Reacher Grabber Buying Guide

Daily Living Aids · Buying guide · 4 min read

Reacher Grabber Buying Guide

A reacher is the cheapest thing in the house that stops someone climbing on a chair. It is also the item people replace twice, because the first one bends, the second one will not hold a sock, and only the third one gets used. Four things decide it.

Length

26 to 32 inches is the useful range. Shorter than 26 and you are still bending; longer than 32 and the leverage at the jaw drops so much that anything heavy slips. If it is for picking things off the floor from a seated position, 32 inches. If it is for the top kitchen shelf, 26 to 28 inches is easier to control.

The jaw

• Suction-cup or rubber pads — grip smooth things: glasses, tins, a phone.
• Serrated plastic jaw — better on fabric and paper.
• Rotating head — turns 90 or 180 degrees so the jaw can meet a bottle sideways or a sock flat on the floor. Worth having.

The real test: can it pick a coin off a hard floor, and can it lift a full 500 ml bottle without the jaw splaying? Most cheap ones fail the second one.

The trigger

This matters more than anything else for arthritic hands. A full-hand squeeze bar spreads load across all four fingers and needs far less strength than a single-finger pistol trigger. Look for a claimed grip force under about 2 lb, or simply squeeze it in the shop.

A locking mechanism — where the jaw stays closed without holding — is the difference between carrying something across a room and dropping it halfway.

Build

• Aluminium shaft: light enough to hold out at arm length, stiff enough not to flex
• A magnet on the tip for keys, hairpins and screws
• Folding only if it will travel; the hinge is always the first thing to go
• A wrist strap and a hook to hang it on, so it lives where it is needed

Where to keep them

One reacher is never enough. Buy two or three: one by the bed, one in the kitchen, one by the armchair. The one in the cupboard is the one that never gets used, and the chair gets climbed on instead.

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