ROBOOTER® X40 Intelligent Electric Powered Wheelchair Device, Automatic Folding, Remote Controlled, Smart, Compact Heavy Duty Mobile, Powerful Dual Motor, Foldable Portable Motorized Mobility Scooter

I’ve now had this for almost a year. It continues to perform well. This is my back up chair, so when my primary chair is out of service I use this one full-time, all day long, often for a week or two.. otherwise I use it when I am going out with my family and we are going to take one of their cars.I have been a wheelchair user for about 20 years and have tried several different models over that time. I have a big customized power chair that my health insurance provides, but right now it’s broken and when I ordered this, it was going to be three months before I got the replacement. (And it’s still a month off!) But even being without the chair for a few days is very difficult for me. So I do try to keep a backup chair which I pay for myself. The X 40 is my new backup.First impressions:AUTOMATIC FOLDINGThe automatic folding and unfolding is amazing. It’s too heavy for an Uber driver, but it allows my adult sons to put it in an out of a regular car trunk, which is very nice. I wouldn’t feel safe riding in the car sitting in it. (there’s no Tiedown brackets built-in, and I think it’s probably too light anyway.) But I can transfer to a regular seat in our van, and then use the app to drive it up the ramp in a folded position, where we can then strap it down for safe transport. So that’s very cool.A LITTLE SLOW, BUT POWERFULAt about 2.5 mph in regular mode it’s definitely slower than my regular chair, but acceptable. There’s a booster mode which will go up to 3.7 mph, but it’s only intended for places where you need extra power like going up a steep driveway or over gravel, it uses up a lot of battery life in that mode. I do sometimes put it in boost if I’m taking the dog out for a walk and I want the extra speed, but most of the time I use it in regular mode. That speed is fine for the grocery store or around my house, but I do notice it feels slow at target or Costco or other big stores.(The speed shown on the pictures of the controller is over 8 kph, but the current design and the model that I received max out at 6 kph, and that’s only in boost mode. The regular mode maxes out at about 4.5 kph.)The dual suspension system and the tires are great: it’s very comfortable coming up the driveway, for example. Also, it can handle a 10° incline, more than many chairs, which makes it great for the small relatively steep ramps we have around the house.MORE COMFORTABLE FOR SHORTER PEOPLE, AND NOT FULL SUPPORTThey say it would work for someone up to 6’ 1” tall, but I think it’s going to be more comfortable for shorter people. You can tell from the pictures that the seatback is not very high and there’s no headrest.NOISE IS ABOUT THE SAME AS OTHER MODELSWhen I first got it, I thought it was noisier than any other powerchair I’ve had except an inexpensive folding chair. That was true even when it’s empty and moving under app control. But we did the unboxing outdoors and now I think it probably had a twig or a leaf in the tire tread and that was what was making the noise. In any case, it was better by the third day.I did want to mention that customer support was great on this issue. After I told them about it during the original communication to get the second battery, they contacted me twice to encourage me to make a video and send it to them so they could figure out what was going on. Making videos is a lot of work for me, so I never did get around to it. The problem resolved itself before I needed to. But I really appreciated their concern and communication.FANTASTIC BATTERY DESIGNThe battery design is fantastic: the battery is towards the front, and can be very easily lifted out and replaced. Not only is it easier to do, it’s much easier to tell a helper how to do it than most power chairs. It’s also really nice to be able to check the battery level in the app.At the time that I bought it, the Amazon page noted that they were offering a free 20 amp battery sent separately if you contacted them. The one that it comes with is a 10 amp battery which is acceptable to airlines, but obviously has a shorter battery life.The new battery charged up fine. The chair isn’t any faster with it, and I don’t think it’s more powerful, but you definitely get longer battery life which is important for me since I am wheelchair-dependent even just to get around my home. I also liked the fact that I could have one battery in the chair while I was charging the other one with the charger, so I never had to go without the chair.Also, you can take the battery out even when the chair is folded, so if you have the chair in the trunk of the car and you don’t want to take the whole chair out, you could just bring the battery into the house to recharge, which will be useful for some people.FLIPUP ARMRESTS WORK WELLThe flipup armrests work very well on both sides, making it easy to transfer side to side, which I appreciate.The joystick is the large easy grip style, which I prefer anyway.I appreciate the fact that it has a longer seatbelt which fits comfortably over my winter jacket. I haven’t measured the belt exactly, but it extends to at least 50 inches. I have used loaner chairs before with much shorter belts, and it was tricky to get it belted under my jacket.COMES FULLY ASSEMBLEDIt comes fully assembled, which is great. And with enough of a battery charge that you can unbox it outdoors, and then drive it into the house and test it out a bit. It was very well packaged for shipment (two outer cardboard boxes and an inner Styrofoam box to protect it), but also very easy for my helper to unbox. It is heavy at 90 pounds, so a less strong person might need to cut the box sides off to get it out.We did have one moment of confusion. To turn the chair on, you need to hold the power button down for three or four seconds, which we didn’t know. So when he first tried to start it, he just pressed quickly on the button, and then when it didn’t turn on, he assumed that the battery wasn’t charged. But it was, he just needed to hold the button down longer. I actually like this as a safety feature because you’re much less likely to accidentally turn it on, like when you’re transferring out of the chair, but it was confusing at the time.IT FOLDS, BUT PROBABLY NEEDS TWO PEOPLE TO LIFT ITThere are a number of other much lighter folding travel power chairs available in the same price range if you’re looking for something you can take in an Uber or a friend’s car. But those are generally designed only for indoor use and have much shorter battery life. Those are good for a quick trip to the doctor or the grocery store, but those other models are not meant for all day use or much outdoor travel.In contrast, this model has much longer battery life, more power, great tires, and can handle many surfaces. But it will probably require two people to lift it unless you can figure out how to drive it up a ramp into your vehicle. That’s not a problem for me, because our van is already equipped with a ramp to handle my full-size chair.My guess would be that you could use a portable ramp with cars that have a liftgate back like most SUVs and some hatchbacks and use the app to have the X40 drive itself into the car.You might also be able to use a ramp and have it drive itself through the side door of a minivan, but you will probably have to remove a seat to make room for it. And I do recommend strapping it down since at 90 pounds it would be dangerous if it started bouncing around.It will fit in a regular car trunk, and but you will probably need two people to lift it in and out since, again, it’s 90 pounds.ONE TRICKY NAVIGATION ISSUEIt works very well going over crosswise grooves in the sidewalk, like where two concrete slabs fit together. But if the groove is running in the same direction that the chair is moving and you move over the groove even a tiny bit, the tire will pull you towards the groove, and then you will be running straight along the groove. If this happens, I have found that I can’t turn away from the groove while the chair is moving. I have to stop, then turn, then move sideways to the groove, and then turn back in the direction that I want to go. I have not had this issue with any other chairs, so I think it’s because of the “Omnidirectional“ tires. You get used to this kind of navigation pretty quickly, but it does require looking down at the ground once you feel that pull and then deciding what to do about it.It’s very noticeable at our house, because there is a groove of this type on the sidewalk out front.It’s also an issue one place inside the house, in the laundry room. There’s a ridge between two parts of the room where the flooring changes to a waterproof linoleum underneath the washer. I have to do a three point turn there, backing up and swinging around, to come back in the other direction. With my old chair, I could approach that ridge at any angle and not have a problem, so I could be turning and moving at the same time. With the X 40, everything works much better, going either forwards are in reverse, if I am directly crosswise to the ridge. So again, I need to stop the chair, make the turn, and then continue forward or in reverse, rather than doing a kind of slalom turn as I go.It’s not really any more difficult, and I am getting used to it, but it is a different driving pattern than with more conventional tires.RAINY WEATHER CAN BE TRICKYwe have had some really stormy weather in the last few weeks, and I don’t feel quite as safe in this chair as I do in the bigger one. I don’t know whether it’s the Omnidirectional tires or just the fact that it’s lighter weight, but it does sometimes skid sideways a few inches in heavy rain, even just going down our driveway. It’s not bad enough to change my overall impression of the chair, I’m still very happy with it, but it is something to be aware of if you have to go outside in the rain. There seems to be less of this problem when the chair is going more slowly, which makes me suspect it might just be the total weight rather than the tire design. So just another thing to be aware of.MORE UPDATES LATERI have now had the chair for two months and use it every day for multiple hours, so the review above is based on that. I will update this review after I have been using it for longer and I see how it holds up over time, but for now, I am very pleased with this purchase.

I am very pleased with this wheelchair. It is easy to maneuver around things after you are familiar with the responsiveness of the controls. The feature of auto fold up and down a real plus for us.Last year we got a manual wheelchair and it was tough for my wife to push me around in that when there are hills. Even though it was only 35 lbs, it is a bit awkward to lift in and out of a car. The electric powered wheelchair was the way to go.The X40 has Bluetooth so you can use the app on your phone to guide it up the ramps into the car (but not into a trunk). It could be manually lifted into a trunk if you have a handy strong person. It is about 90 lbs. But with the Bluetooth feature we never have to lift it (we have a small SUV with a rear hatch).So many wheelchairs have small wheels that would have trouble even going over a pine needle. I wanted wheels like the X40 has, that go over common cracks in the street or sidewalk and on hard-packed dirt. The X40 has provided new freedom!Our neighborhood is very hilly and our driveway is steep. This is the only electric wheelchair I found that said it could handle 10 degree grades. It has been very cold and icy, so I just recently got a few chances to really test it out in our own area. The chair is very comfortable for me and easy to get in and out. It works for me as is, and I don't need to adjust seat height or back angle. It compact enough that when it folds up, there is room in the back of our Outback for the chair, ramps, and our two large dogs (with the rear seats folded down).I first checked out other folding electric wheelchairs in a showroom. They manually folded some, but looked like a suitcase forced closed with things sticking out. The X40 is much more clean and sleek folded, like a clamshell or Scarab beetle. And the other folding ones were about 50 lbs to lift in and out of a car.The customer service and support from Robooter is "top shelf". They are so responsive and helpful. The engineer in the Boston area spent a lot of time with me answering my questions.The X40 batteries are sleek and easy to take out and put in. Very easy to charge, and you know when charge is topped off as you hear the fan in the charger stop running.The horn is great. It sounds like a car horn, but at very low volume. Much better than the computer tone on other electric wheelchairs. It will be perfect in a crowded area where people are oblivious and won't move. People will recognize a car horn, and it is not obnoxious.The safety features are good and if you are tilted in any direction it will tell you with voice. After you get familiar with the chair, you can turn off the voice with the Bluetooth app.Also, if you are tilted or turning, it will slow you down to "first gear". They are not really "gears", but five levels of power applied to the two rear wheel motors. Each motor is rated at 200 watts. Steering is provided only by application of electricity (by the chair) to only one of those motors, pushing that side more forward. The omnidirectional front wheels adapt and turn to the direction they are pushed.But going up a steep street like ours, this safety feature causes a problem. Going uphill is tilting upward. At only level 1 power level, it cannot get up the street. It just stops. But there is a solution to that. In the Bluetooth app, there are settings for the internal X40 chair gyroscopes. If the tilt limit is reached, you can set it to just go down in power by 1 or 2 levels, not all the way down to 1. I set mine to not diminish the power at all if a tilt limit was exceeded. Full power applied up the hills. It was slow, but it took me up the hills and back home. This was significant for me. Otherwise I would not have been able to go out in our neighborhood at all. And of course it will devour the battery reserves much more quickly with hills to deal with. I think the motors could be increased for more basic power (300 or 400 watts each).I also discovered a danger with tilting sideways. We went to our city park and there are curvy sidewalks that change direction on a hill. And the sidewalk leans around those curves. So there was a forward downhill angle, and also a left downhill angle around the right turns. In that case, if the sideward angle is too steep, and you are forced to lean while following the path or sidewalk, the rear tires will start to slide sideways downhill. And then the front wheels will automatically adapt to the direction of travel and turn downhill. This is even with the chair going as slowly as possible.The X40 chair is so stable with a low center of gravity, it will slide before it tips. But you end up running off the sidewalk and into the snow or mud - or worse! You cannot really control where the front wheels go. And the rear motors are not strong enough to back you up and let you steer out of it. This would have happened even if I had not adjusted the gyroscope responses as described above. The sidewalk was dry and sunny, not even wet. I was fine and my wife helped me back it up and turn it manually, but this is something for a new elderly user to be aware of and avoid. Once you understand what is happening with the chair, it is easy to deal with and avoid those. In a way, this is safer running off the path, than rolling over with better traction. If you are going up or down a straight flat sidewalk on a hill, with no leans to the side, then there is no concern. I don't believe any other electric wheelchair in this price range could more successfully deal with a situation like that. You would need one with 4WD or treads/tracks, I think.On flat straightaways, it goes along at an energetic walking speed, but I don't think you could keep up with someone who is jogging, etc.We really like the convenience of this chair, and that we can app-drive it folded under a table and out of the way.Everything seems well-engineered and quality manufactured!