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Bathroom balance becomes more risky with age.
According to the CDC’s home safety checklist for older adults, good places for grab bars are next to and inside the tub as well as near the toilet.
You get support when getting up, down, in, and out.
Yes, bathroom grab bars can prevent slip and falls when properly installed in the right spot on the wall.
Suction cup grab bars are a low-cost type of grab bars that let you test out a grab bar in your own bathroom before drilling holes into tile.
Every suction cup grab bar comes with a variation of this THREE IMPORTANT SAFETY TIPS:
Follow these tips to prevent a routine trip to the bathroom turning into a broken bone in the wrist, arm, ankle, hip, or even worse - the noggin.
Most seniors put their handy grab bar in the shower and tub area, cuz that’s where the floor gets wet.
It won’t attach to textured or rough surfaces, like white drywall, painted walls, wood walls, or unpolished stone walls.
You should stick the suction cup on smooth, sealed, glazed, non-porous like smooth tile, polished sealed stone, glass, porcelain, metal, acrylic, laminate.
After you apply to a surface, test it by pushing and pulling in all directions - and put some muscle into it. How much weight will your grab bar support on this particular surface? Test yourself to your bathroom wall surface is suction cup safety compatible.
It’s the best bathroom grab bar of 2023, due to its metal handle with grippy grooves and top-safety heavy-duty suction cups. It holds up to 253 pounds and comes in an extra long 21” version, which I bought for my elderly dad (Parkinson’s), and is now stuck on the wall across from the toilet so my dad can grab onto something and pull himself up.
LeverLoc is the grab bar innovator that’s advanced grab bars adaptability in all types of bathroom support scenarios. Known for years of reliable manufacture of the signature white and blue, you can count on LeverLoc for safety-tested adjustable, multi-joint, adaptive, special-use suction cup grab bars designed for independent living home bathrooms.
People who like chrome and colors would find delight and extra visibility with AmeriLuck’s excellent variety of pressure-indicating suction cup shower handles. Their most-popular 16-inch comes in an economic pack of two, and their 12-inch is a one-handed option which can more easily fit in certain hard-to-reach bathroom corners. It’s confirmed AmeriLuck owns their own factories, however it doesn’t look like they’re actually Made in the USA.
It’s functional and with a modern look. Other grab bars only let you grab in-between the suction cups where the handle is, but the Lores Joy has grabbable ends. For those who prefer modern bathroom decor, the fashionable contemporary handicap grab bar with a unique shape. My opinion? You’d better stick with a standard style center handle grab bar, and buy a 21-inch extra long suction grab bar if its two-hands grab-ability you’re after. Without special circumstances that’d require such a unique design, why reinvent the grab bar?
The Safe-er-Grip brand has been around since 1986. They’re the earliest manufacturer of suction cup grab bars I’ve been able to find, ever since the suction cup grab bar product line was first launched in 2005. They might be the original, but they’re products haven’t kept up with Asia manufacturer’s competitive iterations over 20 years.
My home has a combination of grab bars that stick to smooth walls with suction cups in the finished upstairs bathroom. And also some wall-mounted grab bars along our stairwell and in the Michigan basement shower.
In ideal tub and shower situations, where the smooth wall surface permits, you might not have to go through all the work of wall mounting after all.
It’s true suction cup grab bars ideal for your first-ever grab bar purchase, and it’s also true suction cup grab bars technology has become long-standing enough to stay as a forever-solution in your home.
That's why I recommend you buy quality-made at a reasonable price, instead of the cheapest available and compromises on quality.
A good quality suction cup grab bar on a perfectly smooth surface is how we keep our upstairs bathroom, since the white grab bar matches the white tile, for example. We didn’t want to drill a hole or use adhesive on our nice white bathroom tile.
Example Product #1: Vive Metal Grab Bar (Wall-Mounted)
Example Product #2: Medline Metal Grab Bar with Silicone-Grip Rings (Wall-Mounted) #ad - Medline is a trusted brand in bath safety. Their 12-inch white plastic suction cup grab bars come with suction gauges that let you check the vacuum seal without tampering. Available in 3-packs, it’s a standard pick for senior care facilities across America. I’d put Carex brand grab bars in the same review category as Medline.
These are the permanent type of bathroom grab bars, typically requiring tools to install the wall mount. By now you’ve got to worry about studs, drill, and screws - so installation becomes a handyman’s work. Most are made of long-lasting metal material, to go along with the permanent til death do you part appeal of a fixed-place grab bar like this.
Example Product: Stander Security Pole and Curve Grab Bar Bathroom Safety Assist
Floor-to-ceiling like a stripper pole, but it’s got a curly grab bar in the center for maximum grab-ability. People usually put this kind of grab bar just outside the tub, so you’d have to pull away the shower curtains to get to it.
Example Product #1: Vaunn Adjustable Bathtub Safety Rail Shower Grab Bar Handle
These have clamps that fit securely overtop the side of a standard American bathtub, and supports weight up to 300 pounds when you need to get in and out of the tub.
If you have insurance or a medical plan, you might be able to get partial or complete coverage when you want to purchase a grab bar.
Medicaid benefits, for example, might cover the purchase of durable medical equipment or bathroom safety equipment, including grab bars. But not always, because there are different types of Medicaid, and there are different types of coverage categories.
It all seems way too complicated for simple grab bar, but Medicaid.gov says:
Medicare Advantage plans can offer supplemental benefits that are not covered under Medicare Parts A or B [...in certain cases of diagnosis, and…] examples of safety devices include: shower stools, hand-held showers, bathroom and stair rails, grab bars, raised toilet seats, temporary/portable mobility ramps, night lights, and stair treads.
When I went searching to learn whether or not suction cup grab bars are regulated by safety standards, I came up empty handed. *Almost*
ASTM International is an organization promoting workplace safety by documenting global standards for personal protective equipment. Of grab bars (including but not limited to grab bars with suction cups), they maintain seven grab bar safety standards hard for regular consumers to understand.
First-time grab bar shoppers concerned with safety should pick a several-years trust-established brand that’s “stuck around a while”.
Slippery treachery happens when sudsy floors sneak up on seniors. Suction cup grab bars come in inexpensive lightweight plastic types and heavy duty metal types too.
Whatever you do, choose a smooth surface for the suction cup for safety’s sake.
Most people put ‘em next to the shower area or bathtub where bathroom surfaces get most slick.
They can be helpful for hoisting up from the toilet too.
They’re easy to install, and with a perfectly smooth bathroom surface to secure a sticky vacuum seal, you might not need a wall-mounted grab bar for the rest of your or their life.
Suction cup grab bars are a great in-home helper to serve seniors aging in place.
