How frequently is a wheelchair tune-up necessary? - Elaine Rogers, PT

Wheelchair tune-ups are the same thing as your vehicle auto tune-up, and in auto tune-ups they have a mileage thing. It depends how frequently you’re using your chair. If you’re someone who uses your chair once a week when you travel a long distance, then maybe you don’t need to tune-up quite as frequently. But at a minimum, a chair should be tuned-up every year, probably more frequently than that for higher users. The area that is most frequently problematic for users are tires, and treadwear and bearing wear-because in order for the tires to spin, the bearings have to be intact, and so those are the areas to pay particular attention to. But you want to get the repairs and you want to ask about the repairs well ahead of time of the chair actually breaking down, in the same way that it’s much nicer if you can do preventive maintenance on your car, rather than getting stuck on the freeway.