MCombo Power Lift Recliner Review: What It Is Like Day to Day

In January I caught myself rocking. Three times, maybe four, pushing down on both armrests of my old brown recliner before I could get up out of it. Karen was standing in the doorway with her coat still on and she did not say a word, which is how I knew it looked as bad as it felt. My knees are stiff, worst first thing in the morning and again after I have been sitting a while. Nobody had to tell me what they were seeing. I had been doing it so long I had decided it was just how I got out of a chair.

I am 72. Five feet four inches, about 165 pounds, and I still walk on my own, no cane and no walker. What had gotten hard was the getting up part, out of anything low and soft. I asked Dr. Patel about it before I spent a dime, and then I measured the space by the window with a metal tape, twice, because I have returned enough furniture in my life to know better. The MCombo Power Lift Recliner, the 7040 in Medium, has been in that corner since February. Nine months now. Here is what it has honestly been like, including the parts I do not love.

One thing before I go further, because I would rather say it now than bury it at the bottom. I am not a nurse, a doctor, a physical therapist or an occupational therapist. I am a retired church office clerk who sits in a lift chair every day and knows her own chair. If you are thinking about one of these for yourself or for a parent, especially after a surgery or a fall, talk to your own doctor or a physical or occupational therapist about fit and safety first. I asked Dr. Patel and I am glad I did. He did not pick a chair for me, but he did tell me what to think about, and that conversation was worth more than any listing I read.

How I've Used It

Every morning I am up around seven, coffee in the chair while I read the Gaston Gazette on my tablet. Most afternoons I am back in it with the TV or a crossword, and some afternoons I nap in it. Evenings I am there with Walt until about ten. He is on the couch, I am in my chair, and that has been the arrangement since February.

So this is not a review from somebody who tried a chair in a store for ten minutes and liked the cushion. It is nine months of getting in and out of the same chair six or eight times a day, on carpet, by a window, with a husband who has opinions and a daughter who checks on me. I have sat in it in a robe on a cold morning, in a church dress on a Sunday afternoon, and in it at two in the morning during a thunderstorm when I could not sleep and did not want to wake Walt by turning on the kitchen light. Same chair, same button, every time.

What I replaced was an old brown manual recliner with a handle on the side, about fifteen years old, and before that it was the couch and a rocking motion. It went to the church yard sale the same month the MCombo came in. So when I compare, that is what I am comparing it to.

What the Chair Actually Does

My chair has a counter-balanced lift mechanism, and the listing says the actuator is TUV certified. What that means in my living room is simple. I press up on the wired hand remote and the whole chair, seat and all, tilts forward and rises until I am more or less standing. I am not climbing out of a hole and I am not hauling myself up by the arms. I step off. Then I press down and it comes back to where it was, and I sit back down.

That is the entire reason I bought it, and it is the part I would not give up.

There is heat in the lower back, and there is vibration through the chair with 8 nodes, 5 massage modes and 2 intensity levels. I want to be plain about the vibration, because I think listings oversell it. It is a gentle buzz. It is not a real massage, not the kind Karen gets at the place in Belmont. I use it now and then on a cold evening and I enjoy it for what it is. The heat I use more, on cold mornings when my back is tight before I have warmed up. Neither one is why I bought the chair and neither one is why I would buy it again.

It reclines back far enough for a nap, and I do nap in it some afternoons, usually with the throw off the back of the couch pulled over my legs. I sleep in my bed at night, always. There are cup holders in the arms and mine mostly holds a mug of coffee in the morning. The remote does up, down and recline, and that is the whole control panel, which suits me fine. I have never been one for a lot of buttons, and I have never once had to get the manual back out to remember how it works.

The Three Things That Still Bother Me

The motor hums when it moves. Not loud, but you hear it, and if Walt is watching something with a quiet moment in it he will look over at me. Nine months in and it has not gotten any louder and nothing has started to grind. I have stopped noticing it most days, but I am not going to pretend it is silent, because you will hear it in a room where nobody is talking.

The hand remote has a cord on it, and for the first two weeks I was forever fishing it out from between the cushion and the arm. Then I started keeping it in the side pocket of the chair and that was the end of that. My advice is to put it in the pocket from day one and skip the two weeks of fussing.

The footrest is a little short for Walt. He is longer in the leg than I am. He sat in it once, put the footrest up, said something about his heels, and went back to the couch. My feet land on it fine, and I am five feet four. If the chair is for a tall man, have him sit in one before you order, because that is the piece I would check and it is the one thing I cannot answer for you.

And one that is not the chair's fault but you should hear it anyway. It is 135 pounds. Karen and Walt carried it in and I would not want to drag it across a carpeted room by myself. Decide where it goes before it is put together, because assembled is not the moment you want to be rearranging the furniture in a small living room.

Fit, Size, and Getting It in the House

Medium was the right call for me at five feet four inches. The listing gives the dimensions as 37 inches deep, 34.6 inches wide and 42.5 inches high. I measured the wall by the window and I measured the doorway, both, and wrote the numbers on the back of an envelope before I ordered. The width is what surprised me in a good way. It sits between the window and the side table without crowding either, and there is still room to walk past it to the kitchen.

It arrived in two boxes. Walt and Karen had it standing and put together in about half an hour, the backrest sliding down onto the base. Nothing was missing and nothing was broken. The box has the base, the backrest, the armrests, the parts box and the manual in it, and the manual is the sort you can actually read without hunting for your glasses.

It does sit out from the wall a good bit when it reclines, so figure that in before you pick the spot. My living room is carpeted, which is what the listing recommends, and the MCombo sits steady on it, no rocking and no sliding when I push off. The material is wood and foam and the care instruction is simply wipe clean, which I have done twice with a damp cloth and no fuss at all.

What Nine Months Has Been Like

February to November. Nothing has broken. I have not called customer service one time. There is a two-year warranty on the chair and I have not had to use it, and I say that as a woman who keeps every receipt in a folder by the telephone. The folder is still there. Nothing in it but the Amazon paperwork.

Here is the honest summary, and it is not the summary an advertisement would write. The chair did not fix my knees. My knees are still stiff in the morning, same as before, and I still take my time on the stairs. What changed is that standing up is no longer the hard part of my day. I get out of the chair and walk to the kitchen without thinking about it first, and I had gotten so used to thinking about it first that I had forgotten what it was like not to.

The other thing that changed is smaller and I did not expect it. I sit in the chair longer than I used to sit in the old one, because getting out of it does not cost me anything. I read more. I finish the crossword more often. Walt says I am in it more, and he is right, and I do not think that is a bad thing at my age. There was a Tuesday in October when I got up out of it four times in one hour, to let the man in about the gutters, to answer the telephone, to get the mail from the box, and to sign for a package. I did not think about a single one of those four times until that evening, and that is the whole review in one sentence.

The listing says more than 100,000 customers have bought one of these. I cannot verify that and I am not going to pretend I can. I can tell you about one chair in Gastonia, North Carolina, and that is what I have done here. If that is not enough for you, and I would understand if it is not, then find somebody who owns one and go sit in it before you spend your money.

I press one button and the chair puts me on my feet. I have not rocked myself out of a seat since February.

Who This Is For

This is for someone who can walk on their own but finds the getting up out of a low, soft seat to be the worst part of the day. That was exactly my situation. I did not need help walking. I needed help with the two seconds between sitting and standing, and that is what the lift does. If you are picturing a hospital chair, put that out of your head. Mine looks like a recliner because it is one.

It is also for the grown child doing the shopping. Karen is the one who noticed before I did, and if you are reading this for a parent, the thing I would tell you is to measure their space and their doorway and to ask them what chair they actually sit in most. My answer would have been this corner by the window, and it still is.

And it is for someone who wants a recliner that reclines, with heat for a cold morning, and does not want a piece of furniture with forty buttons and a booklet.

Who Should Skip It

If the person who will sit in it is tall, try one first. Walt is 74 and longer in the leg than I am and the footrest did not suit him. That is not a flaw in the chair, it is a fit question, and fit is the whole ballgame with these.

If you are not able to bear weight on your own at all, or if you are recovering from a surgery or a fall, do not order one of these off a listing and hope. Talk to your doctor or a physical or occupational therapist about what kind of support you need first. I am not qualified to advise you on that and I am not going to try.

And if you have a small room with no wall space, measure twice. It sits out from the wall when it reclines, and it is heavy enough that you will not want to be moving it around once it is where it is.