The Chair I Wish I Had Bought Sooner: My MCombo Lift Recliner Story

After Christmas I noticed something I did not like. To get up out of my old recliner I was rocking three or four times and pushing down on both armrests with the flat of my hands. Karen, my daughter, stood in the doorway with her coat still on and watched me do it. She did not say a word. She did not have to. I am 72, I live in Gastonia, and I have gotten out of a great many chairs in my life, but that one had stopped being friendly to me.

What I wanted was not another recliner. I wanted a chair that would help me stand up. That is the whole reason I started reading about the MCombo power lift recliner, the 7040 in Medium, after Karen sent me the listing and said, Mom, just look at it. I read it twice, then read it again with my glasses on. Before I ordered anything I asked Dr. Patel whether a lift chair was worth thinking about for somebody like me, and he told me to pay attention to how I actually use a chair and to measure the space first. So I did both.

I measured the corner by the front window and the doorway into the hall before I decided on anything. The listing gives the chair as 37 inches deep, 34.6 inches wide and 42.5 inches high, and I checked those numbers against my own tape measure twice because I am that person. It also lists the weight at 135 pounds, which told me straight away that I would not be the one carrying it. I chose Medium because I am 5 feet 4 inches and there is more than one size. I ordered in February, nine months ago now.

The chair came in two boxes. Karen and Walt carried them in and set them in the living room, and then the two of them put it together. The base, the backrest and the armrests are what you assemble, and the backrest slides down onto the base. It took them about half an hour. Nothing was missing, nothing was broken, and nobody had to call anybody on the phone about it.

It is plugged into the wall outlet by the window. I use the wired hand remote, and there is not much to learn: up, down, recline. The first week I mostly practiced. Up to standing, back down, recline for the evening news, up again. The chair does the lifting part with a counter-balanced mechanism, and what I noticed was that I had stopped bracing myself. For years my shoulders would tighten before I stood up, like I was getting ready to lift something heavy. Now I press a button, the chair stands me up, and I just keep my balance.

The first morning I used it I did not rock once. I pressed the button, the chair stood me up, and I walked to the kitchen for my coffee like it was nothing.

The listing calls it lumbar heat and full-body vibration, with 8 vibration nodes, 5 modes and 2 intensity levels. I will be straight with you, because I would want somebody to be straight with me: it is a gentle buzz, not a real massage. If you are expecting hands on your back you will be disappointed. What I actually reach for is the heat, on cold mornings, before I settle in with my coffee. It takes the chill off the seat and it makes the first ten minutes of the day pleasanter. That is the honest size of it.

Three things still annoy me. The motor hums when the chair moves. It is not loud, but you know it is working. The cord on the hand remote gets under my elbow, so the remote lives in the pocket on the side of the chair now and that solved it. And the footrest is a little short for Walt, who is taller than I am. He tried it once, handed the remote back, and went to the couch. Nine months in, nothing has broken, I have never called customer service, and I have not needed the 2-year warranty.

The rest of my day is small and ordinary and I would not trade it. I am up around seven. Coffee in the MCombo while I read the Gaston Gazette on my tablet. Most afternoons I am in it with the TV or a crossword, and some afternoons I nap in it, reclined, with a throw over my knees. Walt takes the couch and I take the chair, and that is the arrangement. There are cup holders in the arm and mine holds my mug in the morning. The seat is foam, the frame is wood, and I wipe the arms down with a damp cloth when they need it.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to measure first and to measure twice, because a chair that does not fit the corner or the doorway is a headache you will be living with. I would tell you to look at the sizes instead of guessing, since I chose Medium out of more than one option and it fits me at 5 feet 4 inches. I would tell you to ask your own doctor, or a physical or occupational therapist if you have one, about what kind of chair and what fit makes sense for you, especially if you are recovering from a surgery or a fall. I am not a nurse or a therapist. I am a retired church office worker who reads the tag on everything, and that is the only qualification I have.

And I would tell you to be honest with yourself about the rocking. If you are pushing on both armrests to get up, or if you have started timing your trips to the kitchen around how hard it is to get out of a chair, ask somebody to watch you do it once. Karen watched me and that was the end of my arguing. I also would not pretend this chair fixes anything. It stands me up and it reclines for a nap, and the heat is nice on a cold morning. That is what it does. What it gave back to me was the getting up, and I did not realize how much of my day I had been arranging around avoiding it. It has over 7,000 reviews and sits at 4.4 stars, and the complaints I read before I ordered were mostly about the same small things I noticed afterward, which I found reassuring in a strange way.