Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

One of the levers that is used to fold the seatback (or to keep it up straight) broke upon arrival, rendering the wheelchair useless. I had researched both this Drive wheelchair and the Medline Excel Deluxe aluminum transport wheelchairs. The Medline chair claimed to weigh 23lbs. The Drive chair claimed to be 19lbs. Beside the weight, they were both the same price and looked so identical that I finally decided to purchase the Medline one from Walmart (with the benefit of being able to return it locally) because i saw a picture that indicated the leg rests could be swung sideways. Once i received the chair, i thought, "well at 23lb, the chair felt heavier than i anticipated". So to compare, i then purchased the Drive chair from Amazon thinking that the 19lb would make a difference. It doesn't. In fact, the 19lb claim is without the leg rests. With the leg rests, the chair weights about 22.6 lb, which is about the same as the Medline chair!! They both felt the same weight to me. So I don't respect that Drive was being misleading in their claim of a 19lb chair. In terms of chair design, the designs are almost the same and function exactly the same. It makes you think how in the world that two companies make the exact same chairs. The most obvious differences are the shapes of the wheel brakes and the tire tractions (see pictures), but I don't see these as having impact on functionality. As for the legrests, the design is the same in both. But I'm very disappointed that they do not lock when they're swung back to the sides. The only position they're locked in is when they're in the front, which takes up a lot of storage space. As for packaging, the Medline chair comes in a much sturdier box than Drive's (see picture). In conclusion the two chairs are pretty much identical in designs and weight. Medline's packaging is much more solid than Drive's. My Drive chair came broken, but seeing that Medline's design is pretty much the same, I can see and anticipate that they're both flimsy and not long-lasting. In the end, I will stay with the Medline chair because i like its brake shape design much better than Drive's.