In a Nutshell:
A sturdy, robust chair, ergonomically-designed for added comfort, but better suited for indoor use. Foshan Ergonomic Lightweight Wheelchair is recommended for anyone looking for a mostly-indoor use chair.
Customization options
Ease of Use
Comfort
Performance
Overall Rating
4.3/5
Benefits
Drawbacks
A sturdy, robust chair, ergonomically designed for added comfort, but better suited for indoor use. Foshan Ergonomic Lightweight Wheelchair is recommended for anyone looking for a mostly-indoor use chair.
Unfortunately, this product has been discontinued. Check some of the best wheelchairs for elderly we’ve reviewed.
Are you suffering from a mobility issue?
If so, it’s almost certainly impacting your quality of life, but it doesn’t have to! The “right” wheelchair can make a huge difference, not only in terms of dramatically increasing your mobility but also in that it will allow you to get back out there and start enjoying many of the things you may have thought were lost to you forever.
If you’ve never heard of Foshan, you’re not alone. You can read more about it in our Foshan wheelchair reviews. It’s an off-brand, and the company doesn’t have anything close to the market presence of the industry’s major players, which is why we were pleasantly surprised that it ranked so highly in our roundup review, placing a solid second.
The Foshan Ergonomic Lightweight Wheelchair is sturdy and well-designed. Its ergonomic features are similar to the overall winner in our roundup review but offered at a significantly lower price.
While it has limitations, it’s an excellent choice for the right user and will improve your life.
In the following sections, we’ll review everything the Foshan wheelchair can do and explain what it’s not so good at. This will give you all the information you need to decide if it’s the chair you’ve been looking for. If that sounds good to you, read on!
Key Features of the Foshan Ergonomic Lightweight Wheelchair
The first thing you’ll notice about the Foshan Ergonomic Lightweight Wheelchair is its businesslike, utilitarian design.
It’s not that it’s ugly; it’s just…functional. That’s not a bad thing, and let’s face it, there’s not a wheelchair that can genuinely be described as beautiful anyway.
You’ll also notice it has a relatively low back, just 16.2” high.
Again, that’s not (necessarily) a bad thing, but if you’re a taller person and you know you’ll be spending lots of time in the chair, this one may not be a good fit for you.
Wheelchair Specifications
Here are the relevant stats for the chair:
The wheelchair weighs 37.5 pounds, making it the second-heaviest chair in our roundup review. That makes transporting it a bit more of a workout than it would be if you bought some other model, but the flip side is that it can support more weight than other chairs, at a hefty 285 pounds.
Adjustability
Adjustability is one thing that the Foshan Aluminum Lightweight Manual wheelchair doesn’t do so well. You can’t make any customizations at the point of sale, and the only two adjustment options on the chair are:
Note that the footrests also swing away (but do not move up or down), so you can pull the chair quite close to a table, which allows you to enjoy a nice dinner with your family (at home or a restaurant) without having to transfer from the wheelchair to a dining chair.
Comfort
Comfort-wise, the Foshan chair fares a little better. While this model isn’t well-suited to all-day sitting, and thanks to its low back, you certainly couldn’t take a nap in it, both the seat and the seat back are fairly well padded and covered with Oxford fabric. This plush, soft type of nylon is a nice touch that gives it a touch of class and is quite unexpected from an off-brand.
While it’s true that the presence of Oxford fabric makes the Foshan wheelchair more comfortable than the average wheelchair, you may still want an aftermarket seat cushion or back pad. Still, these are trivial expenses and easy to add.
Ergonomic Features
Let’s discuss ergonomics in our Foshan Ergonomic Lightweight Wheelchair review since that’s one of the model’s major selling points. This manifests in two primary areas.
First, in the slightly curved, desk-length arms, and second, in the design of the footrests, which also include a nylon support strap for the back of your legs, which comes in two sections, attached via Velcro. These are small touches, but they do make a surprising difference in the overall comfort of the chair.
While not strictly an ergonomic design function, it should also be noted that the front brakes can be easily accessed and locked by the person sitting in the chair. This is highly convenient and a feature we like. Other manufacturers should take note of this. We’d love for it to become an industry standard. Kudos to Foshan!
Anti-Tipping
The first “extra” to discuss here is the anti-tipping struts. This is a big deal and something not often offered by better-known brands on even more expensive chairs. It’s important because it increases the chair’s stability, and when you need to tip it back to get over a curb or something, it makes it far less likely to tip over and cause a spill.
Storage
The only other extra the Foshan chair offers is a small pouch on the back for storing incidentals. Unfortunately, it’s too small to use, so you’ll probably want to add an aftermarket storage solution.
Safety Belt Add-On
Note that the default chair doesn’t come with a safety belt, but the company does offer one as an add-on, and we recommend getting one. The reason is that the Foshan’s seat isn’t angled, so it’s like sitting in a straight-backed chair.
Many wheelchairs are configured this way, so we can’t count it as a strike against the model. However, from a practical standpoint, if you’re traversing sloping terrain sans a safety belt, you risk slipping forward and possibly sliding right out of the chair. Unfortunately, the ergonomic design doesn’t apply to the seat’s shape itself!
Not Great on Outdoor Terrains
This is a definite limitation of the chair, which you’ll want to carefully consider before buying. The front and back wheels are smaller than average, with the rear wheels measuring 20” and the front wheels measuring just 6” in diameter.
Most chairs have 22” rear wheels (or larger) and use 8” casters on the front. This means this chair is less capable of handling a wide range of terrains than other models. That’s not a deal breaker if you use the chair mostly indoors, but it will struggle on uneven, challenging outdoor terrains. The 6” casters on the front may even have trouble if you have thick, plush carpet in your home, but they should be fine on most other indoor surfaces.
No Learning Curve & (Almost) Ready to Roll Out of the Box
There’s no learning curve to speak of where the Foshan Ergonomic Lightweight Wheelchair is concerned, and the chair comes almost fully assembled when you get it. All you have to do is put the footrests on and Velcro the support strap in place, and it’s ready to roll.
Foshan Aluminum Lightweight Manual Wheel Chair Pros & Cons
As you can see in our Foshan Aluminum Lightweight Manual Wheelchair review, there’s a lot to like about the wheelchair. It offers a few finishing touches like those of many other wheelchairs by more well-established brands, which is one of the primary reasons it ranked so highly in our roundup review.
In no particular order, our favorite aspects of the design are:
We’d like to see these become industry standards and think highly of Foshan for including them in their product.
Having said that, though this isn’t a perfect chair, it has some important shortcomings you should be aware of that may influence your purchasing decision. Again, in no particular order, these are:
Unfortunately, depending on how tall you are and how you plan to use the chair, some might be deal breakers. So, it bears careful consideration and comes down to asking yourself some hard questions about your needs.
Foshan Ergonomic Lightweight Wheelchair Review Conclusion
We love the Foshan Ergonomic Lightweight Wheelchair even more than its overall ranking would indicate, and we regard it as an exceptional model. It’s not without flaws, but its greatness shines through despite them.
While it’s not for everyone, we highly recommend this chair for most users, with the following exceptions:
If any of those describe you, this isn’t your desired chair. For everyone else, it’s incredible.
Recommended Reading
Karman S-305 Ergonomic Wheelchair Review
Explore the premium Karman S-305 Ergonomic Wheelchair in this review, which is perfect for long-term mobility support.
Medline K4 Basic Lightweight Wheelchair Review
We analyzed the Medline K4 Basic wheelchair: basic yet surprisingly feature-rich, endorsed for unbeatable value.
REFERENCES & RESOURCES
- Foshan Dongfang Medical Equipment Manufactory, Official Brand Website.
- Wheelchair Cushion Considerations, Mobility Advisor.
- The Importance of Helping Seniors Practice Wheelchair Safety, LifeCare Mobility.
- Understanding Wheelchair Sizes and How to Ensure It’s Right for You, Invacare.