Picking up books of varying sizes to see if the grabber’s reacher claw had a weight limitįinally, I reviewed the user experience of each grabber reacher tool: what the handle felt like, how natural it felt to hold, how adjustable it was, and how using it differed between my dominant and non-dominant hand.Moving sandbags from place to place with both my dominant and non-dominant hand.Pinching a squishy stress ball without rupturing it.Picking up vitamin pills from the floor.Next, I used the top four best-performing reacher grabbers-the Vive rotating reacher, the Vive suction cup reacher, the Gopher, and the Birdrock-to perform more objective tests to determine their versatility and claw strength: Picking up a croquet ball, a stuffed animal, and a Lego brick off the floor.Snagging a half-full glass of water and a remote control from a table in front of me.Pulling a notebook and a phone charger from an unzipped backpack.Collecting a book, a can of vegetables, and a stuffed animal from a high shelf.
METAL EXTENSION GRABBER SERIES
Our testing of reacher grabbers consisted of three rounds: two objective rounds, in which I tested the tools’ capability at performing various tasks, and one subjective round, in which I evaluated how easy it was to use.įor the first objective round, I used each reaching assist tool in a series of tests designed to mimic common tasks: I’ve previously written about accessibility items, such as products that make the bathroom more user-friendly for folks aging in place, so I was excited to try out reacher grabbers, which many people use to make hard-to-reach household items easier to grasp. I’m Sara Hendricks, the Emerging Categories writer here at Reviewed, which means I’ve covered all sorts of products, from compression socks to period underwear. used reach extenders to demonstrate that the human brain quickly learns to map tools as parts of the body.Testing involved grabbing items off of hard-to-reach places. Ī 2009 neuroplasticity study by Cardinali et al. Reach extenders are also used to provide accessibility to people with disabilities or who are aging. People may construct specially adapted tools for this purpose. Reach extenders are used by litter collection services to aid in picking up litter off the ground without having to bend over repeatedly, which is very fatiguing. Variations on the basic form of a reach extender depend on what task needs to be accomplished, and significant variation is found in the length of the pole and the maximum weight the reach extender can bear. Some designs allow rotation of the plane in which the jaws operate relative to the trigger grip, allowing less-awkward manipulation of different objects. Other designs have jaws equipped with suction cups for holding round objects more easily, and still others have small magnets for collecting lightweight ferrous items. Gripping force can range up to 17 pounds (7.7 kg) in some models. Some reach extenders may possess a secondary trigger which locks the jaws in position around whatever object they are holding, so the user does not need to maintain a tight grip on the handle. The jaws are open by default and spring open when the trigger is released. The handle is equipped with a trigger that, when pulled, closes the jaws via a lever-and-spring system or mechanical cable within the pole. The tool is available in lengths ranging from 24 inches (610 mm) for wheelchair users, up to at least 16 feet (4.9 m). The tool is commonly sold in hardware stores.Ī reach extender takes the form of a long metal or plastic pole, usually around 3 feet (0.91 m) in length, with a handle at one end and a pair of jaws at the other end. It is chiefly used to pick items up off the ground, but can also be used to retrieve items from high shelves. It has applications in waste management, assistive technology, gardening and outdoor work, and in some cases as a children's toy. A 36 in (910 mm) reach extender with a secondary trigger and a pole that can be rotated 90 degreesĪ reach extender (or reacher, grabber arm, helping hand, trash picker, picker-upper, extended gripper, long arm gripper, extended reach grabber, grabber tool, litter picker, or caliper) is a handheld mechanical tool used to increase the range of a person's reach and grasp when grabbing objects.
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