Apple Scooters

[maroo]

I promised a "review" of Apple Scooters from my recent trip...

I had a bad experience with one of the other rental companies and decided to try Apple - here was my experience.

We had to order two wheelchairs - one was a power wheelchair (not an ECV - a chair with a joystick) and one was a manual push wheelchair.

I was very impressed with the overall service and quality of the equipment!

First of all, I was surprised and impressed that they called me after I placed the online order to confirm the details and thank me for my order.

It was at the POP when I arrived and the chair looked brand new!

It turned out that the charge did not hold well on the first power chair I used. The guy from Apple called me on my first day to check on everything and I told him about the chair already being low on charge - but I was not upset about it, I just figured it did not charge all the way before I received it. But they insisted that they replace it and I had a new power chair waiting for me at the POP the next morning.

The new one was a bigger chair with a double battery and worked a lot better for me. They didn't charge me any extra for the bigger chair - I felt like I had a smooth ride!

They called several times during the week to make sure that the new chair was working - and it was - worked like a dream! Even when I left the room at 8:15 and did not return until midnight.

Overall I would give them a 10/10 for service and equipment. And the price was the best I could find when I compared the other companies advertised and mentioned on the DIS.

I just wanted to give the review I promised.


Anyone else have any experience with Apple?

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for the report.
There have been a couple of good reports lately.

One thing I noted when someone else complained about the battery life on a rented power wheelchair. Some of the power wheelchairs (and probably also some ECVs) take a very long time to charge. My DD’s power wheelchair has a fast charger on it which does the majority of the charge in, I think, about 6 hours and after that, it is a trickle charge. There is also an indicator on the charger so that you can see whether or not it is completely charged.

When I was doing some checking, I found that some of the power wheelchairs can talk up to 16 hours to charge. You can imagine that sometimes a person would be using it until 10 pm or even longer and then might start out again in the morning at 8 am (or even earlier). That means that, even if they plugged it in right away, it would never get a full charge.
If it was a brand new machine and was used like that, it may have never had a full charge; that can be hard on the battery.
Also, some of the machines have onboard (built in) chargers. That makes it easier because you always have your charger with you, but from what I have read, those don’t last as long.

 

[Bete]

Thanks for another glowing review about Apple Scooters.

They are the best for the price!

 

[my3squeals]

We rented an ECV for the first time for my MIL last week while in WDW. I went with Apple and couldn't have been happier. I had checked on the rental request online for a face to face exchange at POR for 8am on Monday. They called me on my walk to the lobby to let me know they were pulling into POR. Since it was our first time with one I felt I wanted/needed a walk thru on scooter care and battery charging along with transporting it since we were going to be driving to the parks. They were very helpful, and answered all of my questions completely and by far the cheapest! If MIL goes next trip we will definitely be renting from them again!

 

[maroo]

Thanks for the report.
There have been a couple of good reports lately.

One thing I noted when someone else complained about the battery life on a rented power wheelchair. Some of the power wheelchairs (and probably also some ECVs) take a very long time to charge. My DD’s power wheelchair has a fast charger on it which does the majority of the charge in, I think, about 6 hours and after that, it is a trickle charge. There is also an indicator on the charger so that you can see whether or not it is completely charged.

When I was doing some checking, I found that some of the power wheelchairs can talk up to 16 hours to charge. You can imagine that sometimes a person would be using it until 10 pm or even longer and then might start out again in the morning at 8 am (or even earlier). That means that, even if they plugged it in right away, it would never get a full charge.
If it was a brand new machine and was used like that, it may have never had a full charge; that can be hard on the battery.
Also, some of the machines have onboard (built in) chargers. That makes it easier because you always have your charger with you, but from what I have read, those don’t last as long.

I think you are exactly right!!

I picked it up midday on that first day and it was dead pretty fast...and I am almost positive it would be because it was not charged long enough.

One night I barely went from red to green on the charger before we went back out for the next morning and I could tell a small difference from another day where the chair had longer to charge.

I ended up having two evenings where I didn't use it at all and let it charge in the room even longer than while I slept and it was definitely best with the longer charge.

But the 2nd chair never went below green on any given day - I think they are designed to go two full days and I certainly used them on some "hard" hills over and over as we toured...and it still did great! - but it would not have lasted me two days...I definitely needed to charge it every night. But I never had to take the charger with me to charge in the parks...I just never came close to needing it.

 

[honeydiane1953]

Thanks for the report.
There have been a couple of good reports lately.

One thing I noted when someone else complained about the battery life on a rented power wheelchair. Some of the power wheelchairs (and probably also some ECVs) take a very long time to charge. My DD’s power wheelchair has a fast charger on it which does the majority of the charge in, I think, about 6 hours and after that, it is a trickle charge. There is also an indicator on the charger so that you can see whether or not it is completely charged.

When I was doing some checking, I found that some of the power wheelchairs can talk up to 16 hours to charge. You can imagine that sometimes a person would be using it until 10 pm or even longer and then might start out again in the morning at 8 am (or even earlier). That means that, even if they plugged it in right away, it would never get a full charge.
If it was a brand new machine and was used like that, it may have never had a full charge; that can be hard on the battery.
Also, some of the machines have onboard (built in) chargers. That makes it easier because you always have your charger with you, but from what I have read, those don’t last as long.

We need a scooter for a large sized woman. She is overweight and not very old. We can get ANY kind of scooter because she has medicare and private insurance. Which scooter would u recommend??? ty

 

[maroo]

We need a scooter for a large sized woman. She is overweight and not very old. We can get ANY kind of scooter because she has medicare and private insurance. Which scooter would u recommend??? ty

Are u just renting one for the Disney parks? Or purchasing one for daily life?

If u r purchasing one, then I recommend using a local medical durable medical equipment provider in your local area. Have your doctor recommend someone (or hers) that has great customer service and has a good reputation. U could also ask someone you know that has a custom power wheelchair to recommend a good place. They should do a complete medical and housing evaluation to let u know what sort of device would work for u.

If u r just renting one, then u probably want an ecv and ask for the heavy duty one that has a long battery life. Tell them the weight of the person using it and u should be good.


Only rent a power wheelchair (it is driven with a little joystick and is hard to drive) if u already drive one at home.

When u r buying one for use at home, don't forget to price options for how u will transport it.

 

[lmshaggard]

So glad to hear about the reviews!! I have two booked for a big family trip in December. One for my mom and one for my uncle - they would not be able to enjoy anything without an ecv and apple was the best price and ecv available. They have been awesome at answering my questions and taking care of our reservation, but it is great to know things are great on the receiving end !!

 

[Iron Mouse]

Thank you so much for posting this review. I was having a hard time choosing companies but I looked on their website and their prices are great. It is good to know the service is great too.