Circle Specialty Ziggo Lightweight Pediatric Wheelchair Review 2024

Do you have a child who has a mobility issue? Are you in the market for a low-priced wheelchair that’s light enough to take with you on the road yet durable enough to stand up to the rigors of everyday use?

If so, you’ll be intrigued by what you read in this Ziggo wheelchair review. This will be an unusual review because the Ziggo is offered by a company you may not have heard of, called Circle Specialty.

Circle Specialty is an importer, and we’ll be the first to admit that they’re not an obvious choice in terms of sourcing a good pediatric wheelchair. Of interest, though, is that they’ve actually been quietly making child-sized mobility aids for more than two decades. Although they’re not a well-known brand, they’ve gotten pretty good at it.

The Ziggo is a fun, colorful design, and it’s also loaded with features that parents will love. In short, we feel it would be a mistake to simply write this model off because it’s not offered by one of the big-name brands.

In the sections that follow, we’ll step through everything this little chair can do and everything the design team got right (spoiler alert: They got quite a bit right!). We’ll be quick to point out this model’s limitations and shortcomings so you’ll be able to evaluate the chair and decide for yourself if this is the model you’ve been searching for. If your interest has been piqued, read on, and let’s look closer.

An Overview of the Circle Specialty Ziggo Pediatric Wheelchair

That’s the word most likely to spring into your mind when you see the Ziggo for the first time. At first glance, you can tell this model is a bit different as kids’ wheelchairs go. The big-name brands tend to stick close to conventional design, and that fact shows in the overall look and feel of the chairs they produce.

They’re…well…conventional. Boring, at least to a child’s eye. That’s definitely not the case here.

Utilizing oversized tubed steel construction and painted in bold, vibrant colors (your choice of orange, red, blue, or black), these wheelchairs actually look kinda fun. We’d say here in our Ziggo wheelchair review that this model is inviting, and that’s a good thing. It’s the kind of design aesthetic that instantly puts a child’s mind at ease. These chairs look like they’d be fun to ride around, and there’s something to be said about that.

More than just being visually interesting, though, you’ll find that these chairs are surprisingly robust. Let’s start by taking a look at the core stats that define the Ziggo. Here’s a quick overview:

We love the fact that this chair is offered in such an array of seat sizes. That gives you the ability to measure carefully and customize to your child’s precise needs.

Unfortunately, the seats aren’t hot-swappable, so as your child grows, you can’t just order a larger seat and swap it out. You’ll need to get a new chair when your son or daughter outgrows the current one.

Fortunately, these chairs are delightfully low-priced, and that’s not much of a burden.

Even better, all of these chairs come with a surprisingly good 3-year warranty. A growing child is unlikely to fit into the same chair for longer than that anyhow, which means that it will likely be time (or close to time) to upgrade before the warranty has expired.

The weight limits are good, given the seat dimensions they’re paired with, and should prove useful to some 95% of the pediatric market. Although the chair is a bit heavier than we’d like, at 39 pounds, it’s easy enough to pack away and take on the road with you, and it’s light enough that a child can maneuver on their own if they don’t want to wait for a push from mom or dad. Overall, we like these numbers.

Adjustability and Comfort of Ziggo Manual Wheelchair

One area where the Circle Specialty Ziggo Pediatric wheelchair comes up a bit short is in terms of adjustability. It’s not, really. The seat height is static at 17.5” (12-14” seats) and 18” for the 16-18” seats).

The leg rests, however, can be adjusted for length. They also swing away and are detachable, which makes them convenient and does give the child riding in the chair at least some means of customizing the overall fit.

On the comfort front, the stationary desk-length armrests are padded but are not adjustable in any way.

Even so, desk-length arms on a child’s wheelchair are a very good choice, in our view. It’s just more convenient.

If your child wants to roll up to the computer to play a game, he or she can do that. There’s no need to transfer out of the chair. Likewise, at dinnertime, they can just roll up to the dinner table and enjoy a meal with the family without having to transfer from the wheelchair to a dining chair.

Note that although the armrests aren’t height-adjustable, they do flip back, which makes it easier to transfer into and out of the chair.

The leg rests swing away and come with a calf strap that provides additional support for the legs, useful for longer periods of sitting in the chair.

Sure, calf pads would be more comfortable, but they’re also more expensive than a simple strap. Our best guess here is the company opted to go with a strap in a bid to keep the cost low. Although we can quibble about the relative comfort, we can’t really argue with that as a strategy.

The upholstery is durable, breathable nylon, which is fine for shorter periods of sitting (up to 4 hours or so). If the plan is to have your child spend the better part of each day in the chair, then you’ll almost certainly want to invest in some additional padding.

The good news here is twofold: First, this isn’t an expensive chair, so you’ll likely have funds left over to spring for some padding. Second, there is a wide range of third-party vendors selling all sorts of seat and seatback pads, so you can customize the chair to any level of comfort you desire.

Extras and Options of Ziggo Lightweight Wheelchair

We have to admit; we’re super impressed with the Ziggo manual wheelchair in this area. The chair comes standard with both anti-tippers and a safety belt, two critical safety features especially important on pediatric chairs.

That’s remarkable because, on some of the other pediatric chair reviews, we’ve seen significantly more expensive chairs offered by big-name brands that had nothing in terms of built-in safety features. Circle Specialty really went the extra mile here, and we love them for it!

In addition to the two safety features, the Ziggo also comes with built-in storage, which is something of a rarity in the wheelchair world. The storage pocket isn’t huge, and you still may want to invest in some additional storage capacity. The fact that this chair offers some as a standard feature is a nice touch, and yet another thing, Circle Specialty really got right with this design.

Portability & Ease of Use

We’re impressed with the Ziggo lightweight pediatric wheelchair on this front as well. Although 39 pounds isn’t exactly a featherweight, it’s light enough that the chair can easily be folded, stored, and pulled out again as needed.

When folded, the chair presents either a 12” or 14” folded profile, depending on the seat size options selected when you purchased the chair. At that size, you should have no problem at all fitting the chair into an SUV, hatchback, truck, or van.

If you have a full-sized sedan, you can likely store the chair in your available trunk space. However, it does pay to take a few quick measurements before committing to the purchase.

The Ziggo is also light enough that a reasonably strong child can maneuver without needing to wait for a helpful push from mom and dad. Also, note that the default wheels on this chair do have a bit of tread on them. That makes them useful for uneven terrain, which means that you won’t need to upgrade the wheels if you want to spend an afternoon at the park.

Note, however, that if you plan to regularly use this chair on rough terrain or take your child down nature trails, you may still want to consider upgrading the wheels to something even more robust and optimized for that kind of use. Even so, another kudos to Circle Specialty for providing good, versatile wheels for the chair!

Pros & Cons of Circle Specialty Ziggo

Honestly, there are very few negatives to point out in this design. In our view, the two biggest shortcomings are the fact that the seat height isn’t adjustable, which limits the flexibility of the Ziggo lightweight wheelchair, and it’s offered by a company almost nobody had heard of.

For better or worse, we live in a brand-conscious world, and the name “Circle Specialty” does not make one swell with confidence when considering buying a wheelchair that’s supposed to keep your child safe.

If you’re not especially brand-conscious, though, and you don’t mind taking a bit of a chance on a brand you may not have heard of, we found this model to be surprisingly good.

Circle Specialty did a great job here and built a chair that is both versatile and safe. On top of that, it’s just fun to look at. If you have a child who is rebelling at the notion of being stuck in a wheelchair, that could make all the difference in the world.

Ziggo Wheelchair Review Conclusion

We actually kind of love this little chair. We note here in our Ziggo Wheelchair review that if you don’t consider the “Brand Reliability” metric and re-score this model without it, the Ziggo clocks in at an impressive 4.55. If you’re not brand-conscious and are willing to give this model a try, that’s the number you should use when comparing it to other options.

We recommend this one. It’s a surprisingly good product, offered at a price you’ll love.

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Official Manufacturer Support

References & Resources:

• Circle Specialty, Official Brand Website.
• Circle Specialty Ziggo Wheelchair User Manual
• 6 Reasons to Think Differently About Pediatric Mobility, Rehab Management.
• Evaluation of Pediatric Manual Wheelchair Mobility Using Advanced Biomechanical Methods, Hindawi.
• Manual Wheelchairs Take About Same Energy as Walking For Youth With CP, Study Says, Cerebral Palsy.