disaster. Settle the person first, then work outward-in: wall socket, cable route, transformer, handset, obstructions, battery. Most chairs come back to life somewhere along that path. And when one does not, you will call support not in a panic but with a precise report — which is the fastest possible route to a chair that lifts, reclines and hums along again as if nothing had happened.