HOUSTON – Carrying boxes and groceries up and down stairs is hard on your back. A new product claims to make the effort a lot easier. The Climb Cart is just under three pounds but the six rotating wheels on the bottom are what the maker claims helps it climb the stairs, taking the weight of your load off of you.
We didn't have any groceries at KPRC, so we used a box of court documents to test the Climb Cart. The box weighed in at 31 pounds. That should be easy for the Climb Cart.
"Now you have the freedom to move anything anytime. And its cast aluminum construction easily handles oversized jobs up to 100 pounds," claims the announcer in the Climb Cart commercial.
But as soon as we opened the box, we saw a warning that said "The max weight limit is 75 pounds."
We loaded our 31-pound box onto the Climb Cart and recruited Brittany Burt from our sales department to give it a roll. First she went up and then down the stairs.
An out-of-breath Burt was not impressed.
"I don't know," she said, trying to catch her breath from the heavy lifting. "I'm the type of person... I would probably just carry the box."
Maybe she's not the target demo for the Climb Cart. Channel 2 engineer David Tung thought the cart might be helpful around the station.
"We've got equipment, you know, that's not that heavy, but it's heavy enough for you to carry. This would be good," he said.
The cart wheels nicely on a flat surface, but up the stairs it gets clunky.
"It's better than nothing, but it's still not that smooth," confessed Tung.
To give the Climb Cart one more shot, we tried to carry the same box of papers up the stairs with a dolly. We exerted almost the same amount of energy. But for $29.99 the Climb Cart comes with a bag that you can fit groceries or other loose loads into.
When you're not using it, the Climb Cart folds flat for easy storage. Still, our volunteers expected a lighter load.
"I still can't breathe!" Burt said.
"Not that good," Tung said. "It's so-so."