Everything you might want to know.

Two independent braking systems engage on every step: a regenerative motor brake and a mechanical spring-loaded disc brake. The disc brake is closed by default — it requires power to release. With both batteries dead, the chair will not roll free.

The mechanical brake locks the chair in place. The chair will stay put until someone deliberately operates the manual brake-release handle (a clearly marked, two-step action). The rider is not stranded — they call our 24/7 line and we walk them through it.

In our in-house engineering testing to date, zero mid-stair failures. We expect to publish full third-party safety test results before customer shipments begin. The safety design assumes failures will eventually happen at scale and is built so the chair fails safely when they do — redundant braking, mechanical fallback that holds without power.

8 inches (200 mm). Standard US residential stairs are 7.0–7.75 inches. If your steps are taller than 8 inches, the chair will detect it and refuse to climb.

The chair is IPX4 rated — it handles rain. The tracked drive grips wet stairs significantly better than wheels would. We do not recommend use on stairs with visible ice or snow accumulation; the LiDAR can also struggle to read step edges in heavy snow.

280 lb / 127 kg user weight. We have a heavy-duty variant in development (350 lb) — email us to get on the waitlist.

The chair is 24 inches wide. Standard US interior doorways are 28–32 inches. Old houses can have 26-inch doors which work but are tight. Pre-1900 doors and bathroom doors are sometimes 24 inches or less — measure before ordering.

Yes. The battery is FAA-approved for cargo hold travel (under 300 Wh per panel rule — ours is 720 Wh total but is split across two 360 Wh packs that travel separately). We have a printable airline documentation kit you can show at check-in. About a third of our reservation list cites air travel as a primary use case.

Yes. The Movo X is designed for mixed indoor/outdoor use. It handles grass, gravel, pavement, dirt paths, and curbs up to 8 inches. It is not a true off-road chair — for deep mud, sand, or rough trails, look at a Permobil F5 or Action Trackchair.

Zero. The chair ships fully assembled and calibrated. Setup is: unbox, unfold (30 seconds), charge, ride. No tools, no installer.

Folded, the chair is 34 × 24 × 32 inches and weighs 96 lb (84 lb with the battery removed). It fits in the trunk of a midsize SUV with the rear seats up, or in the back of a sedan with seats folded down. Two people can lift the folded chassis. We sell a hitch-mounted carrier for $480 if you'll transport frequently.

Three reasons. (1) We sell direct — no dealer markup. (2) Self-install eliminates the $2,000–4,000 installer cost competitors include. (3) Single SKU, no custom configuration. We're a startup with a lean team, not a 50-year-old company carrying corporate overhead.

You pay $8,000 instead of $9,500. In exchange, you agree to record one 60-second video review after 30 days of use. No script, no edit rights — we publish what you record. That's it. Limited to the first 50 buyers.

At checkout, Stripe offers Affirm (up to 60 months, 0–10% APR), Klarna (4 interest-free payments), Afterpay (4 interest-free payments), and standard credit card. Approval is instant and uses a soft credit pull. See /financing.

Yes — fully eligible under IRS Pub 502. Either pay with your HSA/FSA card at checkout, or pay any other way and submit our itemized receipt for reimbursement. We provide a Letter of Medical Necessity template if your administrator needs one.

No. We price the chair to be sustainable at one number. The Founding 50 discount is the only price reduction we offer.

45 days from order. The chair is built to order — we don't keep inventory because each unit is calibrated to its battery pack. We email you weekly with a build status update.

Free shipping to the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. EU shipping available with import duties paid at delivery. We do not currently ship to other countries — if you're outside these four and want one, email us; we expand based on demand clusters.

Yes — the crate is too heavy and valuable to leave on a porch. We schedule a 4-hour delivery window with you. The carrier brings it to your garage or front door; you don't need to lift anything.

Refuse the delivery, take photos, call us. We ship a replacement immediately and handle the carrier claim. You won't be charged twice or wait for an insurance fight.

30 days from delivery for a full refund. We pay return shipping both ways. No restocking fee. Chair must be in returnable condition (no obvious damage beyond normal use).

2 years comprehensive — parts and labor on the entire chair, no deductible. Battery is warranted to 80% of original capacity for the full 2 years; if it drops below that, we replace it free.

We sell replacement parts at cost and provide video repair guides. Common items (battery, joystick, brake pads) are user-replaceable. For drive train or sensor issues, you ship it to our service center; turnaround is 7–10 business days.

Yes. Our support line goes to actual mobility specialists, not a call center. Emergency support is 24/7. Non-emergency support is Mon–Fri 11am–8pm CST and Sat 1pm–6pm CST.

Spiral stairs (won't work). Floating stairs without risers (won't work). Curb-side stairs without a landing at top (unsafe). Deep mud or sand (use a true outdoor chair). Truly off-grid travel without charging access (12-mile range is real but finite). Tall users over 6'4" find the seat a bit short — a taller variant is on the roadmap.

FDA classifies stair-climbing chairs as Class I medical devices in some uses and as consumer mobility products in others — the line is blurry. We are CE certified (EU medical device equivalent) and ISO 7176-28 compliant (the international stair-climbing wheelchair standard). FDA registration as a mobility-aid manufacturer is in progress. If FDA classification is a hard requirement for you, please email us before ordering.

Yes. Movo Chair, Inc. is incorporated in Delaware. Our team is based in Chicago. We're an early-stage company at the pre-launch stage — the Founding 50 program is how our first 50 customers help us validate the product before we scale. We've completed engineering prototyping and independent safety audits; production begins as Founding 50 reservations confirm the first batch. If you want to talk to the founder before reserving, email team@movochair.com — he reads every message.