Finding new equipment to make pushing a wheelchair easier is always exciting to me. As a quad who uses a manual chair with power assist wheels, I try to take advantage of any opportunity to remain independent in my mobility. The Wheelchair Brake Classic is a new product from the Slovenian startup DEZZIV intended to make it easier to go up and down slopes and, for those who are strong enough, to make pulling oneself up a flight of stairs easier. I was able to try the brakes out for a few weeks and found positives and negatives.

DEZZIV’s brakes are comprised of a regular brake handle that locks and unlocks a brake wheel. The brake wheel makes contact with the wheelchair tire and a red switch handle that can be moved up or down on the tire to prevent the wheelchair from rolling forward or backward, respectively. To work properly, each brake needs to be installed in a precise position on the frame using the clamps that come in the installation kit. This proved trickier than it sounds.

The challenge is positioning the brake wheel in relation to the wheelchair wheel. In the unlocked position, the brake wheel needs to be 4-6 millimeters away from the tire for the hill-stopping mechanism to function when the red switch handle is engaged. The entire process required two visits from my wheelchair guy to install the brakes and make adjustments. If you are installing the brakes yourself, be patient and give yourself plenty of time.

The DEZZIV Wheelchair Brake Classic’s main function is stopping the wheelchair from rolling forward or backward down a slope. With the red switch handle in the up position, the brakes stopped the wheelchair from rolling forward while going backward up a slope. This is not something I do regularly but for those that do, it works well. When the switch handle is flipped to the down position, it prevents the wheels from rolling backward while going forwards up a slope. This is a much more common situation, and the brakes work well when needed. For general use, the brakes can be set to a neutral position and function as regular brakes. When engaged, they hold as tightly as my regular wheel locks.

Aside from the enhanced basic braking, DEZZIV’s marketing touts its product’s ability to make it easier for wheelchair users to pull themselves up a flight of stairs. The ads show users pulling themselves up stairs with the red switch handle in the up position. As a C5-6 quad, I don’t have the function and strength to independently test this, but I did have an aide pull my empty wheelchair up the staircase in my house. The brakes did hold the wheels and prevented them from rolling forward. This was obviously without my weight in the chair, but I do have heavy power assist wheels. The brakes are likely useful for someone with lightweight wheels and the strength to pull themselves up stairs, but I couldn’t verify their function in this scenario.

While testing the DEZZIV brakes, I did encounter a few issues. The most annoying issues related to the positioning of the red switch handle during normal use. When disengaging the wheel locks, the red switch handle would often spring into the up position preventing the wheel from rolling forward. On several occasions I caught myself unlocking and rolling backward only to find myself stuck when I pushed forward. I would then have to move the switch handle into the neutral position before moving again. This problem improved somewhat after making some adjustments but was consistent throughout the testing period. There were also several occasions when I was pushing my chair normally and one of the switch handles would engage, stopping the wheel, and spinning me out. This happened a few times on flat surfaces but happened more frequently when going over bumps. As the brakes are a new product and unfamiliar to me and my installer, an installation error may have caused these problems, but it happened on both sides and persisted after suggested adjustments were made.

Another problem arose when changing the wheels on my wheelchair. I visited Florida with the DEZZIV brakes on my wheelchair and realized that my beach wheels would not fit with the brakes. I almost never change the wheels on my chair, but those who change wheels regularly may encounter the same problem I did with my beach wheels.

If the DEZZIV brakes worked perfectly, I would be able to give them a stronger endorsement. However, the problems I encountered were annoying enough that I would only recommend them to people specifically looking for help going up stairs. As mentioned, the brakes are a brand-new product, and it is possible that the problems I had were caused by an installation error. The DEZZIV Wheelchair Brake Classic is available for about $320 and can be shipped worldwide. For more information about the Classic model or the other models offered by DEZZIV, visit dezziv.eu.