Folding Vs Dismantling Scooter
We’re assuming you’ve now read our previous article titled ‘Our guide to choosing a mobility scooter’ (which can be found here if you haven’t read it already) and you’ve decided that a car boot scooter is the best option for you. Car boot scooters are split into two categories, folding and dismantling. The difference between them is fairly self-explanatory in that one folds neatly and compactly and one dismantles into four or five more manageable pieces.
Folding scooters are the newest technology to hit the mobility world, but are they all they are cracked up to be? A common discussion we have with our customers is whether we recommend folding scooters or scooters that dismantle. The argument between the two types of scooters has no clear answer, and therefore no clear winner. However, your personal needs and situation are the deciding factor in which of the two you should go for. Hopefully, by the end of this article, you’ll have a much better idea of which one is the best for you.
The pictures to the left and right are an example of a folding scooter and a dismantling scooter. The One Rehab QFold (Left on desktop, above on mobile) is a folding scooter, you can see in the photo how compact it becomes when it’s folded. The QFold is one of the lightest folding scooters that we have found on the market so far due to its chassis being made out of lightweight aircraft-grade aluminium. The picture to the right (Below on mobile) shows the One Rehab Illusion, which is a dismantling scooter. The heaviest of the five parts it dismantles in to weighs only 10Kg, which makes it much more manageable.
What you need to consider before choosing between a Folding or Dismantling scooter:
- What’s your budget?
The first thing you have to consider is your budget. Folding scooters are generally more expensive than dismantling scooters, especially the scooters that fold automatically. The difference in price is due to the technology involved with the folding scooters.
- Do you need to get the scooter into a car?
The biggest problem with a folding scooter is that if you want to take it anywhere you have to lift the whole scooter into your vehicle. This can be a problem for people that aren’t able-bodied or for people that don’t have someone that can help them lift it because they can be heavy. Whereas, dismantling scooters are much easier to get into a vehicle because they come into multiple, more manageable parts. The best example of this would be the One Rehab Illusion which dismantles into 5 pieces, with the heaviest piece only weighing 10kg.
- Are you able-bodied or have someone able-bodied that can help you?
Dismantling a scooter is straight forward, but it does require the person to bend down and lift the individual pieces. This can be a challenge for someone that isn’t able-bodied. So, if this applies to you and you don’t need to be able to get the scooter into a vehicle, folding scooters may be the best option. This is because some folding scooters can fold automatically at the touch of a button, making it much more convenient for someone that isn’t able-bodied. The Globetrotter scooter is a good example of an automatically folding scooter, a video of one in action can be found on the right.
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