Bison Bede Compact
The Bison Bede Compact straight stairlift was a very popular stairlift around 2003. It remained there for many years until Bison Bede were bought out by Acorn Stairlifts and consequently closed down. This straight stairlift model was extremely robust with a large comfortable padded seat and a wealth of optional extras to compliment it. It was one of the first straight stairlifts that could correctly call itself ‘Slimline’ in design. Using a knife edge style of rail, it was cleverly repositioned on its edge rather than flat on the stairs. The Compact was taking the stairlift forwards and showing everyone else how it was done.
Available in either D/C or A/C although the DC was more popular as this was the version that offered the extras. Not a simple lift to install or work on and was in fact more time consuming than others. An engineer required a programmer to set the different options available such as the 6 speeds and to turn the extra options on or off. This also showed all the fault counts so an engineer could see what was happening with the stairlift when in normal daily use.
Stairlift Repair
The Bison Bede Compact straight stairlift is still around today and I still enjoy working on them. I recently went to a call out on a Bison Bede Compact straight stairlift breakdown in Rubery Birmingham. It was for a nice couple who had one installed by another local firm. When it went wrong they simply told them it needed upgrading and left them with it. Thankfully they gave me a call and i went along to have a look. It had a powered platform which ultimately was causing an interlock fault as well as a main pcb (printed circuit board) fault. I changed the board, cleared the options from the memory and it worked like a treat. When i put the options back in it came back with a fault so we knew where else to look. I also speeded up the lift and set the anti-tilt roller correctly. This prevented the stairlift from making a squealing noise from the roller.
We have the solution
I was happy to keep this stairlift going. One day, in the not too distant future, it will need a part that is no longer available. We will then advise them on the best replacement option at the time. Until then, we have the solution…
