A few weeks ago, I finally got fed up with trying to carry cups in my rollator’s basket. For those that don’t know, a rollator is a rolling walker for those that are physically challenged. If you’re like me, and having issues with mobility, but CAN still walk if given some stability, these are great! Unfortunately, they are a bit bulky. Als unfortunately, they don’t come with a cup holder, so you have to kind of find a way to carry them.
Here’s a photo of mine. (You can see my poor Litespeed bicycle behind it that I haven’t been able to ride in a long time)
Of course, what did I do? I went online! Yes, using the power of the internet, I found The Pendulator. The Pendulator is an attachable rotating cup holder! So, depending on where you attach it, it will keep your drink horizontal. Talk about a great idea!
So, I ordered one from Mocor, Inc. who makes The Pendulator. I received an email from Sal and a few days later, it arrived! HOORAY!
Of course, being the type of person I am, I bust out my screw driver and start putting it together. The Pendulator comes in several pieces — the cup holder itself (the Pendulator), several attachment brackets, and some screws and bolts. The attachment brackets are really quite nice and the way they are designed, they will allow you to attach to a round bar, square bars, or ovals using friction and the bolts or if you want a more study fixture, you can directly drill and use the screws provided to screw the pendulator bracket directly into the target surface.
Since this is going on my rollator and I didn’t want to possibly damage anything load bearing on it, I use the supplied brackets for round tubing and the bolts.
One thing I noticed right away was that because the tubing is round and slick, the brackets kept on sliding around! This of course kind of makes a cup holder useless if it can’t hold onto the tubing. Unfortunately, The Pendulator also no longer comes with double-sided tape (since people kept on using it for “permanent” mounting — which it is not) since with double-sided tape, I could put that under the bracket to give it grip.
Luckily, however, I’ve had experience attaching brackets to round tubing — I was, after all, a cyclist. And all cyclists know how much of a pain it is to attach brackets to bicycle frames. So, I went looking for some rubber tubing. Alas, we didn’t have any! But, I did have #64 rubber bands which are 1/4″ wide by 3″ long. I split one of these and wrapped it around the bar and then attached the bracket. Voila! No more slippage.
Now that I had the bracket attached, I then went to attach the cup itself. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, the bolt that attaches the cup to the bracket was the wrong size! After noting this issue, I emailed Sal letting him know of the problem. After a quick set of email exchanges during which Sal verified which part was the culprit, he mailed me a set of hardware which arrived a few days later. I then attached the cup to the bracket and now I was in business!
At this point, I’ve used The Pendulator for about a week or so and must say that I am very satisfied with my purchase. There are some drawbacks since no product in the world is 100% perfect but those are fairly slim.
The things that I find that are good about The Pendulator are
- inexpensive! With Shipping, it was just under $20.00
- Lightweight
- It keeps drinks level!
- various attachment methods
- Tools needed are just a standard screwdriver
- Great Customer Service. You talk directly to the owner of Mocor, who created the Pendulator
Since I’ve said that no product is perfect, there are some negatives, but these are fixable.
- If you use the bolts for attachment, the end of the bolts will probably stick out. You can see this in the photo above. This means that you have to either be careful to not scratch yourself or cut the end of the bolts off (or cover them). Since I try not to give my husband extra work to do, I’ll end up putting tape on here to cover the end up.
- Since it’s just a standard screw in bolt that holds the cup holder to the bracket, over time, due to vibration, it will become loose. I’ve already had to re-tighten this bolt. I may apply some light breaking thread locking compound. That will help
- Slippage of the bracket on a round bar. Would be great to see some rubber or something added to the kit. Not everyone will think or have rubber bands around.
One last thing to note is (unfortunately) my favorite coffee mug does not quite fit The Pendulator correctly. Because it does not flare up (go from a smaller base to larger top) but instead keeps the same size all the way up, it’s just a tad too big for the cup holder. It doesn’t fit all the way to the bottom and thus sits high in the Pendulator. Because it sits high, the center of gravity is high and if it gets too off of horizontal, it wants to cause the cup holder to rotate upside down. BUT! Because the Pendulator has a hole in the bottom of the cup holder, I could add weight attached to a string that hangs below, thus changing the center of gravity and thus keeping it upright. I haven’t done this yet, but it’s probably coming. I really do love that coffee mug. It keeps my coffee hot for hours.
Over all, I am really happy with the Pendulator. In my opinion, it’s one of the best $20.00 I’ve ever spent. :)
(A few more pictures)
