I broke down and got an Escalera and it's awesome. I still have someone else here to "monitor" the situation as I'm still getting used to it. I'm sure it's never happened, but I can envision the battery dying (or something else causing it to stop part way down the stairs) and then I'm in trouble. It's just a balance thing with the Escalera and let the machine do the work. The first time I did it going downstairs I tried to "help" it along and it dropped down a bit. Like I said, let the machine do ALL of the work. Great investment. Should have done it ten years and 50 games ago.