We have a stair lift from when my Dad lived with use before passing away in 2020.

My wife uses it occasionally due to knee issues, and this morning it turned up DOA.

Checked all connections, batteries are charged, but charger says not charging. Fuses good, but no display/code under the seat.

The company that installed it is a minimum of $475 to even come look at it, who knows what parts might be needed and at what cost.


Anyone have knowledge on theses things?

I have a pair of those in my trilevel house. They're coming up on 9 years old.

Has the exact problem you describe a few years back on one. The Bruno charging unit had crapped out. Got a high quality aftermarket charger instead of an overpriced factory unit and was back in business.

I'm on my phone and not near my computer to pull up the replacement model info.

**When the battery finally runs down and the Bruno factory charger still isn't charging, you'll conclude the charger has bit the dust.**

When I encountered the same issues you described I swapped the charging units between my two chairs to confirm the unit was the problem. Said screw the $385 Bruno wanted and found a Bruno dealer on line who carried these Schauer chargers. Ordered a $160 unit but the dealer was out and upgraded me gratis to this $285 unit. It has been bulletproof since late 2019 when I installed it!

There are other makes of battery chargers out there that are also high quality; many not as expensive as what I went with. Just make sure whatever you get has the correct plug connector to fit your chair.

Hope this helps

Hmmm, that might be it.

I put a meter on the charger, was not getting any output. But since both batteries were showing 13.9v wasn’t sure if there needed to be a load on the charger for it to put the output.

There have been a few times the charger came unplugged at the chair, but chair still operated on the battery.

Of course I am assuming the batteries are two 12v in series, are the batteries actually 24v ones in parallel? In which case at 13.9v they would not be charged.


Hmmm, maybe I’ll grab a charger off Amazon and see what happens. With Prime if it doesn’t fix the issue I cans just return it…

The Bruno Elite uses two internal 12V 7aH DC batteries wired in series to run a 24-volt DC motor. They're fully charged with a 13.9v reading.

Again please make darned sure any charger you grab with have the correct plug and polarity to connect to your chair.

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
The Bruno Elite uses two internal 12V 7aH DC batteries wired in series to run a 24-volt DC motor. They're fully charged with a 13.9v reading.

Again please make darned sure any charger you grab with have the correct plug and polarity to connect to your chair.

Now I am scratching my head. Batteries read 13.9 each, but chair is dead. Maybe the charger toasted and took the chair board with it?

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
Now I am scratching my head. Batteries read 13.9 each, but chair is dead. Maybe the charger toasted and took the chair board with it?

Okay this is something beyond what I experienced. Sorry. If your batteries are charged and the chair doesn't function that's a whole different kettle of fish. Might want to search for the Elite troubleshooting guides.

Edited to add:
https://search.brave.com/searc...Elite&source=desktop

If you "crack the code" please post here as I'm quite curious as to what is wrong with your chair.

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
If you "crack the code" please post here as I'm quite curious as to what is wrong with your chair.

The installing dealer said $300 (or $350?) “Service call” charge PLUS $175/hr labor (minimum half hour).

Main board is $575, paid in advance (they don’t stock it). Or I imagine, pay them the $387.50 to visit, hope it isn’t the board or if it is pay for the part and then ANOTHER $387.50 to come back out and put it in…


Not sure what to do at this point… Wife uses the chair, but doesn’t need the chair.


Power supply arrives today, keeping my fingers crossed, but not expecting it to fix the issue based on the battery reading.

Assuming Bruno still uses deep cycle "gell" or "sealed lead acid" batteries like they did a decade ago, I would suspect the batteries first. Have them load tested (Interstate Battery or similar place can do it.) Just because they read 13.9 volts on a meter doesnt mean they have enough "amps" to power the unit.

I have had a lot of experience with batteries, lifts, power wheelchairs and scooters and I can say that a lot of these batteries are junk. And it sounds like yours are at least 3 years old. If you dont open/install the new charger, maybe you can return it if batteries are indeed the problem.

Once you know the batteries are good, measure the voltage. Then plug the charger in and measure the voltage again. It should be 2-3 volts higher with charger running. If not, then your charger is bad. If charger and batteries are both OK, then you'll have to call someone.

Again, this is all assuming you have regular old deep cycle gel or SLA batteries. If they are Lith-Ion or anything like that, forget what I said!